Kansas’ goofy politics

I only have one thing to say about Kansas politics: Where are Quantrill’s Raiders and John Brown when we need them most?

Don Rinck Sr.

Mission

NRA, gun foolishness

When I was a kid, Sister Mary Teresa was a holy terror in her classroom while wielding only a 12-inch wooden ruler. And now the National Rifle Association wants to give her a gun?

Dan Allen

Richmond, Mo.

Importance of hygiene

In our country you are considered lazy, stupid or less than others if you are not clean. Ironically, though, basic human-dignity products such as shampoo, soap, feminine-hygiene products, toothpaste and toilet paper are not covered by any government assistance program, and they are not on the shelves in some food pantries or homeless shelters.

We point a finger at people and say, “Get a job.” How can they get a job when they can’t get clean?

People can buy pop and junk food with food stamps, but laundry soap, cleaning solutions or deodorant are rejected at the counter. At no time in the history of our country have we ever targeted meeting the “real” needs of people by assuring that everyone can get clean.

Single moms live in fear knowing their kids go to school dirty. Our senior citizens are ashamed to tell their grown children they can’t afford razors or incontinence pads, and many parents don’t make enough to cover the basics.

Go without these products and see whether you could get a job or have any hope. Human dignity should be everyone’s responsibility.

Teresa Hamilton

President

Giving the Basics

Bucyrus, Kan.

Improving schools

I never seem to be disheartened when I perceive how shortsighted those of our citizenry can be, believing that we live in a country where the acts of people and institutions stop at the border of the state in which they live. Somehow, people don’t understand that the effect of educating students in our school systems, for good or for poor, does not stop at the state line.

Good school systems and well-educated students lend to the benefit of our entire country and the lack of such to its detriment. Therefore, to speak out concerning the quality of education no matter where it might be is not only a right but a must.

Stuart Davis

Overland Park

Stigma of mental illness

A Dec. 18 letter about a mental health “solution” to the Sandy Hook tragedy demonstrates a common misunderstanding of mental illness. The writer states, “The removal of dangerous psychotics from society should be our goal.”

Having retired recently after 26 years as Johnson County Mental Health Center’s director and observing the treatment of individuals with psychotic disorders and other severe mental illnesses, I know people with mental illness are more often the victims of crime than perpetrators.

We know that absent a history of violent behavior, it is difficult to predict violence.

One in every 40 people lives with a serious and longstanding mental illness. Would the writer suggest that we lock up everyone struggling with a severe mental illness or psychotic disorder?

We need to grapple with the failure of our government to support a strong public mental health system. In Kansas, mental health funding for the uninsured has been cut 50 percent over the last seven years.

These funds must be restored so thousand of Kansans living with mental illness can have better access to quality treatment. Stigmatizing mental illness is no way to encourage people to seek that treatment.

David Wiebe

President

Kansas Mental

Health Coalition

Fairway

Thankful for McCaskill

I’m thankful for individuals who strive to protect the rights of all Americans. As a woman and a non-Christian, I gained hope from Sen. Claire McCaskill’s re-election.

Those who don’t believe that pregnancy from rape is a “gift from God,” who believe that God created biology and didn’t endow women with forces contrary to this natural order and who believe that women should be respected, and their rights to privacy and health care protected, are relieved by McCaskill’s re-election and deeply concerned about our fellow citizens’ attitudes.

It disheartens me when a wealthy Christian businessman alleges violations of his rights because his company’s health insurance covers birth control for his non-Christian, hard-working employee who needs it to regulate medical issues and space the births of her children so she may provide for them to the best of her ability.

Thank you, Sen. McCaskill. Thank you, members of Congress and state legislators who respect my rights, my beliefs and my ability to make decisions for myself with guidance from my support system. Thank you for standing up and protecting me, a double-minority, in this country founded on the principles of the right to self-determination and personal freedom.

Lara Portnoy

Overland Park

Fleecing middle class

I recently received notice that our health insurance premium for Medicare will go up 18 percent each. Our Social Security will go up 1.6 percent to 1.9 percent, maybe.

That proves two points:

1. Affordable Health Care isn’t.

2. Anyone over 65 who voted to keep President Barack Obama in the White House is either very rich or has not been paying attention for the last four years.

Dennis Tabel

Overland Park

Change U.S. tax laws

Why doesn’t our government lay our tax problems at the feet of the cause of them? Why doesn’t it realize it isn’t Medicare’s fault or Social Security’s fault but the fault of the companies sending their jobs out of the United States? Loss of jobs resulted in less spending and less city, state and federal taxes being paid.

Why can’t the government put tariffs on goods coming into our country that have been produced by those companies, whether it be autos, merchandise, electronics or others? That could bring in lots of funds to ease the tax situation.

Carol Motsinger

Kansas City

Flexible Constitution

I am taken aback by Republicans who lost an election and think the world is ending. A letter writer seems to think they are being told they must give up the principles the country was founded on.

One letter writer summed it up by writing, “America is not a building to be remodeled, nor a government program that needs improving.” I strongly disagree.

The founders were slaveholders who believed that white rich men were the only ones who should be allowed to vote. They, however, had a good idea — a government that allows personal freedom and the idea that we should participate in that government.

They believed that the original document should be allowed to be amended. They did this many times, as did others at a later time.

The Constitution is a living document that changes over time, and when an amendment is required for improvement the founders made an allowance to accommodate it. One of the core principles I understand from the founders is that as the country changes we are able to change the Constitution to meet the needs of a free people.

Thomas Galbreath

Independence

‘Fiscal cliff’

The United States went over the so-called “fiscal cliff” more than $16 trillion ago.

Fran Baker

Lee’s Summit

Oust Limbaugh bust

Now that I have learned that Gov. Jay Nixon said he would remove the offensive statue of Rush Limbaugh from Jefferson City (12-25, A4, “Limbaugh statue sparks Democratic infighting”), I’d like to know why it is still there after seven months.

It is a mockery of good taste that this misogynistic, racist, small-minded and mean-spirited man was given an honor that should be reserved for native sons and daughters who stand for something other than their own massively pathetic egos. Limbaugh is a disgrace not only to Missouri but to the honor of his family.

The fact that his bust was installed in secret tells me that they knew it was wrong. I also remember his arrogance in saying that anyone who opposed it was delusional.

The only delusion is his overinflated self-worth. Missouri deserves better than to have someone of his questionable morality touted as famous, especially when he is notorious and hypocritical.

D. Jeanine Wilson

Raymore

Go Chiefs in 2013

Kansas City Chiefs fans are discouraged, disappointed and hacked off. They feel as if no one cares what they think or listens to their complaints.

Here is my solution to all of the above: If the Chiefs get the No. 1 draft pick, let the season ticket holders vote on whom to choose.

They would feel empowered and rewarded for the cost of their tickets and couldn’t do any worse than the experts have done the past few seasons.

Karen Booth

Roeland Park