‘Play like a girl’

“You play like a girl. You throw like a girl. You hit like a girl. You kick like a girl.”

Those statements used to be demeaning but not anymore. Girls have made it trendy to not only throw like a girl, but to run, field and hit like one, too.

A lot of people think that girls should take care of the house or do girly things like shopping. But physical activity is proven to benefit one’s health. As little as four hours of exercise each week can reduce a girl’s risk of breast cancer by up to 60 percent.

Also, teenage female athletes are less than half as likely to get pregnant as female non-athletes. Girls who participate in sports also do better in school.

Exercise improves learning, memory and concentration. Sports also is a metaphor for life.

In sports, girls learn valuable life lessons such as teamwork, goal-setting, time management and strategic thinking. These are crucial skills for success in the workplace.

No longer is “You play like a girl” an insult but a compliment because that means that she is healthier, is doing better in school and is learning valuable life lessons.

Alexis Vittengl

Blue Springs

Graves’ superstorm vote

Rep. Sam Graves was all in favor of federal aid for victims of a natural disaster in Joplin, Mo. But God help you if you live in New Jersey or New York.

He voted “no” to aid for victims of Superstorm Sandy. This guy has no heart and certainly does not believe in the “United” States of America.

People like Graves make me ashamed to be an American. Graves attacked his Democratic opponent in the past for having “San Francisco values.”

What would those be, Graves? Values such as caring about your fellow citizens?

Oh, that sure would be bad.

Kit Miller

Kansas City

Listening to voters

If President Barack Obama, the courts and our elected representatives would listen to the American people in the same courageous manner as Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt listened to his team’s fans, we might once again be proud of our country.

Bob Marrin

Kansas City

Buying local

We believe in supporting small family-owned businesses. This helps a family earn a living, and it keeps our money in the local community.

We also know that we get better service. This was strongly reinforced recently when our more-than-40-year-old freezer stopped working, leaving us with a lot of rapidly thawing food.

We went to Main Appliance Center in Overland Park on 80th Street, where we have purchased appliances and service for many years. The store had just the right freezer, and we asked when it could be delivered after explaining our plight.

The response was “today.” We left, making one brief stop before returning home, and to our amazement, when we turned onto our street, the delivery van had just pulled into our driveway.

In a very short time, the transfer of food and freezers was made.

The old freezer was hauled away, and the day and the food were saved.

Our hats are off to this exceptional business.

Paul and Carolyn Spohn

Shawnee

Obama’s sleight of hand

The liberals accused a recent conservative president of “voodoo economics,” and here they are attempting to coin a trillion-dollar platinum coin to use in relieving our debt (1-9, A1, “Stories behind the tax cuts”). If it wasn’t so ridiculous, it would be humorous. Surely you jest?

You do the voodoo that you do so well.

Don Airington

Kansas City

Diuguid column

In Lewis Diuguid’s Jan. 7 column, “Urban exodus strips city of too many stoplights,” he laments that “white flight” and “black middle-class flight” to the suburbs raided Kansas City of people, finances and resources. While all that is true, Diuguid fails miserably to connect the dots.

Why are all major U.S. cities, not just Kansas City, battling urban decay? Poor schools, high crime, corrupt city government and high taxes don’t just happen in a vacuum.

There are identifiable root causes. Eventually, the producers and achievers (no matter their race) get fed up and leave. We vote with our feet.

I did. So how do we go about reversing course? I’ve thought about this a lot because I, too, want urban Kansas City to prosper and become vibrant again.

Ultimately, I believe you will have to create incentives for the people who left to return. And this may take generations to reverse.

Urban Kansas City needs an affluent population and tax base again. Possible solutions include tax abatements, school vouchers, private security details and other non-traditional incentives.

It’s time to think innovatively and differently. Kansas City’s future depends on it.

Scott King

Prairie Village

Guns, vegetarian dining

The Jan. 9 story “Concealed carry goes wrong in restaurant,” about the man who shot his wife at a Longbranch Steakhouse in Lenexa, was missing two important details: his name and photo. His identity would be a great service to the public.

I, for one, would like to know whom to avoid when dining out. Until this information is public, I will avoid steakhouses and select vegetarian restaurants instead, suspecting that these will be less likely to attract diners with concealed weapons who can’t keep their guns in their pants.

Loring Leifer

Prairie Village

NRA and flamethrowers

I think the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre is chicken. Isn’t it about time that the NRA pushed for the legalization and availability of flamethrowers so a hunter can kill and immediately cook the deer he kills?

Martin Kaynan

Olathe

GOP, speed and guns

So vehicle deaths are up (1-7, A1, “Traffic deaths climbed in 2012”). We all know what the Republicans would say, “If we had more cars on the road, we would have fewer accidents and, therefore, fewer deaths.”

Or they might say, “If the speed limit was higher, we would have fewer deaths.”

Sharon Edwards

Olathe

Remake Kansas better

Recently, Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach told Kansans to “vote with their feet” and leave the state if they didn’t like the current political climate. He suggested San Francisco as an alternative.

As a transplant and a military brat who came to Kansas for college 50 years ago, my values came from my family, my country and this state. I chose a place with excellent public schools and higher education.

I love Kansas for its pioneer spirit; its deep love of community, responsibility and opportunity; its progressive history, including abolitionists, suffragettes and integrationists.

Mr. Kobach has made a name for himself nationally trying to make immigrants self-deport. His words invoke the reasons immigrants leave oppressive dictatorships. But Mr. Kobach surely isn’t equating Kansas with despotism.

Let’s go back to being a “home on the range ... where seldom is heard a discouraging word.” Let’s work together to create “a more perfect union” in a state that is tolerant of different lifestyles and values.

I’ve been to San Francisco, Mr. Kobach, and to many other places in this country and abroad, and I gladly came back to Kansas.

Marti Crow

Leavenworth

Company management

When I was a teenager in the 1950s, I had the opportunity to work for my uncle. He was a very smart man, and on occasion I would ride to work with him.

He was president of the company, and all my brothers and I went to work for him when we were 16. I couldn’t list all his accomplishments, but here are a few:

He took two bankrupt companies and paid all creditors 100 percent on the dollar. In one case, he fired the owners’ children and then gave each one a check for a million dollars a few years later.

He always told me to look at the management of the company before I bought a stock, never at the product it sold. I worked for three companies that were sold, and the new owners bankrupted the companies — one with five unions — in less than five years.

Not one union was to blame. All were done in by bad management.

Joseph Purcell

Kansas City

Second Amendment

The Second Amendment of the Constitution reads as follows: “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

The weapons for a militia in 1776 were muzzle-loading rifles and pistols. The Second Amendment does not say a person can own an assault weapon to murder people.

The government needs better control as to what weapons are available to people.

National Rifle Association members say regulation of weapons is not needed. Ask them to explain how so many people are murdered daily.

Could it be the availability of guns?

Donald G. Raines

Raymore