Google Fiber in KC

Google Fiber is a great thing for Kansas City. Not only does it benefit individual people, but it can be helpful in schools and businesses as well.

The one thing I do not understand is why Google has picked limited neighborhood areas. For one, my neighborhood, Verona Hills, would most likely have plenty of people willing to use Google Fiber, yet it isn’t offered.

Also, I believe that Google should offer fiber to the less wealthy communities, helping the unfortunate.

For the most part, Google Fiber is a great thing that could put Kansas City ahead of the nation in technology. However, adjustments could be made to further benefit the people of Kansas City.

Alex Daly

Kansas City

Conservative label

It is amusing to listen and read as Missouri and Kansas politicians fight over who is the “most conservative.” It is as if they are vying for who has the lowest IQ.

The ultra-right conservatives have consistently been the most “anti-everything” of our politicians.

They hurt both our economic recovery and the improvement of our children’s education by protecting the ultra-rich from having to pay their proper share of taxes.

They are against protecting our environment by shielding polluters from government regulations. They are against women by taking away their right to freedom of choice.

They are against gun control of assault weapons because the National Rifle Association contributes millions to these ultra-conservative politicians.

Our Founding Fathers were revolutionary and liberal-minded great men. If they had been conservative, we would still be a British colony.

Dump these conservatives. They do nothing for the betterment of our country.

David Sibley

Lake Quivira

Ryan is hard to trust

GOP vice president candidate Paul Ryan says he ran a marathon in under three hours (9-2, A2, “You get faster over time”). It’s a rather petty prevarication compared with other untruths Ryan so arrogantly uttered on the Republican convention floor.

Why does a politician need to impress us with how fast he can run? (Away from the truth perhaps?) Running a sub-three-hour marathon, as he claimed he did, is about 50 minutes behind the winner, and Ryan’s actual time of four hours was ordinary at best.

Ryan does what many politicians do best — lie to the public about almost everything.

The GOP, which impeached the only president in modern times who worked with them to balance the budget (Bill Clinton), has gone all in with an ideologically warped, lying budget wonk who wants to make you believe in a supply-side economic fantasy that didn’t work for Presidents Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush.

Each of them took our nation from budget surplus to deficit by this “trickle-down voodoo economic” theory. Sub-three-hour marathon, fiscal responsibility? Trust him at your peril.

Rod Yeager

Kansas City

GOP convention

Having listened to many of the Republican National Convention speakers, I am reminded of the words of Victor Hugo: “Strong and bitter words indicate a weak cause.”

Ron Fugate

Overland Park

Classroom technology

The Sept. 4 article, “The digital age comes to class ‘at warp speed,’” points out some pros and cons about the integration of modern-day technology into our classrooms.

The way of the chalkboard is almost extinct, and in most schools you see subjects being taught through iPads, projectors, smart boards and other forms of technology.

I think these methods are beneficial to the students. They are in many ways necessary to connect with modern-day students. However, schools can’t avoid the new technological standard that seems to be increasing at a rapid speed.

The author brings up a good point when he says that when a school begins integrating more technology into its curriculum the more complex things can get. “Teachers and tech administrators meet constantly, even multiple times a week, to try to keep ahead.”

Gabe Stueve

Kansas City

Promoting less litter

Littering was a big problem in Columbia when I lived there until two years ago, and it is a big problem in Kansas City, North, and Liberty, where I spend most of my time now. I think it is a lot worse since 2000 or so. (Nihilism after 9/11 or the recession or both?)

For about 15 years, I’ve been picking up trash on my jogs — minimum of three pieces per jog, and I’ve located trash and recycling bins on my routes in case my pockets overfill. It feels good to make things a little better.

The bad litter areas are always in the same places.

I don’t understand the psychology of littering. But I do have a hunch about the sociology of it. It’s a contagious condition made more infectious by a learned helplessness.

The more littered an area is, the more people litter there. The cleaner an area is, the less people litter.

So if we clean up certain areas, people will litter less.

We all wish inconsiderate and unhappy people would quit littering. Someday they will. Meanwhile, picking up the litter really will help in more ways than one.

Clay M. Anderson

Liberty

Don’t blame Bush

President Barack Obama keeps blaming George W. Bush’s policies for the 2008 recession. What policies?

Bush inherited a deflated dot-com bubble recession, al-Qaida, which had all the plans and players in place for 9/11 and Saddam Hussein, who had twice used weapons of mass destruction and defied all United Nations resolutions.

The recession was caused by the housing bubble and subprime mortgage collapse. It was President Bill Clinton who made low-income mortgages more available, repealed Glass-Steagall and chose not to regulate over-the-counter derivatives, which Obama’s Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission said was “a key turning point in the march to financial crisis.”

Senate Republicans had introduced a 2005 bill to regulate Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which by 2008 were holding most of the country’s subprime mortgages. The bill was stopped by a (then) Sen. Obama-supported filibuster.

As late as October 2007, the Dow Jones was a record 14,000-plus and unemployment was about 5 percent. The Bush tax cuts grew GDP by $4.4 trillion compared with Clinton’s $3.5 trillion, even though Clinton enjoyed the upside of both the housing and dot-com bubbles (remember Alan Greenspan’s “irrational exuberance” comments?) while Bush suffered the downside of both.

Jim Kilen

Kansas City

Democrats don’t get it

Now if you would exchange the word Democrats for Republicans you would think just as I and millions of others do. Democrats just don’t get it.

I don’t question Democrats’ intelligence, but don’t the facts mean anything? Don’t Democrats have any regard for future generations?

I suppose that to some Democrats the tradition can’t be broken. As for Republicans worshiping “our own” God every day in “our own” way, Christians worship the one and only living God his way.

Donna Dilley

Kansas City

Preventing car crashes

Every driver’s education instructor emphasizes the importance of buckling up, keeping hands on the wheel, eyes on the road and driving safely. Yet accidents are still a possibility that everyone must anticipate.

Some fender benders are merely annoying. But there’s always great danger when vehicles collide.

The Missouri Department of Transportation estimates that more than 1,000 fatalities annually will result from car crashes in the state.

A recent article on HeartlandConnection.com said car-crash fatalities are on the rise in Missouri for the first time since 2006. Distracted driving from talking and texting on cellphones is cited as a contributing factor.

Distracted cellphone users shouldn’t be an added potential danger on the road. American automobile manufacturers are developing new safety technologies to combat this.

For instance, Ford Motor Co.’s MyKey Do Not Disturb technology allows parents to block teens from receiving calls or texts while driving and prevents audio system use until front occupants buckle up. Ford SYNC technology enables drivers to operate devices through voice commands so hands stay on the wheel and eyes on the road.

From novice teen drivers to experienced adults, every Missourian must make the commitment to keep the roads safe.

Steve Porter

Kansas City

Kindness with coffee

On a recent Saturday, my husband and I went to Jerry’s Cafe on 103rd Street for breakfast. The place was packed, but a gentleman asked us to share the table with him and his companion.

We did so and had a great visit with them. When they left, they paid our bill.

And so for a wonderful gesture, thanks Joe and Beth.

Marlene Butts

Kansas City