St. Paul must stay

Many are reeling from the announced closing of St. Paul School of Theology at Truman Road and Van Brunt Boulevard.

Recently I talked to students and learned:

• The school has at least 30 new enrollees and doesn’t have a low enrollment.

• The campus has been maintained well and is seen as a good place to attend.

• Security is good without major problems.

• Many students are upset by the pending move and are dropping out to not switch to the new campus.

As past architect at the planning department, I consider this neighborhood a stable part of the city.

The abandonment of a large institution such as this can be seen as a major setback to any neighborhood.

Shouldn’t religious institutions be the salt of the earth and among the last to move? When a religious facility leaves, the impression is that now God is leaving, too.

I would encourage the powers that be to think again about this move.

The identity of this location and these buildings creates the sense of the presence of God within this venerable neighborhood. Moving an institution from a central location to a suburban one trashes the heart of the city.

Paul Helmer

Kansas City

Alternative fuel use

I understand that many business analysts who cover the automotive industry think it is nearing “peak auto,” when the worldwide total production of cars, trucks, SUVs and vans begins to decline.

I have a suggestion that would dovetail nicely with our country’s plans for climate control: Build more flex-fuel vehicles.

Chrysler holds the patent for these. Ford and General Motors also build them.

These can safely burn E85, or 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline.

Increased use of bioethanol in flex-fuel vehicles would dramatically reduce carbon-dioxide emissions through what is known as combustion recycling.

And removing many gigatonnes of a greenhouse gas such as carbon dioxide from the Earth’s atmosphere through combustion recycling of bioethanol would reduce global warming and reverse climate change.

U.S. chemical manufacturer Celanese has developed a process to convert biomass, raw sewerage, animal waste, solid waste, and waste gases such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide from electrical-generation plants and steel plants into ethanol for the same cost as refining oil into gasoline.

Gregory Howard Gebhart

Webster Groves, Mo.

Foolish U.S. giveaways

A March 4 article, “$190 million for Egypt,” said the United States has given Egypt $190 million and will give $60 million more. U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, “The United States can and wants to do more.”

If the U.S. is so desperate for money that the country cannot afford to pay veterans’ benefits and must furlough federal employees and cut government contracts that will make thousands of workers lose their jobs, then how in the world can we afford to give this money to Egypt so that country can pay its bills?

Has Egypt so much as given its sympathies when the United States has had a natural disaster such as Superstorm Sandy or even the Sept. 11, 2001, tragedy?

We need to keep our money here in the U.S. to benefit our citizens and to pay our own bills.

Our government is really unbelievable.

Dee Holmes

Lee’s Summit

Obama boosts gun sales

Gun and ammunition factories are operating at full capacity to fill orders for new guns and ammunition while the president makes urgent calls for gun control.

Fortunately, the Obama administration, in concert with the media, has done more to arm the American people than the National Rifle Association could ever hope to do.

An armed citizenry will be the last line of defense against a powerful, tyrannical central government.

Ed Geither

Overland Park

Hunters, assault guns

Don’t take the assault weapons away from hunters. With them, they can not only kill their game, they can tenderize it, too.

Neil Buie

Merriam

Strong pro-life influence

Forty years have passed, but Roe v. Wade still divides.

On Jan. 22, 1973, I was a young wife and mother of a newborn boy, who also just turned 40. It was then I became involved in the pro-life movement.

For more than 30 years, I was a speaker on pro-life and respect for all life issues in the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan. I spoke to thousands of young people in middle school and high school about abortion, trying to do so in a loving, thoughtful and almost apologetic manner, never accusing or pointing fingers at scared young women who thought they had no other choice except abortion.

You cannot make an intelligent decision without knowing both sides. All women have a right to understand what they are choosing and what an abortion really is even under the worst circumstances.

The law says that you can choose life or death for your unborn child. Abortion numbers have declined, perhaps because of decreased access.

Perhaps, after 40 years of education about the wonder and beauty of the unborn child, people’s hearts have changed.

That was always my goal.

Sheila Berry

Lenexa

Fighting welfare fraud?

I see senators are still wasting their time worrying about the poor people having fun (3-5, A7, “Missouri senators outline plan to fight welfare fraud”). They decided not to require pictures on the welfare cards because the poor might use the picture identification to vote.

Too bad the senators cannot create a few jobs for people who need them.

Corky Lewis

Lee’s Summit

Crushing clean energy

Missouri voters spoke out, loud and clear in November 2008.

They wanted investor-owned utilities operating in Missouri to start phasing in energy from renewable sources such as solar, wind and biomass.

The Missouri legislature has turned a deaf ear. Last month, the House of Representatives voted for HB 44, effectively undermining the renewable energy standard supported by 66 percent of voters in 2008.

The modest goal, aimed at reducing climate-destabilizing carbon emissions, would require investor-owned utilities such as Kansas City Power & Light to produce at least 15 percent of their power from renewable sources by 2021. The bill that passed the House would allow utilities to effectively do an end run around that renewable energy standard by counting energy produced by already-existing hydropower plants, large and small.

So much for fostering new renewable energy production in the state.

Having passed the House, the effort to subvert the will of Missouri voters has moved on to the Senate.

Please contact your senator and urge her or him to support efforts to reduce climate change by upholding the renewable energy standard and voting against HB 44.

Look up the name of your state senator at www.senate.mo.gov/legislookup/leg_lookup.aspx/leg_lookup.aspx.

Karen Uhlenhuth

Kansas City

Promoting reading

A few years ago, I tried contacting “Sleepyhead Beds” wanting to offer the following idea: Bedtime stories by new, aspiring and famous writers would be donated and published, with 100 percent of the profits going toward the purchase of beds for children without them.

Each year would be new writers. I would purchase this as a baby gift.

Not only would it promote reading and writing — perhaps schoolchildren could win a “juried” place — but there is certainly a never-ending market for this product. It could be sold online and sold outside of Kansas City.

Could this be a Kansas City startup organization?

I never heard back from the first organization, and so, since Operation Breakthrough reaches the same population, let it use the profits for its many needs and operations.

Beth Ciperson

Kansas City

Kudos to snowplows

Just wanted to thank all the snowplow truck drivers who worked 12-hour shifts to clear snow in dangerous conditions.

I live in Kansas and work in Missouri. They did an outstanding job keeping our roads safe.

Anita Colman

Mission

Dependable KC Star

It is said that nothing in life is certain except death and taxes. I would add to that the delivery of my newspaper.

As the coffee perked, I could always be certain that sloshing down the driveway would net me The Kansas City Star.

Many thanks to that anonymous person, driving in the dark on miserable streets last week to bring a bit of normality to my morning.

Thank you, thank you, whoever you are.

Elisabeth Hallock

Overland Park