LETTERS 04/30/08

< Previous page
Next page >

I’d be happy to read Mr. Lunney’s opinions again, but in another section.

Steve Parks

St. Joseph

Gun ownership

In response to Mary Sanchez’s column (4/22, Opinion, “Easy access to guns, but no respect for life”), William Shapiro (4/26, Letters) suggests taking away guns as a way to reduce the “carnage.” That is perhaps one of the least thought out, most impractical ideas I’ve heard. Remember how well Prohibition went over? You turn a nation into criminals automatically. Not wise.

Many people, including me, are legal firearm owners (many of us veterans) and cause no problem to society. As an Iraq war veteran, I have stood up and fought for what I believed in before. What makes you think I won’t do it again?

Kyle Schweiger

Olathe

Do proponents of gun ownership really feel they are protected simply by owning a gun? It seems to me that to be really protected one would need to have the gun accessible at all times.

Maybe we’ll eventually have to return to the Wild West and carry guns in holsters. It could make for a booming gun holster business. They could be designed for men and women and come in various colors and designs. They would have to be worn at all times in all places.

Then it would come down to who is the quickest on the draw.

Mary Lou Akright

Leawood

Driving up electricity use

I opened The Star on Earth Day and saw the picture of a pickup truck with an electric cord attached (4/22, A-1, “Getting plugged into what Earth Day is all about”). It caused me a little bewilderment, because I looked for what was on the other end of that cord.

Lo and behold, there it was, that nasty, smoke-belching, carbon-causing power plant. Or, even worse, a death-dealing nuclear power plant. What a cycle we are in. Do not build more power plants but do drive up the usage of electricity.

Somewhere along the line, the need for power and the ability to produce that power are going to meet, and then when we start having brownouts everyone will ask why the power companies didn’t build more capacity. What a quandary.

It reminds me of the grocery bag situation. People hollered, “Don’t use paper bags. They take too many trees. Use plastic.” Now the same people are saying not to use plastic or paper bags.

David Napoli

Kansas City

Give older workers a chance

The fact that the Kansas City Area Development Council “has launched ... a multimedia marketing plan aimed at helping local corporations recruit and retain that coveted 25- to 34-year-old age group” sickens me (4/22, Business, “KC listens to ‘creative class’ ”).

Society continues to exalt the young without any regard for the middle-aged, who are in dire need of jobs to support ourselves. I bet I have more talent in my little finger than the “creative class” the KCADC is marketing

I am tired of seeing the focus on young adults when there are so many others whose talents and skills go unrecognized.

I recently toured the set of a soap opera. I told the tour guide that they need to incorporate overweight, unattractive, older actors into their scripts. He replied, “We’re into creating fantasies, and it wouldn’t work.”

I responded, “If you want a real fantasy, have a love story between a fat, ugly, older woman with a handsome, comparably aged, wealthy man.”

Kansas City and the rest of the world need to recognize that those of us with wrinkles should be recruited and retained for all we are and all we know.

< Previous page
Next page >