How did Tarrant County leave developmentally disabled woman bruised with broken ribs?

Abuse is an absolute horror

After reading Kristina Salinas’ Nov. 18 personal account, “Texas bail law helped cause my sister’s ordeal at Tarrant jail,” (11A) I feel so sorry for the terrible treatment her intellectually disabled sister Kelly Masten received from multiple government entities. Law enforcement can’t distinguish developmental disabilities from criminal activity.

The Tarrant County Jail doesn’t try to show any empathy to help those who need medical care while there. And why in the world would legislators and Gov. Greg Abbott pass a law that strips away a judge’s discretion to release people on personal bond?

I’m embarrassed for Fort Worth. When will those in power start to care? How we treat the vulnerable is a sign of who we are as a society.

- David Jones, Arlington

We need answers about jail

If I hadn’t read the time and place of the horrific ordeal that a developmentally challenged woman was subjected to while incarcerated in Tarrant County for 11 days, I would’ve assumed that it occurred in the last century instead of recently in a Texas jail.

If this state had prioritized the welfare of Texans above money, we might have instituted a wellness program similar to one in California, where an individual can be held for 72 hours to determine if he or she is a risk to others or had exhibited psychosis or distress.

We need to find out why 44 people have died in the Tarrant County Jail in the last three years and why a woman covered in bruises who couldn’t read or write had to be carried out of jail on a stretcher.

- Sharon Austry, Fort Worth

Religion guides marriage belief

Jennifer Rubin, please do not lump me in with the Trump faction of the Republican Party. I am a Republican, but I have never voted for Donald Trump or any of his endorsees and will never do so. But I believe that marriage is between one woman and one man.

I also think that my belief is an example of religious liberty, and I’m tired of being attacked for a thoughtful, principled, unhateful belief. (Nov. 18, 11A, “Senate’s victory on same-sex marriage should terrify GOP”)

I don’t hate anyone (except maybe Trump and his sycophants), and certainly not any of the gay people I know. Please acknowledge the many layers of political and religious philosophy in the Republican Party. We’re not all haters.

- Cheryl Patterson, Granbury

Endless political theater ahead

It is hard not to be discouraged about how the changes in the U.S. House will affect our lives. Republicans plan to begin investigations into President Joe Biden’s son Hunter, the FBI, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the origins of COVID-19 and more. But not, apparently, inflation.

Oversight of the executive branch is a vital role of the House, yet it is one that Trump Republicans rejected when Democrats were at the helm.

Let’s demand that the House continue to focus on improving the economy, health care and the well-being of citizens as it has for the last two years and not waste time on partisan spectacles, as prior Republican-led Houses have done.

- David Troiano, Highland Village

Wesleyan Rams’ great triumph

Congratulations to the 2022 Texas Wesleyan University Rams football team for sharing the Sooner Athletic Conference championship and finishing 9-2. It’s a great story of resurrection and redemption.

The Rams disbanded football in 1941, when the team’s players left to fight in World War II. The program, resurrected in 2017, is doing great things as it rebuilds from scratch. Both the 2022 Rams and the 1941 team won their conference championships at historic Farrington Field.

- Geno Borchardt, Fort Worth

No more vaccine misinformation

I often think Cynthia M. Allen’s columns are uninformed and excessively partisan, but her diatribe Sunday was dangerous. (4C, “Parents, not the CDC or states, know what’s best for their children on COVID vaccines”) There is enough misinformation, amplified by conspiracy theorists, without her encouraging often politically motivated anti-vaxxers.

No long-term data on the COVID-19 vaccine for kids, she complains? How long has it been possible to vaccinate children? A very mild disease? Tell that to the parents of the more than 1,500 children who have died since January 2020, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Scientists are working even now to develop a vaccine to combat RSV, which has children’s hospitals across the nation nearly filled to capacity. I suppose Allen and Gov. Greg Abbott will oppose that, too.

- Paul W. Hartman, Fort Worth