The power of words

The filmmaker of the anti-Islam film that sparked the protests taking the lives of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans is as culpable for their deaths as the protestors who actually killed them (9-13, A1, “ ‘They attacked right away’ ”).

In this day and age, when words and images travel around the globe through the Internet and social media in a matter of seconds, I am in disbelief that people think they can make inflammatory remarks in a vacuum.

Words have very real consequences, and the voice of one extremist has incited the rage of other extremists in a region of instability. Violence is never OK, but neither is hatred, and the two have resulted in the death of four innocent Americans.

Shame on all involved.

Tina Aspegren

Kansas City

Question Proposition B

A big “maybe” should be printed on the ballot for the tobacco tax increase, which is titled Proposition B. This is because it would be a state statute and could be changed at will by the legislature.

In November 2010, voters approved the “puppy mill” proposal, also titled Proposition B, and the legislature significantly changed it in a matter of months. The last time a tobacco tax increase was on the ballot was 2006, and it would’ve been a constitutional amendment if voters hadn’t defeated it.

The state is receiving about $150 million a year from tobacco companies. This is from a 1998 settlement between the companies and the states over lawsuits on smoking-related health costs. Missouri has so far received nearly $2 billion and is estimated to receive about $4.6 billion in the first 25 years.

It was expected a good part of the settlement money would help fund smoking-cessation programs. However, a 2006 state audit found that only about $1.8 million of the $965 million the state first received was spent for these programs.

Voters should be doubtful of Proposition B. There are no guarantees.

Jon Rand

President

Discount Smoke Shop

Woodson Terrace, Mo.

Candidates lack skills

I have come to the conclusion that neither of the candidates for president is fit to assume the office.

I won’t argue their merits or lack thereof or their lack of understanding of the concept of governance. Governance is the ability to recognize and accept the responsibility for ensuring that government will fulfill its constitutional directions to protect and serve the nation. This is more significant than leadership skills.

Governance and leadership skills together form a powerful force for the good of the nation. Currently, politics have overridden nearly all government activities.

Only a president with the will to apply the principles of governance can change the situation. Governance was commonplace in the actions of many of our early presidents.

Lately, it has virtually disappeared under layers of corrupt politics and power plays to alter the fundamentals of our present republican democracy.

It appears our current candidates have chosen to be lapdogs to corrupt rather than leaders.

James Tiller

Olathe

Safeguard civil rights

Teachers, employers, law enforcement, the courts and others with power over people should be held accountable once they violate our rights as human beings, not with a slap on the wrist but with jail time. What crime is worse than the imprisonment of an entire people?

A murderer is given life in prison for killing one man. What punishment should be given to the person who makes someone kill himself?

The teacher whose responsibility it is to teach all students should be fired and prosecuted if the teacher abuses the children or treats them disparagingly because of ethnicity or color.

School districts that count Hispanic children for English as a second language, migrant and at-risk funding and fail to provide ESL teachers and services should be prosecuted because they are stealing an education from the children.

The police officer who points his gun at kids to intimidate them should be in jail. The judge who gives different sentences for the same crime should be in jail. The only way to improve the well-being of the Latinos is to enforce all civil rights policies with jail time and fines to anyone who violates them.

Florentino Camacho Jr.

Kansas City

Presidency at crossroads

After eight years of President George W. Bush, Americans were fed up and elected Barack Obama as president of the United States. It seemed as if the era of Reaganomics and cowboy foreign policy had finally come to an end.

Two years later, we learned how short memories can be as the insane tea party took over the House of Representatives and ended any chance of an economic recovery. For two long years, we have watched as Republicans blocked every single piece of legislation supported by the president.

Now, Americans are being asked to put a Republican back in the White House. Have we learned nothing?

President Obama was given three years to repair a mess that was eight years in the making. If you hired a financial adviser and his advice left you in ruin, would you hire him back the next year?

It is time to wake up.

Jeff Bell

Shawnee

Kobach’s ‘democracy’

Secretary of State Kris Kobach is ultimately responsible for the process of democracy in Kansas. I heard on NPR that Mr. Kobach might disenfranchise Kansas voters who want to vote for President Barack Obama on the “birther” excuse.

Even when Mr. Kobach’s decision is reversed, is democracy dying in Kansas? Can he deny voters the right to one of the two major candidates? Does political maneuvering now trump even the principles of democracy?

Where truth dies, democracy will die with it. Regardless of political allegiance, freedom-loving Kansans should be outraged.

Rabbi Mark H. Levin

Leawood

Showing ID to vote

So what’s the problem with showing a photo identification card? I’ve had to register and show a photo ID ever since I was old enough to vote some 47 years ago.

You have to show an identification card to get a driver’s license, credit card, checking account and for just about anything to prove who you are. God bless America.

Bonnie Morris

Kansas City

Far-right Kansas RINOs

With the election last month of Gov. Sam Brownback’s RINOs (Republicans in name only), I think it is safe to say to Dorothy, “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

Yes, the far-right members are the real RINOs and have hijacked the Republican Party.

No longer is public education a priority. Or fiscal responsibility. Now we have a state more like Mississippi. Maybe we should change the name to Kansassippi.

Keith Stanley

Overland Park

Global warming? Hardly

It is a good thing to have a long memory. In the 1950s and early 1960s, extreme weather conditions were blamed on nuclear atmospheric testing.

In the early 1980s, scientists told us that we were headed for another ice age and that glaciers three times taller than Sears Tower would come thundering out of Canada to grind everything down to bedrock.

Now it is global warming. When we had 24 inches of snow one recent Christmas Eve, the global warming people said “weather is not climate.”

When we got above 90 degrees only a few times last summer they said “weather is not climate.”

Now that we have had a hot spell they blame that on global warming.

All of a sudden, weather is climate when it fits their model.

Make no mistake, we must reduce the amount of greenhouse gases, the carbon dioxide we produce, and use more wind, solar and nuclear energy instead of coal and natural gas.

This is a clean air and clean water problem, but not one that should wreck the economy or disrupt society.

Dixon H. Davenport

Lee’s Summit

DMV service is still poor

After waiting four hours to get my plates last May, I was notified by my loan company that the Department of Motor Vehicles had still not sent the title.

While at the Kansas City, Kan., annex building, I noticed there were still long lines and lots of people waiting.

Thanks Gov. Sam Brownback.

Harlan Rimmerman

Kansas City, Kan.

Blue over Royals?

To Tuesday’s letter writer and others who have recently bashed the “lousy” Royals, I’m wondering: Have you really been watching any games lately?

Yes, they have had a few nights with poor pitching starts, but the Royals I’ve been watching for the last six weeks have been sharp and are looking promising for next season. If not for the horrendous losing streak early in the season, we would actually be in playoff position this year.

Keep it up, Royals. Some of us are actually paying attention, and we like what we’re seeing.

Ann Cain

Kansas City