Overcoming tragedy

Re: “Polio shut down S.A.’s public places in 1946,” May 10:

Thank you for Paula Allen’s always informative column, reminding and educating us regarding the polio epidemic and “getting through it together.” The column was very inspiring, considering today’s challenges with COVID-19.

I was 1 year old in 1949 and living in northern Illinois when my own mother — 23 years old — was stricken with polio. Mom was in an iron lung for 18 months and survived, though she was completely paralyzed for her remaining 15 years (passing from cancer in 1964). After mom was stricken, our family moved to my grandparents’ farm so dad could continue working and supporting the family.

Once able to breathe on her own, mom was discharged from St. Anthony’s Polio Ward in Rockford, Ill. She came home to the farm where my maternal grandmother, my sisters, dad and I cared for her.

There are so many stories of overcoming tragic challenges, like polio, in our world’s history. And now, it is important we recall our inner strengths — perhaps instilled in us by our mothers — and stay the course to overcome whatever new challenges arise, including this new one, COVID-19.

Thank you, Paula Allen and the Express-News, for your great work. vote harvesting. He cites an anonymous video to give the impression that it is easy to do and a common practice when, in fact, it carries criminal penalties in Texas. He indicates that his office has conducted more than 300 investigations of voter fraud but fails to say how many turned out to be valid.

Based on this flimsy evidence, he concludes that voting by mail steals our right to vote. I’m not sure how he came up with that, but I believe that he and his political cronies are the ones desperately trying to suppress voting rights. determining the punishment to be assessed, it was inappropriate for the judge to require her to admit publicly that she acted selfishly and apologize.

The cease-and-desist order did not prohibit Luther from being selfish; it required her to close her salon. Being “selfish” is a moral failure or character flaw that courts do not have jurisdiction to adjudicate and punish.

The judge’s demand that she apologize in court was a demand that she humiliate herself publicly by admitting a moral failing or a defect of character. In my view, that demand violated the requirement of the Code of Judicial Conduct that judges treat litigants with dignity and courtesy. In assessing punishment, it is proper for a judge to consider a party’s expression of or failure to express remorse for the conduct in issue, but it is not proper to demand that a party admit being “a bad person.”

Whether a person was “selfish” in doing or failing to do something requires a moral judgment. It might involve a political assessment also because autocrats believe that any desire for freedom is selfish and collectivists believe that any desire to be financially selfsupporting is selfish.

In assessing punishment, a judge should not require a litigant, with a threat of jail confinement, to agree with the judge’s moral sensibilities or political preferences.

Paxton