Letters: Readers discuss Sen. Moran’s health care vote, the eclipse and accidents on 435
Citizens first
I want to thank Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran for his brave stand against the disastrous Senate health care bill. (July 18, 1A, “Moran decision derails health care bill, for now”)
I am not a Kansas resident, but I salute him for putting his constituents above his party — something my Republican senator will never do.
Cathy Callicoat
North Kansas City
Eclipse action
Hey, Kansas City Star, you left us out. Unlike some of the other towns you featured that are miles off the center, we are directly under the center of the eclipse. (July 16, 1A, “Dark matters”)
We too are planning big things, so check out
marshallmosolareclipse
.com
Betty O’Dell Simonson
Marshall, Mo.
A class act
I met James B. Nutter when my father and I started a residential appraisal business more than 30 years ago. We were honored when he agreed to use our services.
Each Christmas, I would stop by his office to thank him, and he invariably called me into his office to talk. He would regale me with amazing and funny stories of the people both famous and notorious he had encountered, politics and business.
His integrity, love of his city and unshakeable belief in the need for equal opportunities for all Kansas Citians, and indeed all Americans, were inspiring.
He prospered because his business was one of the first to extend the opportunity of owning a home to veterans through VA loans and to low- and moderate-income borrowers through FHA loans at a time many lenders would not touch them because they considered them too risky.
Nutter’s legacy lives on through the charitable gifts he made and the public service by the political leaders he supported, and in the boost in life he provided thousands of families by making the loans that allowed them to become homeowners.
Jack Shelton
Overland Park
Right to work
Union bosses have no shame when it comes to denying workers the freedom to tell a union they do not want to join and have money taken out of their paychecks to help promote big labor’s liberal political agenda. They are currently leading a petition campaign to stop reform in the state before it has the chance to work for Missourians.
Right to work gives workers the freedom to refuse to join a union as a condition of employment.
Union bosses do not like right to work because it requires the unions to be responsive to the members’ needs and not to the wishes of big labor bosses in Washington, D.C. For example, many local union members support the Second Amendment, while labor leaders in Washington, D.C., work to weaken Americans’ right to bear arms.
Missouri would not be the first right-to-work state, and studies show the reform benefits workers. In fact, they indicate right-to-work policies lead to faster-growing wages, economic growth and lower unemployment.
Why would union bosses stand in the way of better wages and economic growth? It’s because right to work empowers the worker and not the union bosses.
Sen. Will Kraus
Lee’s Summit
Mother tongue
Because of my age, I fear it’s too late to learn Russian.
Jim Dunn
Parkville
Road hazards
You can’t be surprised by the number of traffic accidents on Interstate 435 in Overland Park lately. The speed limit through the perpetual construction zone is, of course, 55 mph, but everybody is driving 70 mph and faster, with nary a cop in sight.
And the number of big rigs on the roads nowadays? Don’t even get me started.
Rick Feitz
Blue Springs
Streetcar vote
In the Sunday Star, there was a small article about the streetcar expansion. (4A, “KC streetcar to get maintenance as expansion voting continues”) I am among the 5,700 people mailed a ballot regarding the streetcar, and I feel we as a group have been highly manipulated by City Hall.
Not only has this proposal been confined to a mere 5,700 residents instead of a citywide vote, which it deserves, but the city has made voting against this expansion incredibly convoluted in hopes that we will all just give up and not bother to vote at all.
I am neutral on the expansion but outraged that this vote isn’t citywide. Why isn’t such a costly project that concerns all Kansas City residents put on a yes-or-no ballot?
Wake up, you 5,700. We are being royally had. So vote.
Judith Boasberg
Kansas City
This story was originally published July 18, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Sen. Moran’s health care vote, the eclipse and accidents on 435."