Inequities remain in colleges
Re: “Affirmative action struck down — Colleges can no longer consider race for admissions, justices rule,” Friday news story.
Everyone knows about Brown vs. Board of Education but very few know Milliken vs. Bradley. In 1974, after 200 years of state-mandated segregation, five supreme court justices (four appointed by Richard Nixon for this exact purpose), invented de facto segregation out of whole cloth. They declared that segregation “…caused by unknown and perhaps unknowable factors” is certainly no one’s fault, and we can’t burden or disadvantage anyone who wasn’t directly involved in discriminatory actions. Some have suggested this decision should go down in Supreme Court history with Dred Scott and Korematsu, as it effectively put a bookend on Brown and served to undermine any efforts to address the effects of previous discrimination.
Fast forward to a world where universities are the gateway between schools still woefully segregated between the haves and the have-nots, and a society that is clamoring for young people able to lead in an ever more challenging world. The universities’ efforts to meet this need lack a logical end point simply because the inequities they are designed to address haven’t ended, as the Milliken court declared unconstitutional trying to do something about it.
Merle R. Walker, Athens
Stand on your own
At what point should minorities (or anyone) have to stand on their own — no handouts and no preferences based on race? The Supreme Court is correct in deciding to end affirmative action.
There are so many minorities who have participated in our American society, including a minority president and many, many others contributing to our great nation, and it has been nearly 150 years since emancipation and over 60 years since generational civil rights legislation.
There will never be 100% acceptance of any group by the masses, but from my experience, there is nearly 100% acceptance of any minority (or for that matter others) who do not try to leverage their race for entitlements, priorities or advantages.
Someone just tell me how to identify the end goal line. I want us all to be judged by “the content of (our) character”... “not by the color of (our) skin.”
Jack Carroll, Irving/Las Colinas
Dangerous voting theory rejected
Re: “Bid for election control blocked — Effort to give legislatures unchecked power over federal balloting rejected,” Wednesday news story.
Several high-profile cases were decided by the Supreme Court in June, but only one, Moore vs. Harper, had the potential to impact the very lifeblood of our democracy: voting. This election law case considered, in part, a controversial constitutional theory known as the independent state legislature doctrine. At issue was whether or not state legislatures had absolute power with no electoral oversight authority by state courts to regulate federal elections. With unchecked power, state legislators in key swing states could have rejected the voters’ slate of electors and appointed their handpicked substitutes.
The Supreme Court has an obligation to protect our democracy. By rejecting the dangerous independent state legislature theory, the Supreme Court safeguarded state-level judiciaries and ensured that our republic, in place since 1789, will remain a true representative system of government.
Jane Larkin, Tampa, Fla.
More about batteries, please
Re: “Batteries helping to beat the heat — State relying more and more on stored energy to help keep lights, AC on,” June 25 news story.
Thank you for publishing this story about the role utility-scale batteries play in boosting reliability of the Texas power grid. The story mentioned that batteries, usually associated with wind farms, recently supplied electricity when a coal-fired power plant failed unexpectedly.
I also heard a PBS NewsHour interview with Michael Webber, University of Texas at Austin professor of energy resources, in which he mentioned a recent nuclear plant failure.
I’d like to know more about the batteries that are part of the renewables sector of the Texas energy portfolio. I’m tired of the complaint that renewables are not reliable. It appears that they may be more reliable than electrical production methods that were popular in the last century.
Christine A. Guildi, Dallas
Batteries with solar not new
I work for a mission agency, and some missionaries live in remote tropical villages. They depend on a few solar panels to run their computers, lights and appliances. They don’t always have sunlight so batteries are used to store up the power from the solar panels. Using solar panels and batteries has been a thing for decades.
So I was surprised to hear that Texas wasn’t regularly using batteries with their solar and wind utilities.
Lori Witham, Arlington
Protect workers in heat
Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Legislature need to read and heed your stories by Hojun Choi and Sarah Bahari. State and city labor organizations have been struggling to protect workers from the deadly heat for years and have received help from some city authorities, including in San Antonio and Dallas. But the top Republicans in the state government are taking away the ability of local government to protect workers. This calls out for correction.
Gene Lantz, Dallas
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