Letters - MAMDANI Act, Chip Roy, Frisco, taxes

Re: "Chip Roy's Latest Anticonservative Idea -- MAMDANI Act is dangerous political posturing," Thursday editorial.

The United States is a country whose greatness lays on the foundational notion that citizenship is sacred. Unfortunately, we are seeing a gross disrespect of this notion among certain politicians.

First, a full assault on birthright citizenship, and now with the cringe-worthy named MAMDANI Act, we're seeing the proposal of law that could be interpreted to revoke the citizenship of this or any future administration's political opponents.

For example, a Muslim American honorably serving in the U.S. military could be accused of being an Islamic fundamentalist simply because she or he attended a sermon in a mosque that an Islamophobic influencer says supports Sharia.

Or a European immigrant who advocates higher taxes on billionaires may face denaturalization due to advocating socialism.

Of course, our nation faces threats from violent religious fundamentalists and a foreign Communist Party, among several others. But national security policies should be in consonance with American values and shouldn't be used to target U.S. citizens based on beliefs or background.

Remember Ronald Reagan said, "But anyone, from any corner of the earth, can come to live in America and become an American."

Asit Shankar, Murphy

This editorial on Chip Roy's MAMDANI Act is right: punishing people for ideas rather than crimes undermines the Constitution.

But the real threat deserves sharper focus. We should be targeting the actual networks and leaders who glorify violence and "martyrdom" as a political tool -- figures in the tradition of Ruhollah Khomeini -- along with those who fund it and groom recruits today.

That requires precision: enforcing laws against incitement, disrupting propaganda and dismantling recruitment pipelines. Broad, ideology-based crackdowns do the opposite -- they validate the grievance narratives extremists depend on.

If we want to be safer, we must be tough where it counts and disciplined enough to defend free speech and due process at the same time.

Aaron Joe Davis, Dallas

So, Chip Roy wants to deport U.S. citizens for having ideas and beliefs that he doesn't agree with? And he wants to be the Texas attorney general?

This is the current state of the Republican Party across this country and it's pathetic. Even though I certainly do not agree with Bible thumping, right wing, religious extremists, I would not advocate for them to be deported.

Roy shows that he doesn't understand the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights. I doubt that he has ever read either document.

Darryl Smyers, Dallas

Re: "How Frisco became ground zero for wave of hate against Indian Americans," online story.

I've lived in Coppell for 19 years and we have a large Indian American population here. I've coached Indian American kids. My wife has served on boards with Indian American adults. We have Indian American neighbors across the street. In all our dealings with these folks, they have been uniformly friendly, considerate, civic-minded and law-abiding. What is Frisco seeing that we're missing?

Brian Jobe, Coppell

In life, sometimes a clearer perspective in a situation can be gained by turning it straight the other way around.

For instance, what if Iran completely and totally obliterated the United States' nuclear enrichment facilities as President Donald Trump has declared repeatedly that we did to Iran, or were planning to do to that nation, would we be just sitting around whining, oh dear, oh dear, oh dear?

Could it be that even as our secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was making slow but sure progress in the Iran situation, the president jumped into the middle of it using it to detract attention from his name that would be coming out in the Epstein files maybe hundreds of times?

As a lifetime registered Republican now nearing 90 years old, that is my say for today, and I'm sticking by it. You young'uns put your thinking caps on! I lived through one world war, and you are likely looking at your first world war and should be hoping and praying you live through it to be 90 years old!

Janis Dorris, Sherman

Re: "No good news," by Jimmy Bartkowski, Thursday letters.

Bartkowski complains that most of the benefit of the president's tax bill goes to the "rich." I'm sure that's true if he means the top 50% of the taxpayers who pay 97% of all income taxes. It's very hard to get a tax break if you don't pay any taxes to begin with.

Les Gregory, Frisco

Nice to see that Gov. Greg Abbott is defunding the police by withholding funds. I see the radical right has gone so far right they are starting to look like the far left. I guess we have officially gone full circle on defunding the police. When will it end?

Bruce Wancata, Keller

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