OPINION

Three Cheers is a weekly collection of upbeat letters that inspire readers to think and act positively. Share your own timely story or observation by sending it to "Three Cheers" at letters@dallasnews.com.

1.My 13th birthday: A gift for Haiti -- This February, I am turning 13. For my birthday this year, instead of just getting gifts for myself, I wanted to give something, too.

I feel that turning 13 should symbolize that we are responsible and caring for ourselves and others. We are not little kids any more. We are old enough and mature enough to understand that the world does not revolve around us.

We should stop a moment and look around at all the things we could do to help others. They don't have to be big or spectacular. They can just be little things that add up to a huge difference.

So, I am asking those who turn 13 this year to donate $13 to the Red Cross in support of Haiti. (Or anyone who is already 13 could donate, too.)

I know $13 does not sound like much, but if we get 300 13-year-olds (that's how many seventh-graders are in my school -- just one school) to donate, then we will have $3,900 already. Every little bit counts, and I know that the people of Haiti will appreciate everything we can do to help.

Kudos are in order for the Duncanville citizen who donated funds to pay the costly tuition for horse therapy for Alexis Diaz.

Although this person went out of his or her way to remain anonymous, he or she has touched lives beyond just those of Alexis and her family. May this kind-hearted gesture inspire more anonymous acts of this sort.

3.Haiti: U.S. has orphans, too -- Re: "Americans ready to pitch in against calamity -- We unite in times of crisis: That's our strong point, says Mary Spear of Dallas," last Sunday Community Voices column.

It has been heart-warming to see the outpouring of help to Haiti by Americans, especially to the orphans. However, prospective parents wouldn't even need to charter a plane, because orphans are right here in our neighborhood.

I wish the media would spotlight our orphans' plights.

Re: "Obama's banking proposals a good first step -- We can't allow banks to hold country hostage again, says Joseph Stiglitz," Thursday Viewpoints.

Having spent years working with CEOs and investment bankers, I agree with Stiglitz that the banking proposals don't go far enough.

The smartest MBA graduates usually head for Wall Street, and not, unfortunately, to federal regulators or commercial banks. They're always going to be a step ahead of their watchdogs and their competition, and they learn on the job how to manipulate CEOs and boards of directors.

It's not just the size of both kinds of banks that is the inherent problem; it is the waste caused by employing more talent than will ever be needed just to maintain the vital capital formation function.

This leads to bonus-focused mischief: deals for the sake of fees, with no risk to the banks and insanely intricate trading schemes that do nothing to create value. How many ego-based megamergers actually end up creating intrinsic worth vs. how many turn out to be colossal failures?

The investment bankers always make their fees, golden parachutes remove any real penalty for failure for upper management, and every possible job is outsourced overseas rather than investing the effort to make domestic employees more efficient.

If the forecast holds, the streets of Dallas will remain slick with rainwater over these next few days. Those bustling around the city under their umbrellas are more likely to be concerned about staying warm and dry than about what that rainwater is washing into our treasured waterways.

When rain showers hit Texas, they flow over the land and wash trash, chemicals and solid waste off of the streets and into our rivers, lakes and streams. According to Environmental Protection Agency data, 44 to 56 percent of Dallas County's surface drinking water comes from streams that are not protected under the Clean Water Restoration Act. That means that there are no measures that are legally required to protect those streams from polluted storm water.

Congress must pass the Clean Water Restoration Act that extends protection to all of our waterways. Then when it rains, the people of Dallas can worry less about dirty drinking water and more about keeping their socks dry.

Every human being has his or her own unique relationship with God, and Rick Perry can't tell us what position God wants us to take on abortion. No one, even the most zealous social conservative, can put God in a small box.

I am old enough to remember what it was like before abortions were legal. During my medical training, I helped care for five women who were so sick and injured from "criminal" abortions that we were unable to save their lives. One was the mother of five. She and her husband decided they couldn't afford a sixth child, so she had an unsafe abortion and left her five children without their mother.

We don't need to outlaw safe abortions, as Rick Perry wants to do; we need to make abortions unnecessary, as Kay Bailey Hutchinson is trying to do.

Re: "Military presence still needed," by Wayne Fournier, Thursday Letters.

Eliminating religious bigotry is a whack-a-mole project. Just when you think you've nailed the last one, another of those nasty rascals pops up to ruin your lawn.

The latest mole comes courtesy of Fournier, who actually disses Mohandas Gandhi's brand of nonviolent resistance because Gandhi wasn't, well, Christian. You'd think the most relevant conclusions you could draw from peaceful movements the world over are that they span many cultures and religions, they're effective and humanity is better off for them.

But no, that's not enough for Fournier, who, in classic my-daddy-can-whup-your-daddy fashion, goes on to proclaim that Jesus was somehow better than Gandhi.

This subject could lead us to more discussion but, alas, there are so many more moles to whack.