Letters to the Editor Astronaut Borman, UTA free speech, economy, border crisis – The Dallas Morning News

Remembering Frank Borman

Re: Frank Borman Commander of Apollo 8 flight, Friday Metro & Business obituary.

Frank Borman was truly an Apollo space program hero. When the lunar landing vehicle tests in Earth orbit were delayed, NASA reassigned his flight, Apollo 8, to a daunting and very risky mission to orbit the moon.

On Dec. 21, 1968, he, James Lovell and William Anders were launched on the first manned launch from Launch Complex 39 at the Kennedy Space Center, in the second crewed flight of the newly redesigned Apollo spacecraft, and atop only the third launch of the powerful Saturn V rocket.

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They were the first human beings to be free of Earths gravity, and they successfully orbited the moon 10 times, returning to Earth on Dec. 27. During the flight, they took photos and gathered celestial navigation information that would be useful for follow-on Apollo flights. In addition, they took the iconic photo of earthrise and performed the inspired Christmas Eve readings from the Book of Genesis.

With the Vietnam War raging, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, and mass civil unrest causing riots in major cities, 1968 was a tumultuous year. Bormans flight helped to close 1968 with a much-needed national triumph.

Edgar J. Manton, Heath

The Nov. 9 Letters to the Editor had three letters speaking to the kind of things we should be voting for and the kind of fears we should have about the promises of revenge being made by former President Donald Trump if he is re-elected. All three letters are spot on.

While reading them, something that I saw on a newscast after the Tuesday elections came to mind. It was something former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said, and it is not the first time Ive heard it expressed. Santorum stated that pure democracies are not the way to run a country.

This is perhaps the most insidious thing I have heard. It is a seemingly off-the-cuff but devastatingly destructive phrase.

I suppose people who think in this way are people who believe in the divine right of kings, a belief that leaders are handpicked by God to rule. This belief held sway for a very long time in history.

This is the very thing our Founding Fathers wrote about and fought against. It was their hope to move history toward a time when the rights of individuals held sway. That has been so with greater and lesser success.

Weber Baker, Farmers Branch

Re: Colleges must not cower before protesters, by Morgan Marietta, Wednesday Opinion.

Thank you for printing this essay by Morgan Marietta. Marietta has been in the news regarding a public discussion at UT-Arlington. Im glad Marietta was given a place to express the issues of free speech.

Some decades ago, I was privileged to have Allan Saxe as one of my professors at UTA. Several times over the course of the semester, Saxe would realize he had said something that my fellow students were passionate about. It would yield a funny, intriguing, informative and in-depth discussion of events and politics.

Near the end of each class, Saxe would laugh and tell us the importance of listening and learning from each other, no matter the topic and views.

Several years ago, Saxe was the keynote speaker at a function I attended where he discussed the Bill of Rights and U.S. Constitution. I spoke with him afterward to thank him for teaching me to think all those years ago. He quietly told me that our world was changing and he probably could not teach the same today. I am saddened to see that Saxe seems correct after the events Marietta was part of.

Ray Janes, Highland Village

Its time to respond to the political sound bites regarding Joe Bidens economy. Since our countrys inception, our presidents have taken the mostly undeserved credit and blame for our good and bad economies.

While the president can influence economic policy through various means, including fiscal and regulatory measures, the economy is a complex system that is influenced by a multitude of factors, many of which are beyond the control of any single individual or administration.

Several key factors can affect the economy, among them global economic trends, technological advancements and natural disasters. The U.S. economy is affected by the actions of the Federal Reserve, Congress and various other governmental and nongovernmental entities, as well as by the decisions and actions of businesses and consumers.

Economic changes often take time to materialize, and it can be challenging to attribute specific economic outcomes solely to the actions of any one president. When evaluating the state of the economy, it is essential to consider a wide range of factors, both domestic and international, that contribute to its performance.

Jerry Lawson, Allen

I recently attended a human trafficking lecture, and it occurred to me that our federal government is allowing humans to cross our border, and our state government is trafficking these humans into our country. There is very little common sense on display here, just a lot of political posturing.

While political posturing may be good for campaign contributions, it does nothing to help our nation. Rather than all this nonsensical grandstanding, can our federal and state governments not work together to address and, hopefully, solve this severe crisis that is so detrimental to our national well-being?

Jaime Vela, Denton

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Letters to the Editor Astronaut Borman, UTA free speech, economy, border crisis - The Dallas Morning News