For shame, Texas

Re: “Prisons Must Stop Sweltering Cruelty — Texas inmates are being ‘cooked to death’ without air-conditioning,” Monday editorial.

I correspond with 13 women in Texas prisons, including my own family member, who has lived in four of the female units. Eight of those 13 do not have air-conditioning, and winters are also brutal on those units. They live in cinder-block buildings or metal industrial buildings with metal roofs and no insulation.

They were sentenced to be confined, not to be tortured. The cruelty our governor, lieutenant governor and state senators are allowing by refusing to use surplus budget money to provide relief and basic humane treatment of fellow human beings is beyond comprehension.

Most of these state leaders claim to be Christians. I have written them directly, repeatedly, respectfully, on this issue and never receive so much as a form letter in return.

God sees, hears, knows and remembers (Exodus 2:24). The ultimate reckoning will not be kind to those who “close their hearts to pity” (Psalm 17:10).

In the meantime, advocates for humane treatment of Texas prisoners will continue to call for basic standards of climate control for human beings. As for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice’s claims about heat mitigation, they are true only on paper. There are so many failures in carrying out even those pitiful efforts. For shame, Texas!

Becky Haigler, East Dallas

Prisoners are people

Regardless of their crimes, prisoners are people — people with a right to life and a constitutionally guaranteed right to not be treated cruelly. I have never been incarcerated, but I have experienced homelessness. I know something about dealing with a Texas summer without air-conditioning. Not surprisingly, it’s excruciating.

Forcing anyone to endure these conditions and suffer from heat-related illnesses more than exceeds the definition of cruelty. If we are morally and constitutionally proscribed from treating people this way, how can we justify the cost of fighting a lawsuit that by right should be won by the plaintiff? How can we justify the cost of treating those who suffer? How can we justify undermining the humanity of our brothers and sisters?

Eric Wallace, Dallas

Expired license is an ID

Re: “Voting and license logjam,” by James Elliott, Sunday Letters.

In his letter, Elliott wrote about a family member whose license had expired. He and the family member are inconvenienced by the backlog of available appointments to renew the driver’s license.

However, the expired license is still an acceptable form of ID for voting in November. Per the office of the Texas Secretary of State, a license expired no more than four years is acceptable.

Mr. Elliott, please encourage your family member to take her expired license to the polls and exercise her constitutional right to vote!

Karen Cannon, Arlington

Voter ID myths and truths

I am concerned that people are hearing rumors about voting problems and deciding not to vote due to them. A few examples are: Myth: You cannot vote with an expired license. Truth: You can if you are under 70 and it expired less than four years ago. Over 70, the expiration date does not apply.

Myth: You cannot vote without a driver’s license. Truth: There are seven forms of photo ID plus many alternate IDs that are acceptable for voting. Check this website, votetexas.gov/voting/need-id.html.

Myth: Food and drink cannot be offered to people in line to vote. Truth: This is true only if it is done on a partisan basis. If offered in a nonpartisan way and without electioneering, it’s totally acceptable in Texas.

Check the website above for the rules and don’t believe what you hear about barriers to voting. Turn out and vote your conscience.

Marcia Grau, Richardson

Vocal crowd seeks alley pickup

The Dallas Department of Sanitation Services and District 9 council member Paula Blackmon must have been shocked Monday when they held a community meeting on the department’s proposal to move sanitation pickup from alleyways to curbsides. A standing-room-only crowd of all ages swarmed into the Ridgewood Belcher Recreation Center’s large meeting room.

The attendees overwhelmingly voiced their opposition to department director Clifton Gillespie’s plan to phase out alleyway trash collection, which accounts for 38% of all garbage pickup in the city.

So many people showed up to voice their feelings, some had to park on distant surrounding streets and lean up against the meeting room walls. Only one microphone was used — had the leaders never run a community meeting before?

Four or five uniformed police officers watched over the crowd, even rushing to “escort” out a too-vocal resident at one point.

Gillespie heard a number of thoughtful suggestions from the attendees, from privatizing existing alleyway trash collection to using more modern, more maneuverable, automated side-loading mini-trucks for pickup in narrow alleys. Whether he truly listens to them remains to be seen.

Glenn Hunter, East Dallas

‘Praise every morning’

Re: “Don’t overlook morning’s promise — Early hours bring moments of hope, beauty and clarity,” by Christopher de Vinck, Saturday Opinion

De Vinck’s column is a lovely paean to a daily reflection that thanks and humility are such life-giving virtues, “recognizing all over again that we are on a long, joyful adventure.”

In no way does he suggest a competition with the Benedictine monks in Vermont. But he does reveal that “the monks greet each day with song and prayer, and they are filled with gratitude to God. I try to greet each day with words, poetry and with a sense for it all.”

Here he puts one in mind of “Morning Has Broken,” a haunting song that shares his own sense of new beginnings each day, but does affirm what is most important: “Praise with elation, praise every morning, God’s re-creation of the new day.”

Tom Jodziewicz, Irving

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