Congress must act on relief
We need a deal
Regarding “Pelosi: House to stay in session until COVID-19 aid deal passes,” (A9, Sept. 16): As citizens in a democracy, we are entitled to demand action from our elected officials. They all want to be re-elected and will listen if enough of us speak up!
Members of Congress must stay at work and off the campaign trail until they pass an aid bill. Millions are unemployed here at home and millions are struggling with the effects of COVID-19 abroad. Families need help, and they need it now. If Congress and the White House fail to agree on a strong COVID-19 relief package, they will leave millions to face this crisis alone.
Let’s call our congressional representatives and demand that they immediately send a strong COVID-19 relief package to the White House. Any meaningful package must include $100 billion in emergency rental assistance to help people pay rent, a 15 percent increase in the maximum SNAP benefit to help families put food on the table and no less than $20 billion to help fight coronavirus and protect access to health care in low-income countries. Claudia Morgan, Houston
Workers’ rights
Regarding “Kroger employees rally for return of hazard pay,” (B1, Sept. 16): Yet another reason to shop at H-E-B, where they value their employees and keep paying them $2 more per hour. Michael Waldau, Houston
Road revenues
Regarding “Corporation to free up toll road revenues,” (A3, Sept. 13): When the Harris County Commissioners Court on Tuesday voted to allow surplus toll collections to be spent on non-transportation purposes, taxpayers should have been advised that their taxes were just raised to the tune of millions.
I believe that surplus toll collections must be used to pay off the debt which built the toll roads in the first place. After that tolls should be lowered, not fall into a bureaucratic rabbit hole. As your article points out, “current bond indenture and state law limit the use of surplus revenues to non-toll roads, streets, highways and related facilities.” Next time you pay your bill for using any of the toll roads, remember what they took from you without your permission. John G. Thomas, Spring
Name change
Regarding “School names, mascots being reassessed,” (C10, Sept. 13) I’m a 1973 alumnus of Houston’s Strake Jesuit College Preparatory. “The Crusaders” is the team name. The school mascot is a medieval knight in full armor wearing a white cloth mantle emblazoned with a red cross distinctive of the Knights Templar. They were the most skilled fighting units in the crusader armies raised in Catholic European countries specifically for the purpose of traveling to the Mideast to fight wars against Muslims. Nowadays “crusaders” is an appellation as odious to many Muslim ears as “jihadis” is to most Christian ears. Islamic terrorist organizations call American soldiers crusaders as propaganda to rouse support for their abhorrent cause. It is a successful strategy. The good fathers at Strake taught me to do the moral thing, the ethical thing, the right thing so I feel compelled to point out that using “crusaders” as a mascot is the wrong thing. It is divisive and unnecessarily antagonistic. Although Strake Jesuit is a private school, its sports teams compete in the Texas public school University Interscholastic League, making their mascot a fair target for outside protest. Jesuit priests are intelligent, highly educated men so they obviously understand the harm they are causing but clearly have no intention of changing the mascot unless they are pressured to do so. I ask for the UIL to bring that pressure. Encourage Strake Jesuit to drop “Crusaders” and if the request is ignored expel them from UIL membership. That will rustle some cassocks. Larry E. Vecera, Houston