Leave KCI alone

Why replace Kansas City International Airport? KCI is one of the most convenient airports in the nation.

City officials cite the need for one terminal for security reasons.

I fly in and out of Phoenix often. That airport handles many more flights than KCI does. It has three terminals with two to four security checkpoints in each.

Everything seems to work fine. Leave KCI alone.

Tom R. Otto

Kansas City

Crime retaliation real

I was a soldier who served my country with pride. But what I cannot understand is when something happens to a child, like when a mother leaves her kid in the care of a drug dealer and that person beats her kid so badly that she cannot sit down.

You do the right thing and report the assault. Well, this mother did not do so.

It left me no choice but to report it myself. The mother was mad over it because she was already on probation with the city for child endangerment.

This cost me and my 6-month-old son a place to live. We where thrown out, and all our things where tossed out like trash.

So I ask you, When will the drug dealers stop running this city?

It is no wonder people do not speak up when crime happens. I found out the hard way that when you do the right thing no one is there to have your back.

So when will people take charge and put a stop to this kind of thing? If they would, crime would go down.

Carl Smith

Odessa

Accountability missing

Candlelight prayer services will do nothing to prevent the next LP travesty (7-1, A1, “How a little girl got lost”). Get proactive.

First, fire and permanently replace the entire staff responsible for the annual inspections to ensure that closet doors are working properly. LP did not “fall through a crack in the system.”

Find and identify the person(s) responsible for checking and approving the condition of LP’s closet prison. One or more employees did not do their jobs, and you now have an abused 10-year-old girl weighing just 38 pounds who may be emotionally scarred for life.

Next, starting immediately, use whatever resources are available to search literally every nook and cranny in every property that the Housing Authority of Kansas City is responsible for. There should be no shortage of volunteers for this one.

How many other LP situations are going on as you read this? LP may not be an isolated incident.

There are so many responsible for what happened to LP and, sadly, no one will ever be held accountable. Disgusting.

Don Cameron

Overland Park

Lagging MU priorities

The actions of the University of Missouri Board of Curators at its meeting speak louder than the July 1 letter signed by President Timothy Wolfe and chairman David Bradley.

The university administration was presented with petitions signed by thousands of supporters of the University of Missouri Press requesting a public discussion of the costs of closing the press.

I was there with other writers and academics. It was clear the administration wanted nothing to rain on their parade celebrating the huge donation to athletics.

Nothing in their letter suggests that either the board or the administration is even willing to publicly discuss the costs of closing the press.

No discussion of the cost of losing the press’ special contract with the University of California Press over the literary heritage of Mark Twain.

No discussion of what suits the university might face from those with legal contracts to publish their books.

No discussion of how much the press has contributed to the public awareness of Missouri’s park system and the state’s rich cultural and political history.

How can one believe their claim, “education is at the head of the line when it comes to our priorities”?

Robert M. Farnsworth

Kansas City

Institution of marriage

I have heard many argue that the Bible said marriage is for one man and one woman. I have not heard them address the Qur’an, the Muslim sacred text; the Tanakh, the Jewish scripture; or the Vedas and Upanishads, the books of Hindu.

We recognize marriages in these cultures, too, even though our holy book says that our God is the only God. We also recognize the marriage of atheists.

Whether or not being gay is a choice, atheism is. The state recognizes interfaith marriages, marriages of other religions, late-night marriages on a drunken dare in Las Vegas and marriages of those who preach that no god could ever exist.

Perhaps the state’s definition of marriage and a Christian’s definition of God are not so closely intertwined. You do not have to have a godless or gay marriage.

Your church is free to judge those who do. But it is past time to recognize that the state’s idea of marriage does not and should not be limited to some Christians’ idea of God’s will.

Madi Holcomb

Leawood

Cheers for Star, T-Bones

Kudos to The Kansas City Star and the T-Bones baseball club for recognizing the worth of Frank White to Kansas City (7-7, B1, “It’s his party”).

Colleen Boeding

Merriam

Appeal for politics

It’s frustrating. It’s predictable.

Washington, D.C., ignores black Americans, Hispanic Americans, gay Americans, immigrants, teachers, policemen, firefighters and people in the middle class.

Until, oops.

We are in an election cycle. Let’s put our focus on black Americans, Hispanic Americans, gay Americans. Every two- and four-year cycle, politicians use these groups for their own political gain.

The president had two years of power. He and Congress did little to further the well-being of these people.

I’m a retired teacher. I want what is best for educators and school districts and all of the above-mentioned Americans.

Stop playing chess with us. We are not fodder for your sound bites and talking points and political ads.

We are smart enough to see that the real concern today in Washington is making Hollywood and Wall Street happy.

Hollywood types spend more time in Congress and in the White House than any of the American groups they have now decided to rant and rave about.

Both sides of the aisle in D.C. need to stop being users and start being doers.

Fran Burkhart

Cleveland, Mo.

Single-issue politics

“It’s as bad as you always thought” is how the U.S. Congress functions today. If only we had we learned this in American history.

Missouri was forced to enter the Union as a slave state in 1820. That was because we had a divided Congress four decades before the Civil War, split by Deep South secessionists.

Congressional bullies divided our nation back then over their single-issue agendas. So it is today.

Scott Michie

O verland Park

No to Kansas biolab

The proponents of moving the federal bio research lab to Manhattan, Kan., are dead wrong when they say a release of disease is a remote possibility.

A release of hoof-and-mouth disease from Britain’s comparable facility occurred with nightmarish results.

We’ve got hydrogen bombs and a plethora of conventional weapons and their delivery systems. The feds are now experimenting with anti-matter weapons that could surpass nuclear weapons.

I think we have already achieved overkill without having to invest in making it worse.

Michael G. Stone

Leawood

Truman model gone

Harry Truman did not get millions of dollars after he left the Oval Office like all the presidents after him did.

Our current president spent a lot of money just to see a Broadway show and more taxpayer money just to have his wife and others fly to Europe.

And best of all, using government money so that his daughter could have a good vacation with some of her friends.

This is small compared with how much the president spends and we, the citizens, must pay.

Harry Truman paid for much of what he bought for himself and or his family. Thank you, President Barack Obama.

Rex Newbold

Shawnee

Parenting children

Is it better for children to have “man-woman parents” with limited parenting skills rather than having man-man or woman-woman parents (or a single parent) who instill values, nurtures, protects, educates and loves their children? All children need love, guidance and respect, and it has nothing to do with gender.

When our view of what makes a good parent is clouded by assumptions and closed-mindedness, we lose the ability to focus on the children and what is best for them, and in some cases it is not with “traditional” parents.

Terri C. Hayes

Lenexa