Letters are posted as we receive them during the week, and before they are printed in the paper, so check back frequently to see new letters. If you'd like to send a letter to the editor, use this postmarks submission form, or email your letter directly to [email protected]. Thanks for your patience.

Dear Editor,
    I am saddened by the murder of five innocent policemen in Dallas last week. They died protecting the people who were rightfully protesting the deaths of two innocent men at the hands of policemen in St. Paul and in Baton Rouge. And now police chiefs, politicians, media pundits, and the president of the United States are saying that we need to have dialogues among police and minority community members, among white and minority Americans, about race and justice and inequality and inclusion. These calls for dialogue are a welcome and much-needed beginning.
    I am wondering about the role of violence in our society. Beyond the debates about regulating the access to guns in our communities, beyond the debates about the presence of violence in our entertainments, beyond the shock after each new mass murder that has become almost commonplace, remains the fact that far too many have been killed by police, 509 in this year alone, with scarcely a notice after a day or two, and hardly any accountability or justice for the perpetrators. Until now. Now, with the assassination of five Dallas policemen by a single black man who became overwhelmed by hatred and anger and the need for retribution, now, our public figures are beginning to recognize that we need to talk about these unjust murders, and we need to make some changes. Would this have happened anyway, if there had been no angry sniper?
    I fervently hope that real, helpful, healing dialogue will now commence, and that these five policemen, and the 509 murdered before them, will not have died in vain. I pray that we will continue talking to each other, and seeing each other not as "others" but as extensions of ourselves, of our own families, neighborhoods, communities, and people. We are living in this country together, and together we can either prosper or combat. We can extend our empathy and concern for each other, or we can withdraw into fearful angry tribes. May we resolve to protect and promote each other's well-being.

Dear Editor,
    I would like to add to the short list of vital federal services that Steven Van Landingham noted we would lose ["The 'Texit,'" Feedback, July 8] if what he characterized as "idealistic but uninformed" Texans voted to leave the union:
    So many federally funded jobs lost! The IRS – we would no longer have the privilege of having 40% of our income taken without our consent. The TSA – we'd miss out on being groped and molested and threatened as a condition of flying somewhere. The Border Patrol – no more racist "papieren bitte!" stops without probable cause. The NSA – we'd miss out on having our emails read, our texts read, our every electronic transaction monitored by people who don't believe in privacy. The War on the Laws of Supply and Demand (aka the War on Drugs) – nuff said.
    I'd like to reiterate what Steven said, absent the sarcasm: "When do we get to vote?"

Dear Editor,
    More and more of my white friends are posting links and articles on social media condemning racism and racist institutions. Most white people feel somewhat helpless as to what they can do to support efforts for real equality – myself included. Besides writing letters to police chiefs and legislators, how does the average white person contribute in any meaningful way to the cause?
    One idea is to help desegregate Austin’s schools. My neighborhood in East Austin continues to get whiter and whiter, but the public schools don’t. Nearly every white family with school-aged children that I know sends their child to either a private or charter school. The few that do send their kids to public school almost never send them to the neighborhood school – opting instead for the whitest school they can get into. They never come out and say it, but schools get labeled good and bad; and the whiter schools always seem to be the “good” ones.
    Most of the schools on the Eastside suffer from under-enrollment. The schools with the most chronic under-enrollment are the blackest and brownest schools in the city, which adversely affects funding for those schools. Part of the problem is that the white people who are moving here won’t send their kids to the neighborhood school. I agree with most of the criticisms of the public school system, but when you choose to send your kid somewhere else, you’re really saying that the problems of the schools in your neighborhood are someone else’s problems. Not to mention that your child is missing the opportunity to form friendships with kids from different backgrounds.
    If you really think black lives matter, then this fall help integrate Austin’s schools and enroll your kid in your neighborhood school.