Posted on Tue, Sep. 02, 2008

Light rail on Grand Boulevard

Just as we find that private enterprise, the railroads, are opposed to sharing their rails to benefit a transit hub at Union Station, we also learn that other private enterprise is uninterested in accommodating transit within their domain (8/28, A-1, “Transit route a sticking point; Power & Light District owner and the Sprint Center are not on board with light rail on Grand”).

This time it’s the Cordish Co. and the Sprint Center who are “alarmed” over the possibility of public transit intersecting their prized new developments. It is mind-boggling that either group would not be thanking their good fortune when finding the best alternatives for bringing public transit to their front door, potentially infusing riders and dollars into their economic worlds.

Once again, as a regional community, we need to insist that the best civic decisions are made to leverage our transit plan in a manner that gives our system the best chance for success. Let’s not find future generations scratching their heads, wondering what we were thinking when we mortgaged our transit future.

Matt Kauffman

Kansas City

The Cordish Co. is a major partner in the redevelopment of our once vibrant downtown, but one has to wonder how long we should be held hostage to their interests.

A Cordish representative writes, “Light rail through the district would have disastrous implications and would be terrible public policy.” These are not high-speed trains. How are they any more dangerous than a driver in a car talking on the cell phone, which we frequently see in the district? I wonder if it’s more to do with parking revenue than public safety.

Ultimately, the goal of the city is to get as many people in the district as possible. Given viable transit options, downtown Kansas City could become a destination for visitors and, to dream, suburbanites.

Michael Frost

Kansas City

I live downtown in the resident-rich area west of Grand, where my neighbors have been enthusiastic supporters of Power & Light. We were stunned and dismayed at Cordish’s position on the location of a rail line.

First, we are as capable as the residents of any densely populated city in maneuvering safely around light-rail lines. Second, we think the out-of-town Cordish Co. should now support local residents in what we want, which is light rail to the part of downtown where people from the outlying areas will most want to go.

Many of us have lately been feeling that we’ve neglected a bit the restaurants and bars in other parts of town. You understand what I’m saying?

Joseph H. Ford

Kansas City

Obama vs. bin Laden

Speaking last week in the Temple of Barackus, Mr. Obama’s remarkable naiveté was never more evident than when he said, “John McCain likes to say he will follow bin Laden to the gates of hell, but he won’t even go to the cave where he lives.”

Imagine, if you can, Obama decked out in special-ops gear, surrounded by his blue-suited Secret Service detail, tromping off into the mountains of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border. With a GPS unit to avoid wrong turns, Obama should have bin Laden under house arrest in a matter of days, if not hours.

Will bin Laden’s cave have his name on the door? Will there be a doorbell?

Go get ’em, Barack. You the man!

Wayne Byrd

Overland Park

Obama-Ayers TV ad

A recent television political ad questioned Barack Obama’s associations with radicals such as former Weather Underground member Bill Ayers. Instead of providing an open and honest public response to some of these questions, the Obama camp has attempted to intimidate television networks into not showing the ads and has threatened legal action against the group that created them.

I wonder if this is the kind of thing we could expect from a future Obama presidential administration whenever someone opposes his policies.

Obama’s association with dangerous people like Ayers gives me reservations regarding the content of his character. His reaction to ads exposing those associations only confirms those reservations.

Stephen M. Smith

Kansas City, Kan.

Democrats don’t hate America

Note to David Tritsch (8/28, Letters, “Democrats’ dim view of U.S.”): Democrats don’t hate America, but we are capable of distinguishing between the country and its hired help.

While other fringe-Republican letter writers have mostly been sticking to gentler talking points (Barack Obama has scary friends, he’s “not ready to lead” and Joe Biden’s “boring”), Tritsch rips the mask off demagoguery by questioning the patriotism of those supporting “America-haters” like Obama and Biden.

But here’s the thing: George W. Bush isn’t America. He’s a temporary occupant of the White House, and his policies have indeed gutted the treasury, bludgeoned the middle class and soiled America’s image.

Ignoring these things isn’t patriotism. It’s nationalistic blindness that just makes it more difficult for new leaders to put the country back on track.

Obama is ready to lead. His judgments on Iraq, diplomacy in Iran and putting Afghanistan at the center of counter-terrorism efforts are looking better with each passing day. And since John McCain agrees with President Bush on nearly every issue, it’s difficult to see how marking time in Washington bureaucracies improved his judgment.

Obama’s eager quest to fix what Bush broke with McCain’s blessings is proof enough for me he loves his country.

John Kerr

Lee’s Summit

David Tritsch stated, “Granted, many people are undergoing tough times, but when has government intervention ever helped?”

In the 1920s Republican Presidents Harding, Coolidge, and Hoover ran the country’s economy into the ground. It took Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt to provide the leadership needed to provide a “New Deal” for the American people and a return to economic prosperity.

When Roosevelt took over the presidency, millions were unemployed, businesses were closing, banks were going bankrupt and mortgages were being foreclosed. Sound familiar?

I, for one, am ready to give the Democrats an opportunity to prove that they can once again lead our nation in the right direction.

Joel Kallem

Kansas City

First of all, David Tritsch, I am a Democrat. Secondly, don’t you dare call me an America-hater. I love this country and the people in it. The majority of America’s people work very hard for what they have. Nothing can be taken for granted. We hope and pray each and every day that what we have won’t be yanked out from under us due to poor health or a greedy employer.

Democrats do not want more government. They want better government. They don’t want welfare. They want jobs available so they can give their children the security that you believe is already here. America is not secure. Our jobs are being sent to other countries where there is better education.

But there are alternatives. We need a new leader, not the same type of lousy McSame leadership that we’ve had for eight years. Barack Obama is the Democratic president who will turn this country around.

Michelle Smith

Kansas City

Palin’s lack of experience

John McCain has been ranting nonstop about Barack Obama’s perceived lack of experience, but he picks for his running mate a woman with absolutely no national or international experience.

And remember: The people who elected her also elected Sen. Ted Stevens and still think he’s just great. If McCain were to be elected, we would then have an old man and a totally inexperienced vice president running our country. Doesn’t sound good to me.

Maybe McCain just likes good-looking women who are younger than he is.

Lynne Weidmaier

Overland Park

Proud of Obama, Palin and U.S.

Regardless of which presidential candidate you support, seeing an African-American man and a woman run for the top jobs in our country is a sight for very sore eyes.

As an individual in her mid-50s, I remember the racial and gender separation and attitudes that kept minorities from achieving. Over the last few decades, many Americans wondered if it could ever be different, and last week we found that it could. The changing of anti-prejudicial laws, increased awareness taught in our schools, and sometimes-painful affirmative action have resulted in the slow affirmation that we all deserve the same opportunities.

Not that the fight is over: It’s not. It probably never will be. But to see these two individuals run for the highest offices in our country is at least partial validation that when change is needed, Americans change.

This child of the ’50s couldn’t be prouder.

Mary Bush

Leawood

Cindy McCain a role model

Gee, Glenn Dykstra (8/27, Letters): How would Cindy McCain have time to “submit recipes for cookies” when she has been in Georgia, working with the U.N.’s World Food Program, as she has done for quite some time? Also while in Georgia, she was meeting with representatives from the Halo Trust, discussing the removal of land mines that were strategically planted to injure innocent people looking for safety. Mrs. McCain just happens to serve on the board of Halo Trust as well.

And, in case that isn’t enough for you, she established the American Voluntary Medical Team in 1988.

No, you won’t see Mrs. McCain co-hosting “The View.” She has much better things to do with her time, and she is a true role model for all women.

Angela Carter

Overland Park

Health care for veterans

Greg King (8/26, Letters) was never given a “deal” of health care for life because he served in the military and went to Vietnam. Either he had a recruiter who lied to him — in which case he should have checked it out for himself — or he didn’t listen and just heard what he wanted.

Sam Graves does indeed deserve veterans’ votes. Before you disparage Mr. Graves or any other Republican because of mistreating veterans, learn the truth and check out the Democrats’ record.

I’m retired after 20 years in the Marines. And I’m a woman! I know the truth.

Lynn Harvey

Weston

‘Excessive’ police, firefighter pay

Yael Abouhalkah writes, “the City Council unfortunately spent millions in earnings tax revenues in the 1990s while handing out excessive pay raises to police officers and firefighters” (8/28, Opinion, “Why KC’s earnings tax matters to suburbs”).

What is the appropriate salary for a police officer to rush to an armed disturbance or a firefighter to run into a burning building? From what experience in doing either does Abouhalkah draw to conclude that the pay of police officers and firefighters is excessive? Generally, police officers and firefighters enjoy middle-class lifestyles, not much more. Is that excessive compensation for the jobs they perform?

Generally, citizens and their elected officials believe that the public is well served by police officers and firefighters and that the pay they receive is well deserved. The same cannot be said for newspaper columnists’ private-sector compensation rather than from tax dollars. However, newspaper columnists don’t often risk serious injury or death, nor are they required to even make sense.

Michael Lee Kobe

Kansas City, Kan.

National anthem isn’t sacred

Please tell me you’re joking, J.W. Dennis (8/24, Letters, “Bad behavior at Arrowhead”). Changing the lyrics to the national anthem is sacrilege? My dictionary defines the word as 1. misuse or violation of that which is consecrated to God or religion or 2. desecrating of anything sacred. Sir, there is nothing sacred about a nation’s theme.

Look at the words to the verse sung at all sporting events. There is no mention whatsoever of anything even remotely connected to God. Because this is the “land of the free,” fans can substitute “Chiefs” for “brave” in the national anthem if they choose.

There may be countries in the world where changing the words of a national anthem is a crime punishable by arrest and imprisonment, but America isn’t one of them, thank God.

Oh, and I think the Lord’s Prayer is safe. Last time I heard, no one was reciting it at sporting events.

Karen White

Hamilton, Mo.

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