LETTERS 08/03/08

Parents, help save KC schools

Please allow me to suggest an addition to Gwen Caranchini’s letter, “5 ways to save KC schools” (7/29).

•Build parental involvement throughout every level of the district, community, neighborhoods and magnets. Any educator will agree that involving parents in the schooling of our children is an absolute necessity.

During my 35 years in education, I have been lucky enough to partner with parents who take ownership in their children’s learning. They are an active and visible part of a team that is necessary to the success of our school.

The Kansas City School District should take heed from others. Parochial schools rely heavily on parents who take this responsibility. Most recently we have seen with enthusiasm how the Independence School District, together with parents, worked as a community to renew their schools. The financial benefits are immense, and the beneficiaries are our children.

Julie Copenhaver

Prairie Village

The presidential race has narrowed down to two men. I respect and admire both, though I realize neither is perfect.

Back before America settled on John McCain and Barack Obama — when Mitt Romney, Mike Huckabee and Hillary Clinton were still in the race — I thought, “This is the kind of America I’ve always wished I lived in.” We had a Baptist preacher-governor, a Mormon ex-governor, a hard-nosed woman senator, a war hero senator and a biracial Harvard graduate senator who admits he dabbled in recreational drugs.

It makes me proud that America has come so far in my lifetime.

Jim Rawdon

Lee’s Summit

Reading The Star’s Letters page convinces me that a great number of people are concerned about the direction of our country. Some blame the president, while others blame Congress. But let’s put the blame where it belongs: on us, the voters.

Our Founding Fathers never intended for those who serve government to make it a career. Originally, those who served came from all walks of life. They served and then returned to their real careers. Nowadays, there are those serving the country and making it a career. They end up not serving the interests of the voter but serving themselves and lobbyists’ interests.

Politics was never intended to be a career. This is a big mistake, as everyone can see with the direction of our government today.

A good start in resolving this would be to limit the time anyone can serve. By re-electing people term after term, we are guaranteeing the same old policies will continue to rule.

Let’s get back to the way our forefathers intended government to work. We, the voters, caused this problem. But we, the voters, can resolve it.

Thomas Hay

Lake Waukomis

Voters who zero in on one issue (7/24, Letters, “Obama’s stance on abortion”), are responsible for putting the most incompetent administration in our history in charge. It is just this kind of thinking that allowed our country to elect an administration that led us preemptively into war, sanctioned torture and continues to ignore our Constitution. Instead of automatically supporting an anti-abortion candidate, we should look at a full range of domestic and foreign policy issues the candidate holds.

I encourage people to continue working for their cause, not by trying to coerce restrictive and invasive legislation, but rather by eliminating poverty and supporting education that would empower women and men to make better choices. Thomas Jefferson believed that if we were to have a functional democracy, we need an educated populace.

As we’ve found out the hard way, making abortion or any other single issue the litmus test for a candidate for any public office corrupts our democracy.

Bernadine Kline

Liberty

I read letters in The Star blaming Democrats for higher gas prices and for accomplishing nothing. Democrats don’t have a filibuster-proof majority. Republicans use this to block nearly every bill.

Recently, Republicans blocked three bills that would have provided some immediate relief. They blocked release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. This reduced gas prices 33 percent in 1991, 19 percent in 2000 and 9 percent in 2005. They blocked legislation regulating speculators who manipulate oil prices on world markets. They also blocked legislation to help the poor pay rising heating and cooling bills.

The only bill they support is offshore drilling, a gift to oil companies. Offshore drilling isn’t an immediate solution. Experts agree that it won’t produce any oil for years and will not significantly lower gas prices. John McCain says it has “psychological benefits.” The U.S. has only 3 percent of the world’s oil and consumes 24 percent. We cannot drill our way out of this problem. We need long-term alternative energy solutions, not party politics.

Republicans have become “The Grand Obstructionist Party.”

Kathy Stiles

Kansas City

Thank you for printing my guest column (7/25, Opinion, “A vote for the public safety”). However, I was disappointed that almost 200 words were edited out, which eliminated some significant points.

Specifically, it’s important to note that more than half of the inmates in the county jail are not Johnson County residents. They’re in our jail simply because they committed crimes in Johnson County, and they’re doing their time on Johnson County taxpayers’ dime.

That’s why a sales tax for the operation of public safety facilities makes sense. It shares the ongoing cost of public safety services between residents and visitors alike. I am convinced that this is the best possible way to pay for our jails and other public safety services.

Annabeth Surbaugh

Chairwoman, Johnson County Board

of County Commissioners

Overland Park

Regarding The Star’s article about sheriff candidate Mike Sharp (7/31, Local, “Candidate admits forwarding racy e-mails”): I am so tired of hearing about how “women in the community would be quite upset about this.”

If you looked at every e-mail during the past 10 years of anyone in politics, there would probably be one that would offend just about everyone. I understand that the Kansas City Police Department has a policy regarding explicit e-mails, but is it the end of the world if someone has a laugh with a couple of friends?

With the election coming up, I think we need to focus on the issues that matter, not some e-mails from years ago. Should we go around digging up dirt on everyone in the running for sheriff?

As a woman myself, I receive a ton of e-mail a day, most of it junk. But I do get funny stuff from my co-workers and friends that I probably wouldn’t show my grandmother. I also don’t take offense if a man receives an e-mail photo of a nude woman.

The Internet is full of useless and inappropriate stuff, and it will never go away.

Colleen Kelley

Kansas City

Thanks, Jennifer Mann, for your timely article “Baby boomers become the forgotten consumer; In pursuit of the 18-to-49 demographic, a wealthy segment gets short shrift” (7/29, A-1). I have said for years that advertisers have no clue who has the money and the desire to spend it, perhaps on necessities and many times on frivolous, spur-of-the-moment purchases.

And while I’m at it, just because we’re “over the hill,” as advertisers like to categorize us, it doesn’t mean we’re all in nursing homes. We still like fashionable clothes that are up to date. That means my 70-year-old belly button is not going to be seen in public, the sleeves of my T-shirt aren’t going to cut into my armpits, and my varicose veins don’t need to be advertised in a skirt up to my hind end.

It appears that you can’t buy good taste, no matter your age.

Tilly Masson

Shawnee

As a citizen of the metropolitan area, I realize that everything Kansas City, Mo., does affects us. I was interested in the Sprint Center because it was such a large undertaking. The Star’s article (7/30, A-1, “Fiscally, Sprint Center is rockin’; Revenue from local fees exceeds projections, and arena’s debt refinanced for $15 million savings”) containing facts about the Sprint Center’s success confirmed what I believed would happen.

I think Mayor Kay Barnes’ daring and leadership made this project work, and now we are all benefiting from it.

Shirley Smith

Gladstone

Come on, Kansas City. After reading yet another story about our beloved Buck O’Neil (7/28, Sports, “Award is tribute to Buck’s legacy; Joe Morgan accepts first Lifetime Achievement Award on behalf of O’Neil’s family”), it’s time to take action. Let’s honor him in the way Cooperstown will never be able to do by fulfilling his dream of opening the Buck O’Neil Education and Research Center.

Buck dedicated his final months to pursuing this worthy endeavor. What better honor now than to make his dream come true? Buck knew no strangers. The joy and light-filled aurora that radiated from him made me feel good from the inside out. You felt like a better person by just being in his presence: “My name is Buck. Now give me some love!”

Let’s show Buck the love by raising money to finish the project he started. What if we all donated $1? What if the Royals donated just $1 per admission for the rest of the season? What if every baseball stadium in America followed suit?

Let’s honor Buck in the way he would love best, by helping someone else and his community: our community.

Cindy Frantsen

Lee’s Summit

Kansas needs a law mandating that the bumpers of cars and trucks be at or near the height specified by the manufacturer. I followed a green Ford pickup with a Kansas license plate in my rainy commute on I-35 July 30. That vehicle rode on giant tires 1 1/2 to two times too tall.

•The bumpers were so high that they could not function as designed. The large tires would prevent the bumpers from performing their role in minimizing crash-related damage and injury.

•The vehicle’s high center of gravity increased rollover risk. Rollover crashes are especially likely to cause fatalities.

•So much water sprayed off these tires that visibility was impaired for me and others.

•The pickup’s driver, apparently due to this spray, could not see a car in the next lane and cut off that car in dense traffic.

Legislators, please outlaw oversize tires.

Gary Gaddis

Shawnee

Remember a time when you took a date to the downtown Kansas City airport for dinner and watched the planes take off? Romantic. Does anyone now go to an airport unless absolutely necessary? Being among recent passengers yelled at while going through a San Francisco security check made me want to buy the guards whips. They might as well use those, too.

Every day thousands of passengers are miserable at hundreds of airports. One airline has developed a crass structure for its herdings. First-class passengers get to step two paces across a red carpet before entering the jet bridge. Subsequent “seatings” are shoehorned into the plane across the common flooring.

The distances at O’Hare are so great that last-minute passengers arrive in high-blood-pressure fear of not making the plane, while standby customers pray for empty seats so they will not have to wait more hours among the stress-sweating throngs.

The news that the one civil airline left, Midwest Airlines, is cutting back flights triggered my tipping point: Necessity may require me to fly again, but Kansas City will be just fine for all my leisure needs. The old gal’s looking better every day.

Randy Attwood

Kansas City

The letters that have been sent in recently regarding the poor usage of grammar by a great majority of people have missed perhaps the most egregious example.

Everyone seems to use “I could care less,” when what they mean is the exact opposite. The correct phrase is “I couldn’t care less,” which implies the speaker could not care any less about the subject.

“I could care less” gives the idea that whoever is speaking could, indeed, care less, which still implies some level of interest in the topic.

Susan Moackler

Overland Park