Feedback: December 5, 2025

Food for Thought

Dear Editor,

I’m planning to overeat today and until I run out of leftovers. And trying really hard to figure out how to gorge myself and at the same time realize 20,000 people will die from preventable malnutrition and the related health problems over the next 24 hours.

Trying to understand why it isn’t headline news … EVER!!! I mean two turkeys receiving parody pardons is headline news but not 20,000 preventable deaths. Something is really fucked up. Guess I’m grateful it doesn’t impact me or my friends and family.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Delwin Goss

Splitting the Baby

Dear Editor,

Many Democrats continue to accuse their eight colleagues who voted to end the shutdown of caving, of sacrificing leverage, of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

I compare them to the mother in the Bible who was willing to give up her baby rather than see it killed.

Two women came to King Solomon claiming to be the baby’s mother. Solomon asked for a sword.

In our country, two political parties claim to preserve America’s uniqueness: one by taking care of everyone, the other by cutting itself a huge piece of the economic pie.
With the nation’s poorest losing federal food assistance, and with federal workers (including air traffic controllers) forced to work without pay, maybe a tiny group of Democrats hoped to keep our country whole for now and advocate for healthcare subsidies later.

The Dems may have lost the battle but won the war.

Only one party has no problem with cutting the baby in half.

Barbara Chiarello

Actually, Says Here…

Dear Editor,

In a letter in the Nov. 28 issue, Ahmed Saidu says of providing health care access that “from the iron laws of economics and the basic economic problem there is no escape.” Clearly Saidu is drawing this iron law from the examples of every other industrialized nation on Earth, who all saw their economies collapse and their societies be overrun with wild dogs and plagues and pestilence upon their adoption of universal health care. *checks notes* Hm. Actually says here that literally every other industrialized nation provides its citizens with health care that costs substantially less and produces substantially better outcomes than America. Intriguing. I’m forced to assume that Saidu must work for a health insurance company, or be wholly unaware that there are other nations. Or maybe he’s just bad at math.

Semi-relatedly, I see that Austin is cutting $100 million from their planned budget after the failure of Prop Q, affecting public safety and solutions for the problems of homelessness, among dozens of projects that would be helping thousands of people. I also see that one (1) dude living here is set to be worth a trillion dollars. It’s sure great that we have the freedom for one (1) person to hoard enough wealth to meet a major city’s budget shortfall for ten thousand years. That’s DEFINITELY a better use of our resources than having enough food, housing, education, and health care for millions.

We as a society chose our way here. We can (and must) choose another way going forward.

James Hearne

Follow the Money

Dear Editor,

I am writing in response to your November 28, 2025, cover story [The Nonprofit Issue], to encourage Austin’s philanthropic donors to give generously to deserving organizations but take “buyer beware” action.

It’s easy: Do an online search of the nonprofit’s name, followed by “form 990” – a website like ProPublica will show the most recent IRS form 990 information in a very easy-to-read format. Search the nonprofit name followed by the word “scandal” and see what comes up.

In about five minutes, I searched the eight nonprofits in your article. I found four that spent more than their annual revenue, three had CEO’s earning six-figure salaries, one with a CEO with zero compensation. I searched Austin Parks Foundation and Trail Conservancy, whose ads appeared adjacent to your feature story. Both of their CEO’s earn six-figure salaries.

I am not comfortable donating to organizations with fat payrolls unless they are medical professionals giving needy people free medical services like Manos de Cristo.

A nonprofit organization does not get a halo by virtue of their IRS tax-exempt status any more than a driver with a fish decal on their car becomes a good Christian.

As a matter of fact, extraordinary grift hides in tax-exempt places. A recent example: CAMBA, a NYC homeless shelter nonprofit, CEO salary is $750,000 plus a slew of the CEO’s family members are on the payroll, each with a six-figure salary.

Give the money, but follow the money.

Chris Flores

Abortion Care Saves Lives

Dear Editor,

As a new mom, and a plaintiff in Zurawski v. State of Texas, I understand how receiving comprehensive abortion care can mean the difference between life or death. During my first pregnancy via IVF, I learned at 17 weeks that my baby girl had a fatal condition and would die at or before birth. Continuing the pregnancy put my life at risk. My health deteriorated until I was forced to travel to Colorado to receive abortion care. That experience changed my life, and would have been drastically different without Texas’ extreme anti-abortion laws in place.

This week, Texas Republicans’ latest attack on abortion care takes effect statewide targeting abortion medication, a safe and effective medication that is widely popular and accounted for nearly two-thirds of all U.S. abortions in 2023. Private medical decisions deserve to stay with women, their doctors, and their families – not dictated by lawmakers or extreme politicians.

Abortion bans are killing women, and yet, lawmakers at the local and federal level are putting politics over people to advance their extreme agenda. Just recently, ProPublica reported on the preventable death of Texas wife and mother Tierra La’Nesa Walker, who died because she was denied care at medical facilities across the state.

Now is the time for our elected officials to do what they’re supposed to do and legislate for the well-being of their constituents, not to advance their dangerous agenda. No woman or patient should have to jump through hurdles and fight through the trenches just to receive care, and I will continue to tell my story until Trump, Gov. Abbott, and their anti-abortion allies listen.

Taylor Edwards

The Dream Is Dead

Dear Editor,

To those wondering why millennials and Gen Z overwhelmingly support self-proclaimed socialists like Zohran Mamdani, AOC, and Bernie Sanders: “It’s the economy, stupid.”

Speaking as a millennial, for many of our generation, the American Dream is dead. Boomers bought 40% of the houses and then raised interest rates so we never could. Meanwhile, we pay the highest rents of any generation, but our paychecks grow the slowest. And the last two boomers in the White House stole 20 cents of every dollar out of our pockets with their failed monetary and fiscal policies.

Even if it once worked for you, today, the system you call “capitalism” is failing younger Americans. If you want us to support it again, then fix it so it begins to work for us too. Otherwise, Mamdani is just the latest electoral outcome of our rejection of the status quo that will continue to spread.

At the same time, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, rent control has historically failed, and many of Mamdani’s grander campaign promises will likely go unfulfilled. Accordingly, you can always just sit on your hands until then and we may come back around to hearing about capitalism’s promises.

Philip S. Wiseman