Letters: Readers discuss the U.S.’ role in the world, cursive handwriting and gun laws
Start at home
Why has the United States decided we are the world’s policemen?
I am much more concerned with things that affect me, my family, my friends and other members of my society.
If other countries are not happy with their leaders, let them handle their own problems. We have enough problems of our own.
Giving up our soldiers’ lives and our money to support countries that consider us the “Great Satan” does not make sense to me.
Gary Levin
Overland Park
Teach cursive
Many schools no longer teach children to read and write in cursive, thinking it is no longer a necessary skill. I disagree.
Anything you want or need to write by hand is much faster in cursive:
▪ Writing a quick reminder note to yourself, or any note to someone else.
▪ Making lists, such as a shopping list or a to-do list.
▪ Writing checks.
▪ Taking notes at a meeting. In cursive, I can write 45 words a minute, so this is more convenient than taking a laptop or tablet everywhere.
▪ Even though I type 80 words a minute, taking phone orders for my business is much faster in cursive on paper order forms. Plus, I have a hard copy when I’m done and none of my clients’ personal information went through my computer, where it could be hacked.
▪ Power outages or dead batteries do not prevent you from writing quickly in cursive. All you need is pen and paper.
▪ You won’t be able to read historic documents or family letters from your parents and grandparents if you don’t learn to read cursive.
Paula Daub
Kansas City
Respect for women
Thank you, Mary Sanchez, for your Dec. 31 commentary, which really touches on how I and most of my friends are feeling after this election. (2A, “Rockettes balk at dancing for our POTUS-to-be”)
When one of the Radio City Rockettes was recently interviewed as to why she was declining to perform at the inaugural festivities, she replied, “This is not a Republican or Democrat issue — this is a women’s rights issue. This is an issue of racism and sexism, something that’s much bigger than politics.”
I am not upset because my candidate lost. I am deeply sad and depressed that the man who has been elected to this country’s highest office treats women as sex objects.
I can’t imagine any father saying or even thinking some of the comments our future president has made about his daughter, such as on ABC’s “The View” in 2006. “If Ivanka weren’t my daughter, perhaps, I would be dating her.”
And in a 2015 Rolling Stone interview, “Yeah, she’s really something, and what a beauty, that one. If I weren’t happily married and, ya know, her father …”
Need I say more?
Linda Yates
Kansas City
Gun-law loopholes
A Jan. 1 letter by the president of the Western Missouri Shooters Alliance explained that gun buyers have been subject to “a background-check system for more than 20 years.”
This may be true, but what it failed to mention is that there is no law that prevents children from accidentally shooting their playmates because parents don’t have trigger locks on every weapon that they believe the Second Amendment and their God deem is their right to own. Besides, anyone can easily get the key to a trigger guard.
Guns are sold to the mentally ill all the time. There is no registry of people with mental illness, and as the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre showed, a person with a gun can murder as many children and teachers as possible.
There are more loopholes in gun laws than the NRA will admit. Individuals can buy guns out of a home or a pickup truck.
So we are no safer now than before these so-called gun laws existed.
Steven Addison
Kansas City
Positive news
Kudos to The Star for such a positive and uplifting Sunday issue to start the new year off right!
A friend and I were just talking Saturday about how depressing the news has been on TV and radio with all the stories of gloom and doom. It was so refreshing to hear positive things that were happening in this day and age. Thanks again and keep up the good work.
Peggy McQuitty
Kansas City
Selective outrage
President Barack Obama is mid-hissy fit over Russian spying on the U.S. I recall German Chancellor Angela Merkel calling out Obama for surveillance on her cellphone in October 2013 . Apparently Obama has selective memory.
Our elected officials’ united and loud barking of foul play without providing credible proof is reminiscent of weapons of mass destruction. What’s next, a color-coded spy alert of the day?
Ronnie A. Sturdevant
Kansas City
This story was originally published January 2, 2017 at 8:56 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss the U.S.’ role in the world, cursive handwriting and gun laws."