From the same firm

In the Jan. 21 column by former Waco Mayor Charles Reed [“Can we gather at the river”], he recommended that state Rep. Charles “Doc” Anderson, R-Waco, pull out of the race for the Texas Legislature for District 56 and let John Mabry take his place.

The one major problem with Reed’s recommendation is that he failed to mention that Mabry and state Rep. Jim Dunham, D-Waco, who represents District 57, are both members of the same law firm.

I don’t think the voters of McLennan County would want this type of situation to exist.

Joe E. Baxter Sr.

Waco

Lifetime of debt

Next time you see a child of 7 or 8 years old, be sure to thank them. Why? Because with all of the national debt we’re piling up at a record pace, they’ll be paying interest on it for the rest of their lives.

Perhaps if they would benefit from it, this might make sense. But the incredible amount of money being wasted by the government offers only short-term benefit to various special interests. Next year’s budget deficit will cost more than $4,000 per each of the 308 million Americans.

It might be more humane to just steal the money out of our children’s piggy banks and savings accounts. That would probably be cheaper for them in the long run. But I doubt they have that much.

P.S.: Don’t tell why you’re thanking them or they might cry.

Tom Flowers

Waco

State of Disunion

Like many Americans, I attempted to stay awake during President Obama’s State of the Union address. It was more like a State of the Disunion address.

Many say Obama is a great orator but are unimpressed with his finger-pointing. In the first year of his administration, he has pointed the finger of obstruction at Republicans, Democrats, Congress, cable news, banks, corporations, prior administrations and now at the U.S. Supreme Court.

However, he made no mention of the Senate’s closed- door, back-room meetings, where questionable political deals were struck.

Now that we’ve assessed who is at fault; and with every American man, woman and child now owing about $40,000 on the national debt, can we just get to the business of redirecting America toward a job-filled recovery?

George C. Harvey

Woodway

Blue Star success

As president of the Heart of Texas Chapter of Blue Star Mothers of America, I want to thank the Trib for its support of our Christmas Care Package campaign. It was an overwhelming success. We shipped more than 135 boxes to Iraq and Afghanistan.

We connected with new members. And through the Trib’s publicity, we received two significant donations for future projects: Chi Phi Fraternity from Texas A&M University donated $700 from a fund-raiser, and Walmart Foundation donated more than $1,000.

These and other in-kind donations allow us to do even more to serve our military in the field and our veterans back home.

We could not have done so without the Trib’s help.

Mary Duty

Waco