Power & Light history

If you look at the Kansas City Power & Light Co. building’s west side, you can see that it is flat with rectangles on each floor going up the side. The original architect planned for when an expansion could be made.

The plan was for it to have two towers, with a duplicate second phase to be built when the money was available. What appears to be possible openings in the west wall are for hallways or elevator door openings.

No matter what new purpose there is for the building, it should carry out the intent of the designer just as if the plan were on the National Register of Historic Places.

I hope the integrity of the Power & Light property will be honored when and if there is a new owner.

Evelyn Childers

Kansas City

Hurting Social Security

The comments of Mitt Romney when he ran for president of the United States showed an indifference to millions of working Americans.

Retirees who receive Social Security and Medicare are not “dependent.” Rather they are men and women who paid Medicare and Social Security taxes on their earnings.

They are part of a national commitment to workers, honoring a lifetime of hard work with help toward retiring with dignity and security.

Romney’s private comments mirrored his public stances. Romney and his running mate, Rep. Paul Ryan, were the most anti-senior ticket ever, running on a platform that would have enriched big insurance companies by creating a voucher-based Medicare program.

Before Social Security and Medicare, too many people worked until the day they died or lived out their years in terrible health and poverty.

Romney’s offensive comments were a stark reminder that he wanted to turn back the clock on the progress our nation has made.

David Meinell

St. Charles

Vacation interrupted

I feel so bad for President Barack Obama.

He had to interrupt his golfing vacation in Hawaii to deal with the mundane task of working with Congress on legislation.

Thank goodness there is autopen technology that allows him to sign the bill from Hawaii instead of the Oval Office.

He must be a scratch golfer by now.

James E. Cox

Louisburg, Kan.

Ban assault weapons

The week of Dec. 14, former President George Bush and Laura Bush learned that they were soon to become grandparents for the first time when their daughter Jenna announced she is expecting a baby.

How proud and excited they must have been in anticipation of their first grandchild.

Ironically, that was the same week that 20 grandchildren of Newtown, Conn., grandfathers and grandmothers were gunned down with a Bushmaster assault rifle.

I ask myself, “Why?”

Why, President Bush, did you see fit in 2004 to eliminate the ban on the sale of assault rifles? Why did you find it necessary to extend the Bushmaster’s existence by your 2004 decree so that the Newtown tragedy could become reality in 2012?

Why Mr. President?

Was it for national defense?

Was it for the possibility of tyranny in our government, or might we all need protection against home invasions?

No, Mr. President, these killing machines were enabled in their popularity and growth for one and only one reason — your political capital and only your political capital.

Please keep in mind those 40 grandparents that don’t have their grandchildren.

James Nicholson

Village of Loch Lloyd

Church will endure

Liberals would have you believe that Jesus was just a regular nice man and would not approve of all the Catholic ritual and ceremony.

They couldn’t be more wrong.

Jesus demands this protocol because he transcends both the Old and New Testament. “Before Abraham came to be I am, If you have seen me you have seen the Father.”

The books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers have explicit instructions from God himself not only on how we worship him, but how his altar is to be approached by his priests.

The priest scandals not withstanding, the church is obligated to speak out against sin no matter the cost.

Cardinal Carlo Martini dissented from church teaching to the point of heresy.

As for being a papal candidate, his own words precluded that from ever happening.

The Catholic Church has survived for 2,000 years, even with heretics and dissenters from within.

We have Jesus’ promise on the church’s survival because God can never deceive nor be deceived.

Art Carrillo

Kansas City

Ideas to skip in KC

Kansas City’s four dumbest ideas of the century:

1) Change Kansas City International Airport from three terminals to one. I’ve been flying for more than 50 years, and it’s the best airport I’ve ever been in. Politicians, keep your stinking hands off my airport.

2) Replace scores of traffic signals with stop signs. The change wastes gas, snarls traffic and annoys me and other folks to no end. Bureaucrats, please leave well enough alone.

3) Put the mayor in charge of the Kansas City public schools. Ask Mayor Sly James to solve a quadratic equation, diagram a compound sentence, name all 50 states and their capitals and speak to us in at least two languages.

Ask him for his publications in juried journals. You’ll soon see why he should stick to politics.

4) Build a $100 million streetcar line based on the votes of fewer than 1,000 people.

This is absolutely absurd, insane and undemocratic. It begins to make Clay Chastain look like a reasonable man.

Patrick H. Crowe

Kansas City

Set doable standards

Congress passed something in Washington, D.C., last week. A Jan. 2 headline in The Kansas City Star called it a “deal” and a “plan.”

And our people in Washington were patting themselves on the back for coming up with some kind of bipartisan agreement that they seem to be proud of. The Star also reported that in addition to helping long-term unemployed people, the bill will increase our deficit nearly $4 trillion in the next 10 years.

Who can celebrate?

As a retired business manager, I recall having to make and meet tough financial objectives each year. They were clear.

Make 5 percent profit or make 8 percent profit each year. Control cost within a defined level.

I believe good leaders in Washington, D.C., should define their objectives so that we, the citizens, can measure their results. May I suggest simple measures:

•  2013, reduce the deficit $1 billion;

•  2014, reduce deficit $500 billion.

Let’s measure that and improve from there. We can do that.

Give us something other than talk to evaluate.

Calvin Wrege

Overland Park

Graves’ missed vote

Oh, for goodness’ sake. Can you believe it?

Rep. Sam Graves, north Missouri’s elected congressman, showed up late and therefore did not cast a vote in the final fiscal cliff roll call.

Way to go, Sam. Make us proud.

Timothy E. Jaque s

Kansas City

Don’t text, drive

Teens nowadays are involved in more accidents because of being distracted at the wheel. Out of the fatal accidents that occur, more than 20 percent are because of teens’ texting and driving.

At least 58 percent of high school seniors have admitted to texting and driving. This problem is increasing as technology advances.

There are several applications for smartphones that can disable phone use while at the wheel. However, these tools are not always reliable.

The way that teens look forward to driving can become a danger with society’s sudden advances in technology, which puts teens at high risk every time they choose to pick up their phones while driving.

Christian Boyles

Blue Springs

Puzzling streetcars

Please, what is so wonderful about steel wheels?

I have ridden the “L” in Chicago.

I have taken a train from Washington, D.C., to Boston. I have been on the Tube in London and the bullet train in Japan.

I have been in my share of taxis and buses.

I don’t see the romance of steel wheels.

The property owners along the rail right-of-way for the streetcar in downtown Kansas City have a captive group with the fixed track.

Buses and cabs can be rerouted to any location to serve the people.

The rail from Chicago O’Hare to downtown Chicago makes sense. The locations are fixed, and the elevated rail keeps the streets clear and the passengers moving without traffic delays.

The buses I see many mornings at Third Street and Grand Boulevard that will haul 40 people unload only three or four.

Where are the passengers for this new streetcar line?

Richard Blaisdell

Kansas City