Tell it like it is

Trinity River Vision's Cowtown Wakepark

Not just what they want to hear.

That’s what a letter to the editor in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram did.

A few weeks ago they asked for your opinion (as long as it matched theirs).  Kudos for Libby Willis to pointing out the obvious.

Shared sacrifice in the quest for federal fiscal sanity

Easy: Cut remaining earmarks and other federal funding for the Trinity River Vision project. And yes, that affects me personally. The project impacts negatively on Riverside Park, six blocks from where I live, and other city parks. We just learned that the city of Fort Worth must find $95 million to build a police and fire training facility because the old one is in the way of the TRV. And the $95 million will be unavailable for other city needs, including street construction and repairs, and that affects all of us.

When 15 percent of Americans are living in poverty, when unemployment is at 9.1 percent, when teachers, policemen, firemen and other public servants are being laid off because of budget cuts, it is obscene and morally repugnant to spend federal dollars on things like TRV's Cowtown Wakeboard Park. Let the private sector pay for the lavish real estate development known as TRV.

Hard choice: Incrementally raise the minimum age for Social Security retirement benefits to 68. That would affect me personally since I would begin drawing benefits three years later. Folks now have a longer life expectancy than when the 65-year age qualification was set.

-- Libby Willis, Fort Worth