Regarding "Surgeon cancels life-saving trip to Iran" (Friday Front Page), after the Trump administration implemented a travel ban against seven countries coming into the U.S.,
Dr. Alireza Shamshirsaz of Texas Children’s Hospital and some associates have refused to travel to Iran to perform a life saving operation on two unborn children due to their uncertainty at being allowed to return. They are all as green card holders born in Iran.
Put aside for the moment the daily stories of green card holders successfully leaving the United States and returning; There is no version of the Hippocratic Oath that begins "First, I will put my own well-being above that of my patients." There's also no version that allows one to sacrifice their patients' well being so as to preserve residency status in America.
Dr. Shamshirsaz and those other medical professionals should go to Iran, save those childrens' lives, and take their chances on return, regardless of how negligible the risk.
Pete Smith
Cypress, TX
Friday, February 10, 2017
Tuesday, February 7, 2017
LTE: Glaring flaws
Regarding “Two deaths, days apart, put spotlight on MetroRail” (Page A1, Tuesday), the chart that accompanies the article shows collisions with people per mile of track compared to other cities. For major lines, Houston’s is by far the worst. We have 18 times as many accidents as Boston per track mile, for example.
Houston Metro’s manic pursuit of street-grade rail has yielded the worst of all systems, not just deadly to pedestrians and cyclists but a noisome eyesore as well, and its design flaws are well-documented: the high number of intersections with streets, the inability of a heavy ballistic train to stop quickly compared to a car, and worst of all, trains that travel parallel tracks where no natural right-of-way is observed. Simply put, cross traffic must look left and right for every track, all the time.
For all of these reasons, it’s unlikely that tweaking traffic signals will solve the problem. The system is fundamentally flawed, and needs to be scrapped.
Pete Smith, Cypress
Houston Metro’s manic pursuit of street-grade rail has yielded the worst of all systems, not just deadly to pedestrians and cyclists but a noisome eyesore as well, and its design flaws are well-documented: the high number of intersections with streets, the inability of a heavy ballistic train to stop quickly compared to a car, and worst of all, trains that travel parallel tracks where no natural right-of-way is observed. Simply put, cross traffic must look left and right for every track, all the time.
For all of these reasons, it’s unlikely that tweaking traffic signals will solve the problem. The system is fundamentally flawed, and needs to be scrapped.
Pete Smith, Cypress
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