<strong><span class="subhead">Civility a must</span></strong></p><p>At home and in school, I was taught what I thought were basic rules of civility: In a large group, raise your hand and wait to be called on before speaking. Don&rsquo;t interrupt. Take turns. Never say &ldquo;shut up.&rdquo; Don&rsquo;t throw fits.</p><p>In other words, be respectful. Jonah Goldberg disagrees with this politeness (10/29, &ldquo;Stifling Dissent Can be Most Uncivil Cut of All&rdquo;). Commentators on the Fox News Network tell folks to go to meetings, and if they don&rsquo;t agree with the speaker, don&rsquo;t let that person talk. Do name calling. Raise a ruckus. Be rude. Disrupt the meeting.</p><p>Fox&rsquo;s commentators tell people to do things that most kids would get in trouble for at home or at school. Goldberg justifies this hourly bombardment of rabble rousing and demonizing by equating it to isolated statements made over the course of decades.</p><p>It doesn&rsquo;t take a genius to know that this isn&rsquo;t the same. As we try to have constructive communication in our everyday lives, why would anyone condone the methods used on Fox News except those who just enjoy being mad? </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Teri Weiter</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Raytown</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Misplaced sympathy?</span></strong></p><p>The Star ran a story about Sgt. John M. Russell and how the &ldquo;warning signs&rdquo; were there of impending danger (10/21, &ldquo;Signs were missed; Report criticizes treatment of sergeant who was nearing end of his third deployment&rdquo;).</p><p>As the uncle of the 20-year-old Missouri boy who was killed by Russell in that shooting (5/14, &ldquo;Missourian died saving others; Spc. Jacob Barton was shot in rampage at clinic while trying to shield another man, Army says&rdquo;), I can&rsquo;t help but feel appalled. Are we to have sympathy for Russell?</p><p>How about the sympathy for the family of the five men he shot in cold blood? Each of these men Russell shot was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star for heroism above and beyond the call of duty.</p><p>Where is the media to praise their actions? </p><p>Myself, I am planning an annual motorcycle ride in my nephew&rsquo;s honor. The ride is even named for him: Spc. Jacob D. Barton.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Edmond Coleman</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Grandview</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Lewd cartoon</span></strong></p><p>Glenn McCoy&rsquo;s editorial cartoon (11/1) is not the image The Star should portray in its newspaper &mdash; the Sunday paper no less &mdash; given that some of us are working hard to get our youngsters to read the paper.</p><p>Yes, I get the point about the Obama administration supposedly being in bed with those specific news stations, but showing him literally in bed with women smoking cigarettes, an old-fashioned post-coital activity, is lewd. </p><p><p align="right"><strong>Marcia Manter</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Topeka</em></p></p><p><strong><span class="subhead">WWII veterans merit praise, honors</span></strong></p><p>I was so thrilled reading in Sunday&rsquo;s Star Magazine (11/1) about the World War II veterans taking flights to Washington to visit the World War II memorial.</p><p>There, among the veterans taking the tour, was my old boyhood friend from 70 years ago! Ira Hunter of Liberty is pictured in a wheelchair, but he hasn&rsquo;t really changed since I knew him back in the 1930s on North 10th Street in Lexington, Mo. He still has that great smile and friendly manner that was with him wherever he went.</p><p>I hope that he reads this and knows how proud I am of his service to our country.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Jim O&rsquo;Malley</strong></p></p><p><p align="right"><em>Warrensburg, Mo</em>.</p> <strong><span class="subhead">German invasion revisited</span></strong></p><p>When I was a small girl, the Germans invaded our country of the Netherlands. Naturally I had no idea who they were, and I assume even the adults had no idea what was going on as it was the Blitz.</p><p>No one knew. We were scared, and the German soldiers tried to be friendly to us little girls. Somehow we knew we shouldn&rsquo;t return the friendliness. Things got worse and worse as the war went on for four years, and we were robbed of everything. I&rsquo;m not even talking about the atrocities of which we became aware much later.