Medical school merits support

Although there is a need for exploratory discussion and civil debate on city budgets, it was with chagrin and incredulity that I read that during a City Council meeting, Edinburg Councilman Gilbert Enriquez entertained the idea to axe the annual contribution to the UTRGV Medical School. It was also reported that Councilman Jorge Salinas agreed and stated that these millions of contribution dollars were unnecessary.

Budgets are essential and staying within the budget is also essential, especially during our pandemic times; however, as someone who has been educated in the Rio Grande Valley as well as taught science here as a result of this education, I fear that todays dollars and cents of a balance sheet would never be able to equate to the long-term health and education of our community.

What have our contributions to UTRGV Med School through our tax money already secured? According to Veronica Gonzalez, UTRGV vice president who defended the contribution from Edinburg at a later Edinburg meeting:

More than 1,000 faculty and staff members hired and 221enrollment and graduated in its fist class.

Opened several medical clinics in Edinburg.

Set up a COVID-19 lab for testing and drive-thru sites that are still operating, and the lab can give results in 24 hours.

Contract tracers for the coronavirus have also been hired.

Nowhere will our tax money be spent better and receive higher dividends and long-term rewards than in the continued support of the UTRGV Medical School through the annual donations as promised from all the RGV cities. Our local cities as Edinburg have already contracted their support with a memorandum for 10 years, and we should stay committed as the current pandemic has proven that investment to be sound investment.

Diane Teter

Edinburg

Hoping for other rallies

I read about the area rallies in support of the guy convicted of running a fake university con; convicted of using a fake charity to pay for his legal bills and a fulllength portrait of himself; puttingterrified little Mexican kids in cages and losing track of their parents; being accused of multiple sexual assaults; stirring up racial hatred and violence nationwide; gassing peaceful protesters to create a photo op holding up a bible to dupe credulous evangelicals; asking the U.S. Supreme Court to end health care for 20 million people; being personally responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people by lying about the pandemic; etc. Yeah, that guy.

Hope soon to read about rallies in support of his victims.

Ed Chaney

Laguna Vista

Questionable information

The New York Times recentlyran an extensive storyexposing the state ofTexas incredibly flawedsystems in place to trackand report COVID-19 deaths.Essentially, the evidenceshows that because ofan archaic system thatvaries from one countyto another, we are notprovided accurate informationabout the number of COVID-19cases, the number of deathsand the manner in whichthe various health departmentsclassify a COVID-19death.

Original post:
LETTERS: Medical school merits support; Hoping for other rallies; Questionable information; Trump good to minorities - Monitor