<strong><span class="subhead">Deer aren&rsquo;t the only overpopulated species</span></strong></p><p>While the ongoing debate over what to do with all the deer at Shawnee Mission Park is long overdue, it has only served to further divert our attention from the one problem that underlies most of the other problems we are encountering these days: too many people. </p><p>Yes, the command was given in the Bible to &ldquo;be fruitful and multiply,&rdquo; but it should be readily apparent to everyone by now that since the very beginning there has been too much begetting going on and that conditions in the world will only deteriorate as the population explodes like a bomb. Hey, we were warned. </p><p>And when we continue to adhere to the Great White Hunter mentality and insist that critter numbers be kept at a certain level simply for our benefit when we can&rsquo;t even keep our own numbers in check, well, two words quickly come to mind: &ldquo;hypocrites&rdquo; and &ldquo;fools.&rdquo; </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Rick Nichols</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Leavenworth</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Let&rsquo;s just all get along</span></strong></p><p>We fault Oprah Winfrey for allowing Sarah Palin on her show. We fault Republican gubernatorial candidates for liking Bruce Springsteen. These people are entertainers. They get paid to entertain.</p><p> Why has it come to the point where we are supposed to act like if you don&rsquo;t share the same political views or philosophical beliefs as me, you are a bad person and not worth my time?</p><p>No wonder we can&rsquo;t all get along.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>James Foster</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">To the moon, incumbents</span></strong></p><p>I grew up in the &rsquo;60s and &rsquo;70s being amazed at the space exploration, and I am a huge fan of our efforts to explore and figure things out. I am a regular visitor to William Jewell College&rsquo;s Pillsbury Observatory open houses, just to get a better look at what God made. </p><p>However, I have to ask Sen. Claire McCaskill and Rep. Sam Graves (and they should ask their peers): How could any elected official who works for the people authorize the spending of more than $70 million to blow up moon dust, when people are out of jobs and losing their homes and health care? (10/9, A1, &ldquo;Eyes on Earth are turned to crash on moon&rdquo;)</p><p>I am fairly certain that people who are jobless, losing their homes and going hungry believe they should be valued by their &ldquo;elected&rdquo; officials more than moon dust. </p><p>No incumbents for at least the next two election cycles.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jim Bishop</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Holt, Mo.</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Cut health care costs</span></strong></p><p>Robert Quinn (10/20, Letters) writes, &ldquo;Insurance is an inefficient way to handle common medical occurrences, but the &lsquo;reform&rsquo; bill does nothing to address these issues.&rdquo; I agree completely. </p><p>A simple doctor&rsquo;s visit for a sinus infection or an ear infection should not even need to be run through insurance. It should be no more than $30 or $40 to begin with. Every time anybody needs a doctor for anything, it has to be run through the patient&rsquo;s insurance company, producing a claim. This causes unnecessary employees to handle all the paperwork. </p><p>These simple visits could also be taken care of by a physician&rsquo;s assistant, reducing the cost even more. Funny thing, through: Anytime I see a PA, the fee is the same as the doctor. The fee for a PA should be considerably less. </p><p>We also need to do away with the contracts between the insurance companies and doctors. This further causes the cost to go up.</p><p>There are a lot of ways to cut the cost of health care, but I fear our government is just complicating things and not saving the everyday person one bit for their health care. This is not the reform I would vote for.