<strong><span class="subhead">Hitting seniors below the belt</span></strong></p><p>The Star&rsquo;s editorial &ldquo;Wrong time to increase benefit&rdquo; (10/16, Opinion) obviously was not written by a senior citizen. The writer focuses on a proposed $13 billion package for seniors while completely ignoring the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars the federal government has handed over to the big banks, Wall Street and AIG without asking how the money was to be spent. These firms are now set to pay hundreds of billions of bonus dollars to their employees for 2009. </p><p>The editorial mentions that seniors received a 5.8 percent increase for 2009. However, considering the paltry increase of previous years, this increase helped make up for this somewhat.</p><p>If the writer believes that consumer prices have declined in the last year, I would like to know what stores he or she shops at, what doctors he or she sees and where he or she is buying prescription drugs or paying for health insurance premiums. </p><p>Granted, far too much money has been spent by Washington to fight this recession, but to pick on seniors, many of whom have to live on fixed incomes and are still paying income taxes on most of their Social Security benefits, is hitting below the belt.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Grant Martin</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Shawnee</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Miley who?</span></strong></p><p> I took my 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter to the Sprint Center on Saturday night to see Miley Cyrus. I am not sure who we saw, although she looked like Miley and sounded like Miley and sang Miley Cyrus&rsquo; songs. If I wanted my children to see what we saw Saturday night, I would have taken them to Las Vegas to see a burlesque show. </p><p>My children have grown up on Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus, and although we knew her alter ego wouldn&rsquo;t be performing, we didn&rsquo;t expect to see what we saw. My children were not impressed. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Brian K. Ward</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Lee&rsquo;s Summit</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Spousal abuse isn&rsquo;t funny</span></strong></p><p>I read with shock and sadness that eight states permit insurance companies to deny health coverage to a battered spouse as a &ldquo;pre-existing condition,&rdquo; since abusers tend to be recidivists. </p><p>What is even more horrifying is that The Star chose to run this item in the &ldquo;Weird News&rdquo; feature (10/20, FYI). </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Robin Rice</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Sunrise Beach, Mo.</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Zero-tolerance gun policy</span></strong></p><p>The article &ldquo;Officer pulls gun at elementary&rdquo; (10/14, National/Local) says, &ldquo;&hellip; an assistant principal began yelling at the officer &hellip;&rdquo; </p><p> I&rsquo;m assuming that the assistant principal was yelling because the officer had drawn his gun after a vehicle pursuit that ended in the Martin City Elementary school&rsquo;s driveway. District spokesman Lane Lucas said the district was not happy a situation involving a gun occurred on school property.</p><p>While I understand their concern, it wasn&rsquo;t the police officer&rsquo;s choice as to where the fleeing driver stopped. For the officer to risk his safety and the safety of everyone in the vicinity by not drawing his weapon would have been ill-advised. </p><p>What I see in operation is a zero-tolerance policy run amok. School districts rightly prohibit firearms on school property. However, when school districts don&rsquo;t want to or won&rsquo;t allow an officer to properly discharge his duties, thereby protecting others, things have really gone awry.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Lane Sekavec</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>De Soto</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Millions spent on influence</span></strong></p><p>Thank you for the information about the huge lobbying effort by health care groups (10/19, A1, &ldquo;Millions spent on influence&rdquo;). Politicians, such as ex-congressman Jim Slattery of Kansas, should not be paid by a health care company to &ldquo;keep an eye on reform legislation&rdquo; and to &ldquo;think for himself.&rdquo;