Anti-Semitism still lives

Re: "Hate crime shocks Paris -- Officials say Holocaust survivor, 85, was killed because of her religion," Tuesday news story.

The Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance is outraged by the murder of Mireille Knoll and calls upon French and European authorities to step up their efforts to fight the revival of violent anti-Semitic attacks. On March 23, Knoll was found murdered in her Paris apartment. An 85-year-old Holocaust survivor suffering from Parkinson's disease, she had been stabbed to death by a neighbor who then set her apartment on fire. French authorities recognized the crime as anti-Semitic.

We are witnessing a rise in violent attacks against Jews in Europe. Circumstances and conditions are different from 1939. Twenty-first-century European anti-Semitism is not state-sponsored.

But make no mistake -- Jews are still the target. They are under cultural and physical assault in much of Europe. Anti-Semitism matters, and not just for Jews. Attacks against Jews generally preface coming unrest in the surrounding society.

The answer to anti-Semitism is to create a generation of young people who are not ignorant of the past. The museum teaches the history of the Holocaust and advances human rights to combat prejudice, hatred and indifference. We teach visitors to stand up in the face of evil.

Mary Pat Higgins, Dallas

President and CEO of the Dallas Holocaust Museum/Center for Education and Tolerance

Happy about O'Rourke support

Texas deserves better representation in the Senate! I support Beto O'Rourke to be our next senator because he really understands and listens to us and also shares a positive message.

Since O'Rourke announced that he was running for the Senate, he has traveled to almost every county in Texas. I am very happy to see how Texans are engaging and supporting him.

I live in Tarrant County, and I can see this with my friends, family and coworkers. Also, I can see in other Texas cities how people are attending his town halls to have a direct conversation with him and get to know him. In College Station, in his first town hall, there were 20 people, then 100 at the second one and his most recent one was attended by more than 400 people, most of them students.

I just want to end this letter by saying I am not red or blue, but just want someone to represent me well in the Senate. And this seems to be O'Rourke.

Carlos Moreno, Bedford

SMU also has donation requirement

Re: "Mandatory donation has patrons booing -- They call it a price hike; exec says it's common and a financial necessity," Wednesday news story.

As noted in this article, AT&T customers are not happy with the sudden donation requirement to hold patron seats.

Meanwhile, Southern Methodist University has levied a similar re-seating process for Moody Coliseum season basketball seats. Different than the AT&T Center's, the SMU process is levied on every Moody seat. Importantly, each season ticket holder/donor must repeat their respective donation each and every year. It is not like the Mustangs are ranked in the top 30 teams.

Ron Pedersen, Dallas

Don't blame Facebook

Re: "Facebook to simplify user control of data -- People will get to see what info is collected, opt out of sharing it," Thursday news story.

To me, it seems unfair to put all the blame on Facebook with the #deletefacebook movement. Users already knew this was happening since privacy issues regarding Facebook have come up multiple times before.

And yes, it took 20 pages to find the privacy settings, but that's not an excuse to me for not trying. And I don't see anyone in an uproar about Google's data harvesting. It seems like no one takes the blame anymore. They just expect a corporation to do everything for them, which I find worrisome.

Facebook offered use of its platform for free; did no one think about where they got their revenue? Or did they not want to?

Caitlin Ramsey, Dallas