Ordering U.S. generals

Have you noticed lately that generals are taking orders from their privates?

Donald W. Dawson Jr.

Kansas City

Responsibility for words

It is a crime to yell “fire” in a crowded theater. It is a crime to yell “bomb” in an airport.

It should be a hate crime to say incendiary things about a revered religious leader when one knows it will cause a great firestorm of destruction.

We live on a planet that is a crowded theater and an airport full of tension.

Ronald Lee Cobb

Holton, Kan.

Gas price plunge

Earlier this year, certain prominent people were saying President Barack Obama was responsible for the high price of gasoline. Now the price is about 70 cents a gallon lower, but you don’t hear those same people saying the president is responsible for the drop in the price of gasoline.

Henry F. Rompage

Lenexa

Jobs coming to KC

I hope all of those people who buy into the right-wing argument that the government does not create jobs will refuse to apply or take any of those 800 jobs coming to the Kansas City area suburbs in both Missouri and Kansas (11-14, A1, “Feds creating 800 jobs in area”).

James Floyd

Overland Park

Dear President Obama

Stand your ground on taxes. Take a hard line and hold it. Let the “fiscal cliff” happen if necessary.

Republicans will see any softening of your position as weakness. Be hard, be tough and know that we are with you.

No one should get a free ride. We don’t like lifetime welfare free-riders, but we prefer them to billionaire free-riders anytime.

The 1 percent think the rest of us are fools for allowing them to take a free ride on our backs, and they are right as long as the GOP gets more than 1 percent of the vote.

Greta Anderson

Topeka

CEO entitlements

Why is it that a company’s executives and board of directors are never the cause of failure and feel an entitlement to resort to bankruptcy (11-20, C1, “Hostess sell-off on hold”)? Instead, management finds it easy to blame the Hostess Brands employees who have conceded wages to keep the company brand and their jobs going.

It appears that if liquidation happens, it will put this loss on the backs of employees and vendors. Meanwhile, management is brazen enough to ask for a golden parachute while dismantling a company whose loss will ripple through the local economy.

Until CEOs and boards do their jobs, companies are doomed. Our country’s companies are being destroyed from within only to be parted out, often times to other countries.

Surely there is more than one way to resolve this case.

Judy Briggs

Lee’s Summit

Benghazi debacle

It seems the latest scapegoating over the Benghazi debacle is going to the CIA. Reporting has it that the request made was denied by the CIA three times.

What a great ploy to move fault away from the executive. The question is, Who delivers policy to the CIA?

Could it be the executive?

The CIA shouldn’t be in the business of rogue operations.

Knowing their duty and the right thing to do, our Navy SEALS chose to ignore orders and hastened to protect our consulate and its personnel. In so doing, they distinguished themselves far above and beyond our government.

Do you recall: No greater love has a man than to lay down his life for another? How long will it take for operatives politic to accept that current communications technology will no longer allow them to dive under rocks whenever they violate laws and standards?

Is it any surprise, for example, that many in government support Internet restrictions?

Behold the pale horse. And, while questions are being asked, what are we doing about it?

William McDannold Jr.

Lee’s Summit

Business isn’t the enemy

There is so much pent-up angst among small-business owners. Every time we turn around we hear about some horrendous regulation hidden in Obamacare that hits the light of day.

It’s like we’re running through a minefield, doing the best we can just to make it alive to the other side.

Nancy Zurbuchen

Kansas City

A ban on war

Why are lawmakers in the business of legislating morality when some of them are less than moral themselves? Protecting life seems admirable, yet they have no such concern when they vote to send our now grown kids to war.

Many will be killed or maimed for the rest of their lives. Where’s the outrage now for these young ones’ “right to life”?

In lieu of lawmakers’ hypocrisy, why not pass a ban on war and actually save these young adults?

Maybe then our children who have already been born will be allowed to have their own right to life.

Marilyn Conradt

Shawnee

Slice of gender bias

Although it is not exactly stated that women cannot be pizza delivery people, or any kind of delivery person for that matter, few women hold these jobs. Think about it.

I cannot think of one instance in which a woman has delivered to me a delicious 12-slice dinner.

Some companies contend that delivery jobs are unsafe for women.

But frankly, I think they are creating that oh-so-obnoxious stereotypical view of females as weak and ill-equipped to do the work.

Not only that, but looking from a more realistic point, a male would technically be in the same kind of danger that a woman would be while delivering whatever kind of order a person might conjure up.

Being a girl myself, I find it degrading that my gender to some employers is a barrier to the kind of jobs I am able to take on — delivering being just one of the countless.

I suppose the point is, ladies, don’t be afraid to fight for jobs that males have.

Kodi Marx

Liberty

Kansas’ bad tax plan

According to the Kansas Policy Institute, an ultra-conservative Koch-backed group, if it hadn’t been for the federal stimulus monies in 2010 the state would have had to cut $1 billion from the budget. It reports that Gov. Sam Brownback’s plan will require the largest one-year cut in state spending.

State agency officials have been instructed to prepare spending plans that cut 10 percent or more. Sen. Les Donovan, a Wichita Republican who heads the Senate Committee on Assessment and Taxation, stated, “I don’t know if people are ready to give up some of the services.”

With education having the greatest chunk of the budget, where do you think the money to make up for the revenue loss is going to come from?

The plan creates the elimination of income taxes for about 190,000 business owners. An attorney would have no state income tax to pay, but the secretary and clerical staff would pay income tax.

Those who will suffer most from the new tax law, according to an analysis by the Kansas Department of Revenue, are about 288,000 of the state’s poorest people, mostly because of the reduction or elimination of tax credits and services.

Shelley Dunham

Council Grove, Kan.

Louise Smith

Hesston, Kan.

Living beyond YOLO

Lately at my high school, many students have been saying “YOLO,” or you only live once, when they do something irresponsible. They say this as a way to have reckless behaviors and then just say you should try everything once as an excuse.

A lot of teenagers acknowledge this behavior as normal. Instead of doing drugs or drinking alcohol, they could be volunteering or joining the military.

However, many in my generation have found it acceptable to use drugs, get wasted and ruin their lives before they’ve had a chance to even start. This attitude has become more accepted in today’s society.

The media seem to show how everyone does reckless things, and it’s OK. Growing up with this culture, the youths of today and tomorrow are becoming more accustomed and adapting to YOLO.

Can we stop the teenagers who shout YOLO when they do something rash, before they destroy themselves? Or will we become a society accepting the actions and the tragic consequences?

Kayla Ford

Kansas City

Sit out Chiefs game

If the Kansas City Chiefs play as badly Sunday as they did this past week, season ticket holders should consider leaving their future tickets in the drawer and just not showing up. Don’t sell the tickets to other people so they can give the Chiefs their money.

Stay home, save your $27 parking and the gas it took to get there. Save your $8.25 per beer and money on other concessions and let the powers that be see what it is like when nobody is there spending money.

We can tailgate in my driveway.

Butch Kueser

Parkville