<strong><span class="subhead">Prescient words</span></strong></p><p>We recently toured the Eisenhower Museum in Abilene, Kan. Museums serve many purposes, not the least of which is to provide perspective to those events through which we have lived. </p><p>One quote from President Eisenhower burned into my mind: &ldquo;God help the nation when it has a president who doesn&rsquo;t know as much about the military as I do.&rdquo; </p><p>May God save our nation. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>G. Curtis Boswell</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Overland Park</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Rapping representative needs more to do</span></strong></p><p>Republican Kansas Rep. Bill Otto, you don&rsquo;t have enough to do. I am not criticizing your &ldquo;Redneck Rap,&rdquo; (10/17, National/Local), but it&rsquo;s not worthy of your attention or your showmanship. </p><p>You are a lawmaker. You can use your time to educate children, help someone out of poverty, paint a house and make your city look better. Be a positive creator in everything you do. There&rsquo;s nothing more pathetic than to come into a city where one part of the city is clean, neat and lovely and the other part looks like a slum dump. </p><p>No, you don&rsquo;t have enough to do. We hear enough junk in this world. So stop and think, &ldquo;Lift us higher,&rdquo; and your mind will be renewed. Make the most of your job and help your constituents. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>A.B. Scott</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Ban cell phone use while driving</span></strong></p><p>What could be so important? How many more lives must be lost because of texting or talking on the cell phone while driving? Coming out with a survey every six months is not an answer to the problem. </p><p>I value my life and would love to see some serious action taken for a change. The government needs to pass one national law: If you want to talk or text on the phone, pull off the road, period. Don&rsquo;t slap the hand of the first- or second-time offender. Make a high fine the standard, with no exceptions. </p><p>What could be more important than your own life? </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Michael Garcia</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Independence</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Vatican seeking Anglicans</span></strong></p><p>What do you call a church that raids another church for converts? That&rsquo;s what the Catholic Church is doing to the Anglican conservative branch that opposes women priests and gay marriage. They dangle the carrot that the Catholic Church shares their same views on these issues and the married priests are welcome to come join the Catholic faith (10/21, A1).</p><p>It works out ideally for the Catholic Church, which is suffering a shortage of priests and money woes due to paying off pedophile victims. It is a win-win for the Catholic Church, and I&rsquo;m hopeful that admitting married priests into the fold could eventually lead to allowing all Catholic priests to marry. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Willa Pierce</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Play my game, L.J.</span></strong></p><p>I find it quite ironic that a professional running back who is unable to maintain a rushing average of more that three yards per carry has the audacity to challenge his Twitter followers and ticket-buying fans to &ldquo;come play our game&rdquo; and then state &ldquo;ooops forgot u can&rsquo;t.&rdquo;</p><p>As an intensive care nurse, I challenge Larry Johnson to come play my game. Oops, he can&rsquo;t! He can barely do his own job. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Diana Rasmussen</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Olathe</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Lucky Europeans</span></strong></p><p>I recently came back from a trip to several countries in Northern Europe, all of which have national health insurance. They are very much aware of the debate going on our country. While they have complaints about their present system, none of them wants to reject it in favor of private companies. </p><p>I believe we need national health insurance. We then would have care for those who have no insurance for various reasons. I understand why a person can be rejected for insurance if they have obvious health problems. After all, insurance companies have to make a profit if they want to continue to exist. However their goals can and do conflict with the goals of people seeking health care.