Letters: Readers discuss school bus safety, Trump voters, Castro, gun dealers and ‘draining the swamp’
Weapon on wheels
In the wake of the recent school bus crash in Chattanooga, Tenn., I feel compelled to write as I hear officials calling for school bus standardization and seat belts.
Although I do not disagree that seat belts would be helpful, I think the larger point is being missed. More care and concern should go into who is driving the school bus. This applies to the school districts doing the hiring and to the states issuing driver permits.
My husband was struck by a school bus while walking in a crosswalk with the signal. By God’s grace he survived with minor injuries.
The bus driver had multiple suspensions and revocations, yet the state issued this person a permit to drive a bus.
Let us look at the individuals being hired to care for children in what is, for all intents and purposes, a deadly weapon when misused.
Michelle Williams
Raytown
Virtual reality life
After reading about Alaskan islands sinking (11-30, A7, “Alaska towns in path of climate change face wrenching choices”) and Tennessee going up in flames (11-30, A1), I see Missouri director of Americans for Prosperity Jeremy Cady says Sen. Roy Blunt should reject pleas for “special giveaways” from lobbyists — a job held by members of Blunt’s family (11-30, A8, “Missourians are counting on Sen. Blunt to fix a broken system”).
I concluded it was a Disneyland program written by climate change deniers and Cady.
I almost forgot: The proposed new Treasury secretary is a former Goldman Sachs partner. Keep draining the swamp.
David Barber
Kansas City
Enjoy agony?
A recent letter writer said that as a conservative he enjoys seeing “liberals agonize” over the election of Donald Trump.
Why would anyone enjoy watching his fellow human beings agonize over anything? This is not a sporting event, even though I personally don’t enjoy the agony of an opponent losing the game.
Vicki Brown
Overland Park
Castro’s ‘truth’
In the early 1990s, a strange epidemic appeared in rural Cuba, with thousands of people, mostly adult men, going blind, paralyzed and demented. Fidel Castro announced, on the state-controlled media, that it was caused by “a virus that had been secretly smuggled into Cuba by the CIA.”
A team of American scientists went to investigate. It quickly became clear that the epidemic was actually a nutritional and toxic disorder, caused by lack of thiamine and vitamin B12 in the rural diet (a consequence of the cessation of food subsidies after the collapse of the Soviet empire), combined with the effects of cigar smoke and poor-quality homemade rum.
An international plea for help was made. American and European pharmaceutical companies responded by donating large quantities of vitamin supplements, and the epidemic quickly ended.
Shortly after that, Castro again went on the air and begrudgingly conceded that the donated vitamins had arrested the epidemic. But he was quick to emphasize that the problem had nothing to do with Cuba’s bountiful, overflowing, glorious food supply.
No, the vitamins had “killed off the CIA virus.”
John R.W. Taylor,
M.D.
Kansas City
Gun dealers
The $2.2 million wrongful-death settlement against the Odessa Gun & Pawn Shop for selling a gun to a woman, despite her mother’s pleas to the dealer that her daughter was mentally ill and should not have a gun, sets a much-needed precedent (11-23, A1, “Missouri gun shop will pay $2 million in death”).
I hope this will lead to numerous suits against gun dealers who put their own profits above their responsibility to protect all Americans from those who should never have a gun.
I further suggest that Congress repeal the 2005 federal law that provides wide immunity for gun manufacturers and dealers against general negligence claims.
In fact, we could probably eliminate the need for the government to be involved in background checks and other firearms regulations if we held gun manufacturers and dealers fully responsible.
Multimillion dollar settlements would certainly encourage them to police themselves.
Steve Williamson
Kansas City
This story was originally published November 30, 2016 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss school bus safety, Trump voters, Castro, gun dealers and ‘draining the swamp’."