Tipping point

Regarding Nicole Russell’s article “Why is everyone expecting a tip these days?” when dining out folks should tip at least 20%.

But I don’t like restaurants that grab dollars out of my wallet by charging a living wage fee, a hospitality fee, a service fee, an inflation fee or a fee for using a credit card. What’s next, paying a fee to use the silverware, glassware, plates, napkins, table and chairs? Or how about a “utility fee” to help pay for the lights and the heat/AC?

Enough already.

Restaurants should increase their menu prices instead of nailing customers with additional fees. That way their customers won’t leave feeling like they’ve been gouged.

And these days, when paying for takeout orders I always pay and tip with cash because I don’t like being bullied into paying a tip by a credit card reader that prompts you to leave a “recommended tip” of 15%, 20% or $25%, with the cashier staring at you.

Again, enough already.

Mike Rice

Wellfleet

Voting rights

I am very concerned about the Boston City Councilors’ plan to extend voting rights to non-citizens. This is an incredibly rash decision. I sincerely hope Mayor Wu will veto it.

We are already giving so much to immigrants, but the right to vote is a right that needs to be earned. People who come to this country should first learn about our country and what it was founded on. They need to follow the process that has made people coming to this country proud for hundreds of years.

An overriding concern is that the voting registry becomes corrupted and creates issues with clean elections that will reverberate through our state and national elections.

On a personal note, my family has owned a home and paid taxes in Falmouth for over 70 years, we are citizens and yet we still are not allowed to vote in town elections, because it is not our primary residence. I am sure there are many citizens in Boston in the same position who are not allowed to vote in Boston. I have no doubt there will be many lawsuits if this is not vetoed.

Please protect our voting system and do not allow this to become law!

Joan Gonfrade

Ashland

Border crisis

Has anyone heard anything from the Massachusetts senators on the following topic: Illegal immigrants crossing America’s southern borders and being bused to Massachusetts for shelter. I do hear rhetoric from Senator Edward John Markey on the Green New Deal and Senator Elizabeth Ann Warren on cultural changes, but not so much on the border crisis. If any American citizen wishes to travel outside the United States, you’ve got to have a valid passport or no can do, so why are our elected senators not saying anything?

Silly me, I know, got to follow the party platform.

Tony Meschini

Scituate

Consequences

Boomerang consequences are sure to follow:

Equity isn’t coupled with merit

Abolishing the police

Mainstream media suppressing the news

The Holocaust viewed as a one-time standalone human tragedy

Wide open borders

James Kane

Auburn