Citizens: Get involved

I want to encourage voters in all future elections to do their homework and look at all aspects of every candidate in order to make intelligent decisions, not only on the issues but according to the candidates’ patriotism.

We should elect people who have their country’s best interests at heart, not their desire for power. We cannot always know everything about every candidate before elections, but we can try to find out all that we can.

Those who have displayed blatant disrespect for our country after their election should not be re-elected. Refusal to consider the issues, positions and patriotism of all factions involved is not only unintelligent, it is irresponsible.

This is no longer about one political party versus another. It is about our country and what we can do to try to save it.

Linda Green

Waco

Income tax debate

Letter writer Tom Kilbride argued Aug. 21 that “the income tax we have is a Marxist idea.” Really? I thought the income tax began with Abraham as documented in Genesis 14.

Later, tithing was an income tax imposed by God on the Hebrew people through Moses. Why is there no mention of a consumption tax in the Bible if it’s more just than income tax?

Also, Kilbride argues that income tax penalizes hard work, creativity and initiative. One could just as well argue that a consumption tax penalizes consumerism — the very foundation of our capitalist economic system.

Roger Olson

Waco

Presumed innocent

The headline on the Trib’s Aug. 21 online story about Danny Passmore was misleading [“Former Robinson karate instructor Passmore released on technicality”].

What you called a “technicality” is what our Founding Fathers designed as a safeguard against government oppression. The prosecution had 90 days to indict (on charges of aggravated sexual assault) or to refuse to prosecute. Some countries allow indefinite incarcerations without prosecution. Ours does not.

One of the beautiful things about our judicial system is that a defendant is presumed innocent until proved guilty. The title of your article would be more appropriate in a country that practices the Napoleonic code of “guilty until proved innocent.”

Steven P. Sappington

Waco

Imagine Waco

I was unable to attend last night’s big meeting on Imagine Waco, but I believe that the best way to sell Waco at this time of need is by building a five-star hotel spanning the Brazos River.

Name it the Brazos Island.

It should span the river between the two bridges at Franklin Avenue and the Waco Suspension Bridge.

Randle Saffell

Waco

Enhance performance

There are a multitude of problems that Congress can’t seem to address, but instead they hold hearings on steroid use by athletes. If the steroids do, in fact, improve performance, then why don’t we feed them to the folks in Congress?

Clyde Reedy

Waco