Many beliefs swirl around the COVID vaccine. A few are: 1) there’s a tracking chip inside, 2) a bad reaction will kill you, 3) it gives you COVID, 4) it alters your DNA, 5) your personal immune system works better than the vaccine, and 6) COVID’s a hoax so no need for a shot.

The past 10 months saw flurries of letters to the editor, passionately arguing pro and con Trump, BLM protests, election fraud, Capitol riots, suppression of free speech, and of course COVID policies. More than anything, the letters have served to illustrate the many ways in which the personal becomes political. Or rather, the ways in which the political can become intensely personal, deepening rather than bridging the divides.

I’m writing this before a new President is sworn in, hoping the inauguration goes without violence and ugliness. By the time you read this we will know if riots and conflict have been avoided, at least for now.

A trivial incident on-board a Central Texas passenger train on Jan. 20, 1894 set in motion a series of violent events that led to a three-week manhunt and five fresh graves in the cemetery.

It is a constant “blame game.” It happens in the home, workplace, and in our own government. When we were younger and would start an argument or squabble with our siblings, we would tell our parents the other one started it.

The Texas Legislature opened quietly, which delighted everyone after the violence inside the U.S. Capitol the previous week.

I stood before my mirror and repeated these words, each time with a different facial expression, before putting them down on paper. Just wanted to get myself in the proper mode, you know.

To the Editor: These words, “Tell Me Why,” from a Bobby Vinton 1950s song, keep playing in my head as I once again try to get on a list for the Phase 1B COVID-19 vaccine. If you are 65+, it may be playing in your head also.

To the Editor: Dear Governor Abbott, Yesterday, I spent 4.5 hrs hitting redial on my cell phone trying to get in to make an appointment for a vaccine shot. (At last count over 300 calls.) After 4.5 hours of calls I reached a recording which said that someone would call me.

To the Editor: I appreciated the tone of Judge Weber’s comments in this paper on Tuesday. Congress is in deadlock, and has been since the Obama presidency, when Senate Majority Leader McConnell refused to back any agenda of the President regardless of merit.