Now that the Cowboys are hit hard with COVID, here’s the big question for McCarthy

The unanswered McCarthy question

The Star-Telegram’s Clarence E. Hill Jr. reported Wednesday that Dallas Cowboys head coach Mike McCarthy tested positive for COVID-19 and that 14 players and staffers have been in the COVID protocol in the last three weeks. (1B, “Cowboys lead NFL with players out in COVID-19 protocols”) Hill also writes that McCarthy and Dak Prescott recognize “the danger of the pandemic and the virus” and how COVID-19 “is very real.”

He additionally quotes McCarthy as saying, “Please do everything you can to keep yourself and your family safe.”

But he does not mention what most of us want to know: Is McCarthy vaccinated? And what about the other 14 people in protocol? If McCarthy has not been vaccinated, he is a hypocrite and not worthy of his duties.

- Patrick Jenkins, Arlington

Our rights are our rights

Abortion is a constitutional right, whether a Supreme Court justice personally agrees with it or not. It must be treated as any other constitutional right. That is to say, it does not matter what is in a justice’s head. The only thing that matters is what is on paper. If a justice cannot follow the rule of law, that justice should recuse himself or herself from the case.

Supreme Court decisions cannot be decided with emotions. If the decision is emotionally charged, it won’t be reasonable and fair.

- Marilyn Gabler, Fort Worth

Keep dreaming, Beto O’Rourke

I can’t help but think of Beto O’Rourke as a modern-day Don Quixote — with about as much of a chance as the fictitious knight.

- Paul Romero, Fort Worth

Give the benefit of the doubt

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the posting of “masks required” signs by businesses throughout the area, many local residents are going maskless.

Let’s hope the folks are not adhering because they are illiterate and not because they don’t respect the rights of our local businesses or don’t care about their lives, the lives of the businesses’ employees or the lives of their fellow residents.

- Tom C. Burke, Fort Worth

Pay priorities are out of whack

What does it say about American values when we pay a shortstop 81 times what we pay the president? Is it any wonder our highest-paid politicians are destroying our nation and placing our national defense and integrity in jeopardy?

- Roger Campbell, Burleson

Chief needs more experience

After reading Wednesday’s front-page story, “Arlington police groups cast vote of no confidence against chief,” about the aftermath of Police Chief Al Jones’ firing of an officer who fatally shot a suspect, I remembered a supervisor who once told me that he would never ask his workers to do anything he wouldn’t do himself.

The chief should get out of his office, get out among the officers and talk to them. Don’t make plans to go to a predetermined area. Go unannounced and pick an officer to ride with.

If Jones wants to make statements like that, he should get out there and get to know the force.

- Tom Weaver, Fort Worth

Electric cars would make it worse

We may face power outages again this winter based on current demand and supply. How are we going to survive when all the vehicles using battery power are plugged into the system? We are just making the problem bigger by pushing electric automobiles for all.

- Joe Wade, Fort Worth