Texas’ mortality crisis isn’t random. These deaths reflect policy failures | Letters

Re: April 21 article, “People aren’t living as long as they did 4 years ago, data shows”

Your recent article on declining life expectancy in Texas points to a deeper crisis. As a public health researcher studying “deaths of despair” — from suicide, alcohol and drug overdoses — I’ve found these deaths have increased by 153% in Texas since 2000, especially among those of working-age in economically distressed counties.

In 2020 alone, the state lost nearly 372,000 years of potential life to preventable causes. These outcomes aren’t random. They reflect policy choices. Texas still refuses to expand Medicaid, ranks near the bottom in mental health funding, and has passed abortion bans contributing to a 56% rise in maternal mortality from 2019 to 2022.

We know what works: Access to care, housing and economic opportunity saves lives. What’s missing is the political will to act.

Camerino I. Salazar, doctoral candidate, University of Texas at San Antonio

When will we heed the urgent warnings on climate change?

Re: April 24 article, “Climate ‘tipping points’ are near”

When there is virtually unanimous consensus among the people who devote their entire careers to studying a given topic, who are the world’s foremost experts, we had best pay attention to what they say — especially when what they say is irrefutably backed up by evidence every one of us can see in our daily lives.

To date, we have not paid much attention to what the experts are saying about how we are disrupting, even destroying, Mother Nature’s harmony. American Indians and many other indigenous groups around the world lived without pillaging and destroying the environment that sustains us, but our society has not found a way to do so.  We continue to ignore the warning signs screaming all around us — at our own peril.

Technological advances are not going to get us out of this mess.  We must make social, political, economic, behavioral and attitudinal changes. 

Mark Warren, Austin

State duplicates the agency focused on efficiency

Re: April 24 article, “Abbott signs DOGE bill, targets state bureaucracy”

So, by a fell swoop of pen and cooperation of the highly efficient Legislature, Gov. Greg Abbott has created the Texas Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Interesting, because I always thought that was the function of the Texas Sunset Commission. For some reason, it does not seem efficient to have two agencies performing the same task.

But what do I know. I’m just a tax-paying citizen.

John Williams, Austin

Texas DOGE can start by killing anti-renewables bill

Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill to establish a state agency to find and remove regulations that hamper Texas’ growth. Let’s start by killing the bill designed to hinder growth of renewable energy. About 30% of energy generated in Texas is from solar and wind — and it is cheaper than electricity from coal or natural gas.

Wealthy Republican donors are sitting on a reservoir of natural gas in west Texas that is threatened by the renewable sector, which is really what Senate Bill 819 is about. Kill it now.

Lawrence Ragan, Austin

Great. The bathroom police are back.

Re: April 22 article, “Texas Senate to hear bathroom bill”

So, will the state hire cops to check peoples’ privates before they enter a public restroom? I’m a 78-year-old woman who enters a restroom, hoping there is toilet paper in the stall before I lock the door. Who cares if the person in the next stall is gay, straight or trans? Do your business and wash your hands. Hopefully there are towels or a hand blower!

Aren’t there more important things to worry about?

Haven’t we moved on from the “whites only” days of discrimination? Things aren’t looking “great” if we continue down this path. Perhaps tattoos will be next, so we can quickly identify and judge one another.

Sue Kemp, Austin

Bills give Pornhub a pass without solving the problem

Texas legislators are considering Senate Bill 2420 and HB 4901. Both would implement app store verification mandates. While intended as an alternative to requiring age verification at the site level, this serves to help app developers dodge accountability for keeping children safe without solving the problem.

Worse, the bills mandate that app stores share user age information with every app developer regardless of the app’s nature or user consent, which creates severe privacy hazards for all users of the platform, regardless of whether they are trying to access apps with adult content.

The bills do nothing to address the many other ways children can access online platforms and sites with adult content. They only serve to exempt sites like Pornhub — which is supporting SB 2420 — from the responsibility of protecting children from the online harms on its platform.

Our legislators in Austin should scrap both bills.

Bill Peacock, Dripping Springs

An apt reminder of Austin Animal Center’s no-kill ethos

Re: April 20 commentary, “Austin can again become leader in animal services,” by Tawny Hammond

Thank you, Tawny Hammond, for reminding us of how Austin was once a no-kill leader. Our city animal shelter has recently failed to serve our community by refusing to even take in found animals. Now we have a chance to help people keep their pets through supportive programs and improve shelter life for the animals by making it easier to volunteer, foster and adopt.

I hope that City Manager T.C. Broadnax will show us that he wants to embrace what Austin is all about and find a new shelter director with the vision that Tawny Hammond brought during her too-short tenure.

Rona Distenfeld, Austin

Waiting for that voters’ remorse to kick in

Re: April 23 article, “Poll shows further dip in Trump’s approval rating”

How many more things need to go sideways before the folks who voted for President Trump finally admit they made a grievous error in judgment? I thought things were supposed to get better? He never said there would be a “period of adjustment.” He said it would be “immediate!”

Wake up and smell the coffee before that tariff hits the smell.

Tip Giles, Austin

Look at the damage done in just in a few months

I want to thank you all who voted for President Trump for all that is happening in this country.

I once was a Republican and believed that this was a country that always did the right thing. Now elected officials are working steadfastly to whitewash American history. DEI is a dirty word. 

The Trump administration is attacking the freedom of speech and discussion in our universities. They are silencing scientific research in our health care system. They are invading our private lives and destroying our right to privacy. They are arresting people who have broken no laws. They have gotten rid of due process. They have destroyed America’s reputation so that no country will ever trust us to do what we promised to do.

Wealth has power. If only it was used for good.

Richard Chiarello, Austin

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