Tired of losing teams

I was born in October 1995, and in my lifetime neither the Kansas City Chiefs nor the Royals have won a playoff game. The Royals haven’t even been to the playoffs.

Why has Kansas City been cursed with such awful professional teams, aside from Sporting KC?

It seems every year there is a promise for a better season or a promise for a championship to be brought back to Kansas City. And every year there is disappointment throughout Kansas City.

I love my city and I love my teams, but all of this disappointment is getting pretty old.

It seems that the Hunt family and the Glass family just simply do not care whether their teams perform at a high level. They’re just in it for the money.

What is it going to take for the Chiefs or the Royals to become playoff contenders again, like they were when my parents were kids?

The people of this city deserve more than a terrible start to a season from the Chiefs and a poor overall record from the Royals.

Nick Palmarine

Liberty

Mayor on wrong path

I was appalled to learn that Mayor Sly James and Mayor Pro Tem Cindy Circo are in favor of taking money from the Raytown School District, Mid-Continent Public Library, Metropolitan Community College, mental health, handicap workshop and blind pension fund to expand a youth soccer complex in Swope Park (11-17, Editorial, “The wrong way to pay for a soccer complex”).

Since the downturn in the economy, many more people are using the library, and for some it’s their only access to a computer.

We must not take from our schools or any of these entities.

The education of our young people must be our first priority.

Eva Ponessa

Kansas City

Democrats’ power grab

Congratulations, Democrats, you won the election. The Republicans will continue to be irrelevant for four more years.

You own the problems. Republicans can’t pass laws or stop President Barack Obama’s executive orders, so don’t blame us for what happens.

You own the economy. Tax and regulate big and small businesses to death.

Watch unemployment grow and the economy tank. If America suffers a severe recession or fiscal collapse, it’s your fault.

You own the sharply rising energy and food prices. You own the national debt and the deficit.

You own Obamacare, with its higher health insurance and health care costs and new taxes.

If seniors don’t receive expensive care, tough.

If doctors are squeezed out and we have a shortage of them, it’s your fault.

You will own a nuclear Iran, the border with Mexico, the kowtowing to the UN.

You own an administration soft on Muslim terrorists. You own the unsustainable entitlements. You won’t do anything to save them from collapse.

All power is in the Democrats’ hands.

I’d feel safer on an Italian cruise ship that has just struck a rock.

William Dameron

Leavenworth

Tears for lost trees

The area around my neighborhood has recently become subject to changes.

Part of these changes include cutting down all of the trees surrounding the neighborhood.

These trees were beautiful, and blocked the sun during the blinding hours of the day. Childhood memories of mine include driving past the snow-covered trees or sticking my arms out the car windows trying to touch their branches.

And now they are all unexpectedly mowed down?

The first time I drove past and saw them lying on the ground, tears filled my eyes.

Our neighborhood was almost hidden behind the trees.

They blocked us from the nearby highway and kept our houses out of the immediate view of passers-by.

Our beautiful trees are now almost completely gone, leaving us with an ugly, empty field, which will most likely be paved over and never be restored to its original beauty.

Even though I am not usually one to get upset over environmental issues, the sight of the uprooted trees makes me want to cry every time I drive past.

Molly Meeks

Kansas City

Israeli-Palestinians

It always amuses me when pro-Zion voices proclaim, “Israel has a right to defend itself.” That was then-Vice President Dick Cheney’s sustained bromide, and all politicians invoke it to be safe, just as President Barack Obama did last week.

What we never hear, of course, is that the 60 civilians who died in Palestine also had a right to defend themselves. And when they do, it will be called terrorism.

The current violence is the usual insanity geared to link Iran to the scene so that Israel may bomb Iran with or without the OK of our president. And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has done everything possible to snub the man this country chose.

Needless to say, friends do not treat one another that way, and any serious catastrophe from Israel’s reckless “defense” will promptly end the friendship.

The United States does not want another trillion-dollar war. And voters just got done saying that pretty clearly in the way we all cherish.

James McCormick

Kansas City

Headline misinforms

Your poor choice of words on a regular basis shows sympathy for malevolent terrorists and actually provides them cover (11-19, A1, “Civilian deaths surge”). It actually shows terrorists in a favorable light.

The headline, “Civilian deaths surge,” is the wrong way to phrase it. Certainly, it’s terrible and sad that civilians died.

But the headline should’ve read “Hamas rains rockets on civilians; Israel protects population from terror.”

In the last two years, 8,000 rockets were fired into Israel with the intent of killing civilians and regularly terrorizing the populace.

Can you imagine living like that?

Do you know Hamas wants the destruction of Israel? Can you imagine ordering forces to use your own people as human shields by hiding rockets in and near schools and holy places?

What’s the matter with them? What other armed forces hide behind their women and children? It is sick.

The Star should try to be more balanced. Educate yourselves about what’s going on in the Middle East so the headlines can be worthy of news.

When you slant the news favorably toward terrorists, you simply help provide terrorists sympathy and provide terrorists cover for their inhuman actions.

Joe Krashin

Overland Park

Security at embassies

What do we know about the tragic events in Benghazi? Multiple communiqués from the consulate clearly show that we were aware that this attack on America was a terror attack, not a spontaneous demonstration in response to an obscure video.

Yet afterward, our U.N. ambassador, Susan Rice, was dispatched to Sunday talk shows to promote the video theory. This was followed by appearances on three talk shows and a U.N. speech where the known video fallacy was perpetuated.

Vice President Joe Biden stated that neither he nor President Barack Obama knew the facts surrounding the Benghazi attack, supposedly for weeks. This is either blatantly false or deeply disturbing ineptitude.

Libyan Ambassador Christopher Stevens requested additional security before the attack that left him dead. Why was additional security denied?

Two of the American heroes died some seven hours after the attack began. Multiple on-site requests for immediate support were denied. Why was no help sent to aid those in danger?

Like Watergate, we are told that all available information has been relayed to the American public. Unlike Watergate, the mainstream media have barely touched this travesty.

Unlike Watergate, four Americans heroes died.

Mike Looney

Overland Park

New downtown school

I just read an article praising a new charter school (11-21, A1, “A plaza for a playground”).

That charter school received a $125,000 federal charter grant of taxpayer money and then received foundations’ money from the elite of Kansas City.

My questions would be: How many of those students are special-needs students? How many are reduced-price or free lunch students?

If it has the about the same percentages of those students as are in public schools and operates under the same standards for accreditation that public schools do, I would accept the taxpayer money going to a charter school, minus most of the foundations’ money, because it should have to live in the same world that public schools do.

H. Lon Swearingen

Kansas City