Posted on Thu, May. 08, 2008

English-only warnings

I was disheartened to read the letter from Jodi Jeffries (5/6), applauding the fact that local newscasts reported the warnings about the dangerous thunderstorms in English.

I’m shocked that this was her primary concern that night, as several families suffered real damage because of the storm. I’m saddened to hear such xenophobic comments at a time when many of us spent the night in our basements, wondering if we were going to be hit hard.

Seriously, is Jeffries really happy about the fact that there was a chance that some children, whose parents may not have understood the real danger of the storm, might have perished? This was an emergency, for Pete’s sake, and I see absolutely nothing wrong with making sure every human being in the viewing area has a chance to take cover and protect their children.

I’m really tired of people who are so focused on themselves and their interests that they lose all manner of compassion.

Donna M. Davis

Overland Park

Warnings are about saving lives, not about your native language. When Jodi Jeffries’ ancestors came here, they probably couldn’t speak English during their initial visit either.

I hope for her sake that if she ever visits another country and an emergency situation occurs, they will put it in plain English for her sake and others abroad.

Al Ramirez

Overland Park

Unless Jodi Jeffries plans on going back to her ancestral land, then I can only assume she plans to learn one of the 800 surviving native languages of this continent on which she now resides, such as Shawnee, Cheyenne, Apache, Navajo, Pawnee or Susquehannock.

Maureen O’Brien Salz

Overland Park

Indy shouldn’t pay for schools

The Independence School District should not have to pay anything for the buildings being transferred from the Kansas City School District (4/30, Local, “KC-Indy talks come to naught; Compromise is elusive on school buildings affected by the district boundary change”).

Transferring the administrative responsibilities for some public schools is not comparable to selling an income-producing business. It is unreasonable (actually outrageous) for the KC district to demand payment for the five schools that were given them years ago from other districts that were incorporated into the KC district.

In addition, the value of the two buildings that were built by the KC district should be offset by the taxes that were paid by the citizens in the geographic area that is being transferred. Those citizens shouldn’t have to now buy back the buildings their taxes already paid for.

The Independence district is going to have a large enough financial burden just fixing up the buildings they are receiving.

M. Richard Troeh

Independence

Gas prices aren’t Bush’s fault

President Bush is often blamed for the rise in gasoline and diesel fuel prices. I disagree with a lot of Bush’s policies, but we need to consider some other factors that he has no control over.

First, this is not just a U.S. problem manufactured by politicians of either party. This is a worldwide problem and has been for a long time.

Consider this: 35 years ago I made a trip to Europe and, at that time, fuel prices were near $4 a gallon. Just a month ago, I was privileged to make a second trip to Europe, and the going rate was near $8 a gallon.

Who are they to blame?

President Bush does not control what price nations such as Iran, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela sell their oil for.

Secondly, we hear much talk about reducing our dependence on foreign oil. How will that happen unless our own supplies of oil are taken out of the ground and refined?

How about all of the endless lines of people using drive-throughs at fast-food restaurants? The gas they waste while idling contributes to the cost of fuel.

Come on, people. Wake up to what you’re wasting.

Dave Maxey

Blue Springs

Making a preacher cuss

The irony in Pat Oliphant’s cartoon depicting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright on Barack Obama’s back (5/2) was totally lost on two letter writers (5/6). I have to admit, it was totally lost on me. I, too, was bothered by it. Then, mulling over their letters, I “got it.”

Oliphant is echoing the curse that the Rev. Wright pronounced on America, and censoring the offending word would vitiate the cartoon’s message.

Here’s some more irony to chew on. Does anyone recall the old exclamation, “It’s enough to make a preacher cuss!”? We never took it seriously; it was just a figure of speech to emphasize a point. We knew full well no preacher would ever cuss.

But the Rev. Wright did cuss, and instead of dismissing him out of hand, maybe we should be discussing just what it is about America that is so bad that it could make a preacher cuss.

I personally think the Rev. Wright went a bit far, but clearly his frustrations over the likelihood of ever attaining liberty and justice for all in this country have nearly overwhelmed him.

Ralph D. Hile

Merriam

Lengthy Democratic campaign

This fear of breaking up the Democratic Party needs to be looked at objectively and overcome (5/4, A-1, “Weary Dems grind along”).

For years the Republicans have branded the Democratic Party as fractious and fearful. This framing has been quite successful as we continue to lose seats in the house, Senate and the White House itself over issues of national security.

So now we are proving that branding is true by being fearful and fractious of the very political process that makes the United States vibrant and interesting. I am a big fan of Sen. Claire McCaskill, but I don’t agree with her assessment that the lengthy campaign season is a danger to the party.

Let’s show the Republicans that the Democratic Party believes in the system of democracy, let the campaign play out, and reunite when the primaries are over.

Don’t be scared of conflict in our own party. See it as part of the necessary process to achieve the ultimate goal — to chose the very best candidate for the most important job in the world.

Lisa Stockton

Lawrence

The longer the Democratic race for the presidential nomination goes on, the more I tend to see Sen. Clinton as a candidate of the Republican Party than the Democratic one. Be it her stance on the oil gas revenue, in which she sides with Sen. McCain for cutting the price of gas by suspending the highway tax, or her distance from the media, which she accuses of backing her opponent.

More recently, Sen. Clinton appeared on “The O’Reilly Factor” on Fox News and, along with Bill O’Reilly, criticized the NBC network for its bias. Wow, is this the same Sen. Clinton who once accused the far right of conspiring against her and Bill Clinton?

Sen. Obama is the candidate who calls for change in this election, and yet it is a change of a very different kind that we now witness in Sen. Clinton.

I guess that’s what we call the politics of Washington.

Raghvendra Singh

Warrensburg, Mo.

Two simple questions for Eddie L. Clay (5/3, Letters, “Grow up, Democrats”).

One: have you ever considered that we are just plain scared of Obama?

Two: with Hillary Clinton, she at least tells me what she has in mind, and I honestly believe that if Kansas would have had a primary instead of that stupid caucus, Hillary would have won Kansas.

With Obama, it’s “Are you all fired up?” and “Ready to go?” Give me a break.

Paul R. Koontz Sr.

Spring Hill

Your right to a sawed-off gun

It is always encouraging to see that the Kansas government has its finger on the pulse of improving our way of life here at home. This is in reference to the Legislature’s recent passage of a bill legalizing the possession of machine guns, sawed-off shotguns, silencers and other fully automatic weapons.

Given the string of recent mall and school shootings, I find this bill to be entirely topical and appropriate. Who cares, really, about frivolous issues such as poverty, growing unemployment, poor public education, racial divides and militaristic foreign policies?

My constitutional rights to saw off a shotgun or hunt squirrels with a silenced automatic weapon have been violated for far too long. I only hope that one day our government will be sensible enough to legalize the private possession of nukes and germ warfare.

If you are as tickled pink about this bill as I am, I hope you take the time to write one of your local representatives to let them know what a fantastic job they are doing.

Plato wrote: “The price of apathy towards public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”

Bo McCall

Kansas City

Ticket scalping in Missouri

Last year the Missouri General Assembly approved and Gov. Matt Blunt signed a bill making ticket scalping legal in Missouri.

I believe that ticket scalping squeezes regular folks — the taxpayers who support the building of these stadiums — right out of the ability to see sporting events and concerts.

As long as we have taxpayer-supported venues, we must protect the rights of the taxpayer to have access to the tickets at face value. What happened in Kansas City at the Hannah Montana and Elton John concerts cannot be repeated.

If the General Assembly thought that the ticket-scalping bill was a good bill, it should have passed it on its own during regular session in plain sight, not during special session as part of a spending bill.

The people of Missouri and the entire nation are tired of earmarks and tired of high prices. Let’s keep tickets at reasonable prices in the hands of families, not in the hands of ticket scalpers and ticket brokers.

Please call your representatives in Jefferson City and tell them we don’t want ticket scalpers in Missouri.

Ward Dickmann

Raytown

Judges and politics

Attorney Greg Musil’s column (5/1, Opinion, “In selecting our judges, we should keep politics out”) stated that politics are not involved with our current system of selecting judges.

The problem I have is the seven attorneys on the nominating committee. Attorneys, as a group, are Democrats and very liberal.

So what’s not political about having half of the committee made up of liberal attorneys who want to influence our court system?

Tim Bower

Overland Park

Rebate not so stimulating

A senior retired couple can still end up on the short end of the stick.

Uncle Sam cuts the couple, who have a combined income of less than $75,000, a check for $1,200. That’s good.

Let’s say they aren’t investors but have $100,000 in CDs to supplement their retirement and Social Security checks. If they renew their CDs from a rate of 5 percent a year ago to the present rate of 2.25 percent, they take a hit of $2,750. That’s a net loss of $1,550. That’s bad.

Some people just can’t win, and that’s not stimulating.

Joe F. Dragosh

Independence

Coyotes threaten people, too

Perhaps the loss of several family pets is not enough for Leawood city officials to do something about eradicating the coyote problem (4/23, Local, “Coyotes safe — for now”). Neither is the possibility they could eventually carry rabies. But recently a coyote attempted to carry off a small child from a park in Southern California.

Wake up, Leawood! Your residents pay high enough taxes to merit your concern.

Helen McDermott

Raytown

Photo IDs for voters

I don’t believe the photo ID law supporters are trying to pass in Kansas, Missouri and elsewhere (4/29, A-1, “Way clear to require photo ID for voting”) will do any good.

I say this because Americans don’t vote as much as they should currently. If we decide to take away more voters who, unfortunately, cannot either afford or obtain a photo ID, we are just turning away more voters.

I don’t know if requiring a photo ID is going to stop, or even lessen, voting fraud. I do believe that some sort of identification should be shown where the voting takes place, but not necessarily a photo ID.

I only think that this will lessen voter numbers, cause more chaos and make the poor and minorities feel as though the states are personally attacking them with this request.

Katie McSorley

Kansas City

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