Letters to the Editor | Week of May 19-24, 2025

Trade trashed

In her letter, “Tariffs backed” on April 2, Natividad Rodriguez of Harlingen wrote that millions of manufacturing jobs were lost during and after Bill Clinton’s “free trade” presidency. Did Mr. Rodriguez forget to mention a certain father-son duo who were behind those losses?

While on the subject of free trade, the North American Free Trade Agreement, better known as NAFTA, was engineered by the late 41st President George H.W. Bush, whose trade pact he championed got the ball rolling for the worst that was yet to come.

After Clinton came the man known as Dubya, 43rd President George W. Bush, who introduced the word “outsourced” to the American lexicon by actually sending lots and lots of manufacturing jobs overseas, thus continuing his father’s “legacy” on the issue of (you guessed it) free trade.

Clinton, who was president between the Bushes, tried to prevent more factory jobs from leaving our country but the pro-free trade, big business-loving GOP majority in Congress shut down Clinton’s attempts.

As for those GOP congressional members from the Clinton-Dubya eras, do they express any concern or have a single solution for all the hard-working people who became victims of the “factory purge” that’s still taking place today?

Time will only tell if tariffs will bring factory jobs back to our country. May the era of free trade come to a swift end sooner rather than later.

Roberto Lopez

McAllen

Get the vaccine

“‘Get the vaccine’: North Texas couple reflects on having measles as children decades ago” (April 29, myRGV.com) is a powerful reminder of how storytelling can promote public health. As a Texas resident and master of public health student at George Washington University, I find stories like Clayton and Kathryn Nash’s essential to shifting public perceptions about vaccination.

The measles vaccine is one of the safest and most effective tools we have. Hearing from people who lived through measles before a vaccine existed gives necessary historical context and humanizes the risk. It’s not just about science — it’s about real lives and the consequences of misinformation.

Clayton Nash and his wife Kathryn, pose for a portrait on Tuesday, April 22, 2025, in Arlington. Nash had measles in the early 1960s when he was around 6 or 7 years old. He contracted the virus before there was a vaccine available. (Shafkat Anowar/Dallas Morning News/TNS)

We should be amplifying voices like the Nashes’, who have lived through the pain, risk, and disruption of vaccine-preventable illness to counteract vaccine hesitancy. In a time when public trust is fragile, facts must be paired with lived experience to truly make an impact.

Their message is clear: don’t take vaccines for granted. Get vaccinated. Protect yourself, your family, and your community.

Matthew Hernandez

Harlingen

Editor’s note: We welcome your letters and commentary. Submissions must include the writer’s full name, address and daytime telephone number for verification. Letters of 200 words or fewer will be given preference. Submissions may be edited for length, grammar and clarity. Letters may be mailed to P.O Box 3267, McAllen, Texas 78502-3267, or emailed to letters@myRGV.com.

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