Cheers to girl’s rescuers

Thank you to the Missouri Children’s Division staff and the Kansas City police who quickly responded to the child abuse/neglect hotline call (6-24, B1, “Mother charged with abuse”). You saved a life.

Too often, we hear only the negative about Children’s Division staff members “taking kids.” Because the nature of their job is confidential, we rarely hear about the good they do.

They are in scary situations every day, trying to do the best for Missouri’s children. They are understaffed, underpaid and underappreciated.

But, they continue.

Someone has to do it, and, thank God, for they saved a 10-year-old’s life.

Julie Hirsch-Bohs, LMSW

Prairie Village

Cuts hurt education

University of Kansas Chancellor Bernadette Gray-Little writes in a June 20 column, “Strong universities vital to future,” about the tragic consequences of government underfunding of public universities, on the same day that the Kansas Board of Regents voted to raise KU’s admissions standards.

She is absolutely right, of course, about the need for more money.

And I wish her all the luck in the world at finding enough qualified high school graduates in Kansas to meet the new standards. She’s going to need it.

Actually, what she needs is to rally the state’s higher education leaders, kindergarten through 12th-grade superintendents and school board members, and employers who need a highly educated workforce.

All of these people need to stop diplomatically dancing around the issue of Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback’s ruinous tax and budget cuts, the way Gray-Little’s column does.

They need to stand up, get loud and tell the truth: The Brownback budget is an express train to oblivion for Kansas. The same goes for all you blue-clad Jayhawk fans. If you really love your school, you need to vote out the politicians who are bleeding it to death.

Kathy Cook

Shawnee

Romney bad for U.S.

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney told Fox News: “People wants jobs. I understand what it takes to make America strong economically, culturally and militarily.”

If you believe that, then you also believe this is true: Santa Claus brings all the goodies on his sleigh at Christmas time.

Romney is everywhere, condemning the president for not having pancakes hanging from every tree. Meanwhile, Romney claims, “I can do this. I can do that.”

If Romney does becomes president (God help us), I predict he will create a financial mess like what was allowed during the tenures of Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover.

Brother, can you spare a dime? I saw the suffering of the 1930s as a child. I am 85 years old with experience.

Rudolph E. Haston

Independence

Obama exit date

How convenient — a civil conversation on the issues rather than on the president’s record.

President Barack Obama’s record is punctuated by so-called health care reform — a massive new social entitlement enacted without any serious attempt to reach across the political aisle.

And why? Because they could. They won. Remember?

This president and the liberal left he represents overplayed their hand and now will reap the whirlwind at the ballot box come November. Now, that is what I call substance.

Jim Eschrich

Lenexa

Fast and furious

No one following the current House investigations of Attorney General Eric Holder and the Fast and Furious program should be surprised that the committee plans to hold the attorney general in contempt of Congress.

It is transparently clear that committee members are adhering closely to the Republican Party line to discredit the president at every opportunity and are using Holder as a whipping boy.

In doing so, they openly demonstrate that those members voting for this action are genuinely contemptible.

Eric Holder can be truly proud of this turn of events. He has earned his stripes for the American people.

Joseph Ogilvie

Lenexa

More carriers for KCI

I find it interesting that some in city government want to replace Terminal A at Kansas City International Airport (6-15, A1, “New plan for KCI terminal”). They want a single terminal to replace all three existing terminals.

They say Terminal A is like a “ghost town” because of a lack of air carriers. Wouldn’t common sense tell you that instead of wasting money to build something most people in the metro area don’t want, the city should seek more carriers to fill those empty spaces, which would increase the number of flights to and from Kansas City?

But then again, that’s using common sense, something some in city government lack.

Charles Humphrey

Kansas City

Sidestep GOP in vote

If your parents taught you the difference between right and wrong and good and evil, it’s hard to see how you could vote for any of these Republicans running for office right now.

Jack Myers

Overland Park

Cutting budget, people

You have to hand it to the Republicans in Congress. They have figured out an excellent way to cut the budget: by cutting food aid to our poorest citizens.

It really is ingenious. By eliminating food, this ensures an increased death rate among the most vulnerable — the very young and very old.

With fewer poor hungry people, next year we’ll need even less money to feed the poor, and so on, year after year.

Brilliant.

Brad Lucht

Kansas City

No checks, balance

There is more of a background check for Transportation Security Administration workers than for the president of the United States.

I talked to a person in the secretary of state’s office here in Missouri. Its contention is that the party running a nominee is responsible for determining the eligibility of the person. The only responsibility of the secretary of state is to place the name on the ballot.

I sadly find that in their naiveté our founders did not foresee the possibility of unscrupulous people running the parties. Only if someone, as the brave sheriff in Arizona, does the investigating will the truth be known.

Even after that, there seems to be no way to remove a candidate unless the party heads decide to do so.

Fred Crosby

Belton

Legends worth visit

The Legends is a tourist destination and a lovely place to stroll, shop and dine. There are no beggars or teenagers congregating on weekends.

Come on over to Kansas City, Kan., and enjoy the Plaza at the Legends.

Jim Hawkins

Kansas City, Kan.

Drug test authorities

It was suggested in the Kansas Legislature that welfare recipients be drug tested to make sure our tax money isn’t used to buy illegal drugs or alcohol. As a taxpayer, I like this idea because I want to believe my taxes go to some useful purpose as opposed to an addiction to drugs.

I suggest we also test all government officials because I strongly suspect many of them come from a planet called Crazyland, where they smoke and inject crazy things into themselves each day before going to work.

I challenge Secretary of State Kris Kobach to check the birth certificates of all those in government — elected or appointed. I want to know my tax dollars aren’t controlled by aliens from Crazyland.

Mr. Kobach agrees that aliens are creepy and should be excluded by any means possible.

Armand Way

Topeka

Opinions always count

A June 25 letter writer said that letter writers make complete fools of themselves. But letters also offer thoughtful opinions.

After all, the letters are on the opinion page. And I believe Plato said something like “opinion runs the full gamut between ignorance and knowledge.”

So let’s keep the opinions flowing.

Patrick A. Schmiedeler

Overland Park

Support of teacher

Realizing I was gay at 14 years old and knowing that I couldn’t and wouldn’t do anything about it at the time, I waited. This was the 1950s, and being African-American and female, you had no place to turn to and no one to talk to.

It was silently forbidden. So I waited.

In high school I had a very special teacher who recognized in me abilities I didn’t even realize I had. She nurtured me and gave me the praise and encouragement I so sorrowfully needed.

Many years later, after coming out and becoming visible and outspoken about gay rights and after being featured in a 1980 article in Essence magazine, I received a late-night, long-distance phone call. It was from this teacher, thanking me for my courage and apologizing for not being there for me.

She was also gay.

Lea Hopkins

Leawood