<strong><span class="subhead">O.D. cologne</span></strong></p><p>This is for the piece of work who all but suffocated my friend at a sandwich shop with an overload of perfume, and then had the audacity to tell him, &ldquo;Sick people shouldn&rsquo;t be in public.&rdquo; He wouldn&rsquo;t have had that breathing attack had you not violated everyone&rsquo;s air space with your overabundance of cheap perfume. </p><p>Perhaps you should lay off the spritzer and allow people to breathe in public spaces. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Becky Sanson</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Merriam</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Stop demonizing marijuana</span></strong></p><p>The U.S. attorney general, Eric Holder, has stated that the federal government will discontinue raids on medical marijuana dispensaries due to the judgment that it&rsquo;s not a top law enforcement priority (10/20, National/Local). </p><p>It&rsquo;s so refreshing to see an injection of common sense on this issue. I think we have bigger fish to fry than to spend resources trying to prevent medical marijuana use in states where the people have passed referendums allowing such use.</p><p>Is marijuana completely, totally harmless either when used medicinally or recreationally? Probably not, but neither are pharmaceuticals, tobacco and alcohol. In fact, very compelling scientific, statistical arguments can be made that marijuana is less harmful than these other substances. </p><p>The case for marijuana use, both medicinally and recreationally, should be evaluated objectively, while discarding the propaganda surrounding marijuana. The shameful demonization of marijuana for political purposes has for too long colored the debate.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Ken Gates</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Overland Park</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Don&rsquo;t change Don&rsquo;t Ask Don&rsquo;t Tell</span></strong></p><p>The Don&rsquo;t Ask, Don&rsquo;t Tell policy works for the military. As an officer, my observations have led me to believe that most service members would prefer that individuals with different preferences keep their ideas and behavior out of the workplace. What&rsquo;s next? Will accommodations have to be made for individuals with these different preferences? </p><p>This idea of changing a policy that works will become an unnecessary distraction for the military as an institution. The military as a whole is focused on two wars and other pressing issues that are so much more important than this issue. Other than cases I heard about via news outlets, I personally do not know of anyone in my 12 years of military service who has been booted out the military because of this policy. </p><p>If this policy is addressed, it should be addressed by the military brass, not by civilians. Regardless of individual preferences in the military, there are numerous men and women in uniform doing an outstanding job under the current policy. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Maj. Joe Evans</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Fort Leavenworth</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Reduce debt: Sell seats in Congress</span></strong></p><p>I have come up with a simple, straightforward way to drastically reduce our national debt, dramatically increase transparency in government and eliminate the blurred line between campaign contributions and bribes by eliminating both.</p><p> Special interests currently control the electoral process by spending hundreds of millions of dollars each election cycle. The solution would be to no longer hold elections and instead auction off each seat to the highest bidder. All monies from these auctions would go directly into government coffers, greatly reducing our debt. The winning bidder would get to name the person of their choice to fill that seat. I suspect that special interests would appoint faces familiar to all of us. </p><p> The difference would be that our national debt would be greatly reduced. We would no longer have to guess who owns these politicians, and opportunistic hacks would no longer be able to amass incredible wealth at the expense of the taxpayer.