Maturing politically

Everyone is born a liberal. But many get educated and mature and become conservative.

Ken Hedden

Parkville

Smoking ban benefits

The reasons for banning smoking in restaurants and bars are not just the risks of lung cancer and chronic lung disease — as bad as they are. A recent study done in Grand Forks, N.D., where smoking was recently outlawed in this fashion, showed that admissions to the local medical facilities for suspected heart attacks fell after the ban.

Also, a recent study reported several months ago after a similar ban in a Missouri community showed that there was actually an increase in business for the affected establishments.

What’s more important, the health of the community or the right of an individual to cause harm to that health?

Besides, if it is good for business and 77 percent of the population favors the ban, what can really be wrong with it?

G. David Dixon, M.D.

Leawood

Put child safety first

On Wednesday night, a candlelight vigil was held for Jessica Ridgeway, the missing Colorado girl. Jessica went missing on her walk to school.

This hits home deeply for me. It is simply not safe for our children to walk to school. Yet in Independence, where Jessica’s father lives, the school district gives few options.

The district does not provide transportation for children living within a mile of their schools. Jessica had to walk a few blocks to school. Yet the Independence School District thinks it’s OK for my 5-year-old daughter to walk 0.62 miles to school and pass the home of a registered sex offender along the way.

I have written the superintendent numerous times, yet what it comes down to is the Independence School District has chosen to use funds for things more important than the safety of our children.

The Independence School District should re-evaluate this decision.

There is a lot of danger lurking in a mile walk. I hope that the Independence School District will see this as a wake-up call to the dangers facing children walking to school.

Traci Hain

Independence

U.S. election questions

What if someone ran up $136,000 in debt in your name? What if when you told that person to stop, he went ahead and ran up one-third of it in just the last four years?

What if that person talked you into more debt with a stimulus package, and you wound up deeper in debt? What if that person sold that debt to your enemy?

What if the person threatened to fine/tax you if you didn’t buy his health insurance? What if he exempted his friends from buying that same health insurance?

What if you found that your savings had been looted and replaced by government IOUs? What if you found out those IOUs were from the same government that is $16.5 trillion in debt?

Now, tell me again why you won’t vote for the other guy because you might have to pay $10 a month for your birth-control pills?

Bill Gaughan

Louisburg, Kan.

Political confusion

GOP non-starters? GOP misrepresented ... again. GOP not against taxation, just excessive taxation.

GOP supports necessary infrastructure. Does not support “make-work” jobs that produce nothing but add to unsustainable debt burden.

Diplomacy is the first option, not invasion, but needs to be red-lined and firm action taken if it fails.

The economic meltdown was set in motion by the Community ReInvestment Act of 1977. Think subprime interest rates and toxic loans pushed by Democrats, helped by the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now.

The old argument that only a woman has the right to make decisions that affect her body is not the issue. It is the body within her body, the child conceived, who is deprived of choice and life. That is the issue.

Separation of church and state is not in Constitution. Government prohibition of passing laws to establish religion is.

This does not mean that government must act as if there is no God.

Stanley G. Jasperson

Shawnee

Wear reflective clothes

It’s that time of year again. There are many of you out walking in the early morning hours when it is still dark.

Some of you are wearing reflective gear, but most are not. It is very hard to see you even if you’re dressed in white or light colors.

So, please, carry a flashlight or wear some kind of clothing that will make you more visible.

It would be a shame if the effort you’re making to stay or get healthy resulted in your getting hit by a car.

I promise I’m looking out for you, but help me out, OK?

Jane Hunt

Kansas City

Voter ID is no hardship

I cannot understand the problem with voter identification. Everyone has some kind of ID.

If I go to my doctor, I have to show my insurance card. My name and address are on it. I have gone to that doctor for years.

I went to Truman East. When I retired I was not old enough for Medicare. I had to show something with my name and address on it.

One cannot cash a check without an ID.

If people are on food stamps, they have something to show who they are. If on Medicaid, people have something to show.

Some of our grandparents came from other countries. But most of them had to stay for days at Ellis Island.

Now many people just cross the border and are called legal. Why should we now let people change our laws?

We are a country of laws. What has happened to us?

This country was not given to us without bloodshed. We must not let it be taken away from us.

Did someone you love die for this country?

Esther Sole

Independence

Taxes no path to riches

The prosperity of the 1990s is lovingly portrayed by the lapdog news media as being a result of higher taxes imposed by President Bill Clinton.

For those of you who believe this, please get a million of your closest friends, as well as yourself, to pay more taxes than you are due to pay and see how that affects both yours and the national economy.

What the news media fail to remind us is the fact the economy was in an expansion at the time of Clinton’s election. The media also don’t mention that Clinton’s cutting of capital gains and dividend taxes freed capital to flow to where it did the most good for the economy.

In that particular case, it fed the dot-com boom. Higher taxes did not fuel the boom, and they never do.

Mike Sienicki

Farley, Mo.

Caring about Curiosity

I care about the Mars rover, Curiosity.

I care because America is built on big risks, big rewards.

Because Thomas Jefferson believed in the Lewis and Clark Expedition and the expansion of the West.

Because moon shots inspire and beget more pioneers, explorers and innovators.

Because moon shots inspire the rest of us.

Because Adam Steltzner and Bobak Ferdowsi made landing on Mars cool.

Because science, technology, engineering and math are the foundation of our economic viability as a community and a country.

Because I don’t believe outsourcing space exploration to China is good foreign policy, nor is 100 percent of all rare earths mining.

Because we need more space engineering and less financial engineering.

Because choosing to fund grand ventures forces us to make very hard adult decisions on our money, reflecting our values as a nation.

Because my young children are students in the Liberty School District, where Liberty Robotics FIRST team members build the Curiosity crafts of the future.

Because I want them to grow up believing in possibilities.

Because great nations accomplish great things.

We choose to invest in a future that we won’t live to see.

I care.

Kendra Schlebusch

Kansas City

Booing Chiefs justified

I lived in Philly back in the late 1960s, when the infamous booing of Santa Claus occurred.

The fans were not booing Santa. They were booing the wino the Eagles hired that cold December day to circle the stadium, smiling and waving to the fans and pretending everything was OK. It was not.

Jerry Wolman, the Eagles’ owner, and coach Joe Kuharich made poor football decisions time after time, and the team’s record suffered for it.

As a result, the fans were frustrated — as frustrated as Kansas City Chiefs fans are today.

Leonard Tose bought the team in 1969, fired Kuharich, later hired Dick Vermeil and the Eagles went to the 1980 Super Bowl.

Note to the Chiefs (and the Kansas City Royals): Winning cures everything.

If you cannot field a winning team in 20 years, please consider selling the team to someone who can.

Brad Cook

Riverside