Reporting child abuse

The new reporting law on child abuse submitted to legislatures requiring people to send notice to the child protective services directly and not only to their supervisors is a great idea.

This will end institutional self-defense behavior such as seen in state universities, with the Boy Scouts and by some bishops in the Catholic Church.

The only thing I would add is some type of protection from institutional retaliation.

John Parsons

Kansas City

Derail Chastain plan

Once again we are pestered by Clay Chastain with another light-rail plan.

It’s a proposal he wants to force on the city and one he won’t pay for because he lives in Virginia.

He claims only drunks would ride on the city-planned rail system. That really shows what he thinks of the area’s residents.

Maybe he should just stay on his side of the country and leave us alone. The media should not run to him with camera in hand and give him the attention he so desires.

Michael Harris

Kansas City

Mental health funding

Sen. Roy Blunt’s advocacy of greater mental-health funding as a way of dealing with the continuing mass murders in this country will hopefully be noticed and emulated by Republicans in the Missouri Legislature. It would not involve any restrictions on guns or ammunition.

The cheapest and most effective way to expand mental-health services would be through the expansion of Medicaid as envisioned under the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.

Gordon Risk

Kansas City

KC loses a civic giant

Kansas City has lost its own angel — not a make-believe angel, but a real angel in action (1-29, A1, “ ‘First lady of Kansas City’ dies”).

Adele Hall made that impression upon individuals, whether they met her briefly or served on an advisory board or capital campaign with her.

Adele’s kindness, warmth, openness, empathy and interest in others were obvious to all individuals, regardless of their station in life. Those qualities were accompanied by intelligence, education, leadership and the desire to help others.

Knowing Adele as a fellow Salvation Army board member and through United Way, I saw firsthand her belief in the worth of each individual accompanied by the means of enabling that person to rise above his or her present difficulties and mistakes.

Adele truly cared about Kansas City and its people.

I will miss:

Adele’s genuine smile and sometimes giggle,

Adele’s ability to remember a person’s name, often followed by a compliment,

Adele and Don’s warm hospitality in their home for philanthropic causes,

Adele’s spiritual beliefs,

Big 12 sports conversations and loyalties: Nebraska (Adele’s) and KU (mine).

Farewell, Kansas City’s Adele. You will be missed.

Sara Colt

Mission Hills

Guns in schools

My husband is a high school graduate of a small rural Kansas school system in the 1950s.

He and his friends did have hunting rifles.

They were emphatically not allowed to take those rifles to school. Furthermore, the word I am hearing from parents and teachers alike is that the idea of having guns in the classroom, for the teacher or anyone else, is stupid and abhorrent.

As a teacher, one thought that I have had has to do with liability. Who buys the insurance?

If a student were shot when I go in with guns blazing to protect my classroom, am I liable?

What if I am unable to prevent a shooting even though I have been armed? Am I then liable for not protecting students?

This whole discussion is beyond bizarre.

Kathryn Moore

Manhattan, Kan.

Diuguid column

More taxes? Why is the liberal answer to every problem to tax it? Lewis Diuguid’s Jan. 28 column, “To reduce gun ownership, tax weapons like property,” is just another sad and ignorant attempt to promote a large-government agenda.

Diuguid conveniently fails to note that there already is a federal excise tax on guns and ammo, and his thesis that more taxes will equate to less gun ownership is preposterous.

Mr. Diuguid’s true stripes can be seen as he opines how all this new revenue can help support Obamacare.

The fact is that violent crime in this country has been going down as gun ownership has increased. It is clear that nothing this “tax it” strategy professes would have stopped any of the recent tragedies.

Dave Krause

Overland Park

Background checks

Guns don’t kill people; people kill people. And the gun shows that do not require background checks make it easier for felons to get their hands on more guns.

Background checks do not take away the rights of good, upstanding citizens. They simply make it more difficult for the guns to get into the wrong hands.

And, yes, I understand that a determined criminal will still get a gun on the street if he wants one.

But making it easier for him is not the answer.

Zach Urton

Kansas City

KCK mayor’s race

The Jan. 23 article, “Five vie to succeed Reardon as mayor,” is further proof of The Star’s lack of community connectivity and blatant propensity for classism and racism in its coverage of Kansas City, Kan.

When posing the question, “Can the new mayor continue the county’s dramatic resurgence?” Steve Kraske either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that the “resurgence” is in a minuscule portion of Wyandotte County.

That’s not progress.

Commissioner Nathan Barnes is dedicated to seeing all of Wyandotte County thrive.

But I guess because, unlike Mark Holland and Ann Murguia, he’s not a favorite of the county’s “best-known political names,” as stated in the article, that he’s automatically a non-contender.

I disagree. Elitism is for the elite.

Let’s not forget the 99 percent, and in Wyandotte County it’s more like the 99.9 percent.

The people here want and need someone to take the entire county into consideration.

The Star is clearly out of touch if it thinks that a few haughty backers are going to overpower real people who are in real need of a real leader.

I’m voting Nathan Barnes, and I know hundreds of others who are, too.

Willie David Young

Kansas City, Kan.

Bishop Finn is off base

An Episcopal friend asked whether I didn’t think there is definitely some paranoia in Bishop Robert Finn’s recent rant in the diocesan newspaper (1-28, A4, “Bishop criticizes Catholic Reporter”).

I was searching for words to describe my reaction to his column in which he criticized — no, more rightly, condemned — the National Catholic Reporter, an independent newspaper.

“Rant” is apt because one who rants is one who declaims in a violent manner.

The bishop’s attack on the National Catholic Reporter was verbally violent — an absolute denial of the truthful reporting.

The National Catholic Reporter reports with integrity, and its staff cares deeply about the Catholic church and other matters of faith.

For me, the National Catholic Reporter is a beacon of hope in these very dark times in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph.

To Bishop Robert Finn, I say, there are more of us in this diocese and throughout the United States who support the National Catholic Reporter than support you and your views.

Jeanne Christensen, RSM

Kansas City

Women, heart disease

For 10 years, women have been fighting heart disease individually and together as part of the Go Red For Women movement.

More than 627,000 women’s lives have been saved.

But the fight isn’t over. This No. 1 killer is still taking the lives of our loved ones, and women we love are dying and many more are affected every day.

Heart disease is a killer that strikes more women than men, and heart disease is more deadly than all forms of cancer combined.

The symptoms of heart disease can be different in women compared with men, and they are often misunderstood.

Heart disease in women requires more attention, more research and swifter action. With the right information, education and care, heart disease can be treated, prevented and even ended.

As we look toward the 10th Annual National Wear Red Day on Friday, it’s more important than ever for women to stand side by side to end heart disease.

It’s time to shout louder, stand stronger and demand change.

It’s time for women to “Go Red.”

Join me for the many events going on around the area this National Wear Red Day.

Stefani Spainhower

Go Red for Women

Ambassador

Kansas City