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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 mail@austinchronicle.com. Thanks for your patience.
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Paradigm Shift

RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 6, 2020

Dear Editor,
    Below is a copy of a letter I have sent to both Sens. Cornyn and Cruz:
    Evidence clearly shows that the president used his office to extort the president of Ukraine to announce an investigation into the Bidens in exchange for vitally needed military aid. This is a violation of his oath of office and certain grounds for impeachment and removal. You are an intelligent and educated person, so I know that, despite your protestations to the contrary, you know this too. However, because of the cultlike devotion of the president’s supporters who constitute most of your voters, you dare not say so in public nor vote for removal accordingly.
    This has brought us to a place where the president has assassinated the second most powerful person in Iran in order to divert attention from his impeachment through the ensuing violent reactions and counter-reactions by the U.S. and Iran. This may lead to a regional war in the Middle East lasting decades, killing thousands of Americans, millions of people in the region, and costing our treasury trillions of dollars. This is of no consequence to the president. His only concern is his own self-interest. If you vote to acquit the president, history will judge that your only concern was in preserving the interests of the president and not the country. You would have betrayed your oath of office.
    Voting to acquit the president may not preserve your seat in the Senate. A war with Iran will be costly. It will result in the revulsion of most American voters already weary with endless wars in the Middle East. The revulsion may be such that it not only causes the loss of your seat, but the demise of the entire Republican Party. Resolving paradoxical situations requires a paradigm shift. Rather than basing your judgment on political expediency, perhaps you could think about what is best for the country.
Larry Kelly-Mahaffey

Hellfire Awaits

RECEIVED Sat., Jan. 4, 2020

Dear Editor,
    This moment in history demands the attention of our leaders in Congress. Public servants such as Sen. Cornyn, Sen. Cruz, and [U.S. Rep.] Williams must ask themselves how they will explain their actions to their maker when the time comes … I know they are all God-fearing Christians because they wouldn't dare let anyone forget it.
    We have seen diseased, unattended, helpless children in cages; climate emergencies escalating beyond our nightmares; a corrupt, impeached president whose debts are backed by foreign monies and who pays himself for his constant vacations at his own properties with taxpayer dollars. All this, and now the U.S. is on the brink of hot war again in the Middle East. All this after giving up our position in Turkey and handing evil totalitarians like Erdogan, Putin, and [Kim Jong] Un anything they want with no peace, nothing in return.
    What will God say to our leaders in Congress if they are complicit now in the destruction of America and everything it ever stood for? If they are not fascists, we will know because we will see them stand up and act in the best interests of Americans everywhere. If they are not fascists, we will know because they will attack all these diseases corrupting and rotting away the body of our republic and every bit of our integrity. If they fail the people now, they will reveal themselves as fascists intent to overthrow American interests for their own personal gain, and no matter how long and luxurious their lives may be, only Dante's Inferno describes their eternal future. We will vote them out. We will take their jobs. We will take a stand.
Naiman Rigby
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