Letters | Sunday, Dec. 18

KC homeless camp?

I went to the Occupy Kansas City site to take some things, and though I didn’t spend a lot of time there, I got the feeling that it was more of a homeless community pretending to be a political organization. There are a lot of tents, but the five people I saw — well, it didn’t seem like they would know what day it was. I just can’t tell if it is real or a scam.

Mark Phillips

Kansas City

Jesus as role model

As a Christian, a follower of Jesus — the person who best represents the character of God for me — I feel compelled to offer an alternative view of him.

Recent letters would have us believe that Jesus was all about encouraging us to help the disadvantaged in a personal way, through our giving.

I agree that this would please Jesus, but I think we miss a big part of his mission when we focus only on that and fail to see the social justice side of him.

Jesus lived in a world that was very unjust, much like ours today. He knew that God’s vision for a world of justice was not going to happen while wealth and power were concentrated at the top.

But he also knew that violence would not bring this vision into being.

Jesus advocated a way of living that was threatening to the powerful, and he died as a result of his vision.

He really was a political activist, in the best sense of that term.

I encourage people to think about Jesus in this way and try to be like him. His humanity, and ours, challenges us for sure.

Rev. Glenda Fish

Overland Park

Diuguid column

Lewis Diuguid wrote in his Dec. 12 column, “Time for grown-ups to grow up in KC schools,” “They (surrounding districts) didn’t want black kids then, and they don’t want black kids now.”

I read lots of letters attacking Mr. Diuguid for “harping on race,” and I generally disagree with them. But here I believe he’s overstepped.

Mr. Diuguid, have you looked at the racial makeups of Center, Grandview, Hickman Mills and Raytown school districts? It’s not that they “don’t want black kids.”

They are majority black already.

What they don’t want are kids who have been floundering in low-performing schools. They are concerned about the effect on their current students who have to be their first priority.

You can argue whether or not this is valid, but this is not about race. Making it so helps no one.

Stacy Wright

Kansas City

Troop appreciation

As I watched President Barack Obama’s Fort Bragg “welcome home” speech, one thought continually made its way to the front of my consciousness. As a Vietnam veteran, I am very pleased that Americans have learned to separate their appreciation for the troops from their concerns over the policy that promoted the war.

Any of my fellow Vietnam vets would understand how important this will be for these younger veterans as they go forward. Good job, America.

Jerry Hall

Holt Mo.

U.S. needs assistance

I watched an episode of “60 Minutes” on television recently, and I saw people living in trucks and cars with no food. Mr. President, the money spent on one of your vacations would feed a lot of people.

You always want to feed poor countries. When are you going to wake up?

America is badly in need of help. How about some help to those people who are living in cars and trucks with no food?

America is calling for help. Take care of these families first. They are our neighbors.

Talk, talk, travel, travel will not do it. Food and providing for the necessities will.

May God bless America, land of the endless recession. We are all thankful for what we have.

We also need things made in the United States instead of China and all other countries. How about it, Mr. President?

Rose Ann Odell

Louisburg, Kan.

End credit card debt

Every day in America, people fall further and further into debt. Over a lifetime, some Americans acquire so much debt that they could never pay it off unless they live more than 200 years.

Why? Credit cards.

When people buy things via credit card, they’re spending money they don’t actually have. People love credit cards for that. Suddenly, no one has to wait until payday to purchase that new flat screen.

However, let’s remember that patience is a virtue. We don’t need credit cards or the debt that they bring. Who actually wants to be in debt when a person doesn’t need to be?

Debit cards are an excellent alternative to credit cards. They’re just as quick and convenient. The difference is individuals are not borrowing money with a debit card.

Let’s raise a new generation of smart spenders and a generation of smart savers. If we don’t act now and eliminate credit cards, Americans and our credit cards will be welded together until debt do us part.

Abby Kucera

Lee’s Summit

Cellphone lot for KCI

A regular complaint about the Kansas City International Airport is a lack of a cellphone waiting lot.

Of all KCI’s shortcomings, this is the easiest to correct.

Any of the numerous vacant parking lots along Mexico City Avenue or Paris Street could easily be converted.

The only expense would be a few signs to direct people there.

In the meantime, if you need to wait for an inbound passenger at KCI, pick a vacant lot and make it your own.

Vicky Welsh

Kansas City

Grinch as president

What this country needs is not a good five-cent cigar or a chicken in every pot on Sunday. What we need is good ole boy Newt Gingrich to “take a bath and get a job.”

If Gingrich won the Republican nomination for president and then defeated Barack Obama in November, we’d have a Grinch in the White House. Then we can have a Grinch Stole Christmas for four years, for sure.

Arthur Elkins

Belton

Bus service to Royals

Next year should bring new and exciting baseball to Kansas City with a young team plus the 2012 All Star game. It would be a perfect time for the Kansas City Area Transportation Authority and the Royals to bring back express bus service from downtown and through Crown Center and the Country Club Plaza.

The plan in place three or so years ago was too good to last. The round trip was just $5 with a $5 discount on a Royals’ ticket.

Doubling the cost would still be an attractive offer, and I hope that could be made sweeter with a discount offer from the Royals. The service would be an important and appreciated one for tourists along with residents of the city.

This is an appeal to give express bus service a try at least through the All-Star game. Make the offer, and I think passengers will help 2012 attendance top 2 million.

Don Biggs

Kansas City

Faith as guide to truth

In all people’s lives, they must go on a journey for truth. As I began mine to search for evidence for a God, it led me to believe in the Christian faith.

When I saw the unspeakable beauty of nature, it all screamed of the presence of a creator. There is no conceivable way in my mind that all of the wonderfully intricate things of this world could have been created by some sort of random chance or “scientific” encounter.

Once I decided that there was a God, I had to figure out which God he was. When I began to understand the Christian faith and the stories of the disciples’ sacrifice for the story of Jesus Christ, it all fell into place.

The greatest reason I believe is my personal experience. After searching for the answer to one of life’s greatest questions, I became sure that the God of the Christian faith exists and acts in our lives. This has shaped my life immensely and is now my strongest belief.

Matthew Judd

Blue Springs