Letters: Readers discuss Ethnic Enrichment fest, Russian tactics and the eclipse
We were enriched
My daughter and I spent last Friday evening renewing our faith in humanity and in our Kansas City community at the Ethnic Enrichment Festival at Swope Park.
Strangers shared ethnic foods at picnic tables as they described their cultures. Both quiet and boisterous pride showed through smiles and well-prepared native dances in costume.
This joyous and inclusive event magnified what living in our country and our city should emphasize: the wonderful, diverse world we inhabit and the need for all people to be able to share it, lovingly, peacefully together.
Judy Joss
Kansas City
Too little, too late
With all due respect to Missouri state Sen. Maria Chappelle-Nadal and her heartfelt apology for her remarks, they appear to be contrived and self-serving. (Aug. 21, 4A, “Senator apologizes after post hoping for Trump’s assassination”)
Yes, no one is perfect, and we’ve all made mistakes — some large, some not. This was a huge mistake and deserves a penalty. If she had turned in her resignation and then made her apologies and remorseful statements, they may have attracted more understanding.
Her second chance can be granted only after the Senate exercises its constitutional duty to expel her. After she’s suffered the consequences of her actions (resignation or expulsion), let her make appeals, retractions and apologies to the voters in her district to see if she deserves a second chance.
As it stands, her remarks fall on deaf ears.
C.K. Baber
Village of Loch Lloyd
Flooded again
I just heard with relief that Jasper’s Restaurant and Watts Mill Shopping Center were spared in Monday night’s flooding. But not all the merchants nearby were that lucky.
Have we gotten so used to hearing 103rd Street was hit again that we have become numb? I’m thinking about all the wonderful merchants from State Line to Wornall Roads.
My questions to the Army Corps of Engineers and our government: When are you taking responsibility for Indian Creek? How many more merchants have to sustain loss? Yes, we need to be grateful for those who were spared, but we need to act now.
Kathie Allison
Kansas City
New Russia?
Thousands of hours and millions of dollars are being spent investigating the Trump campaign’s knowledge of Russia’s election interference. It seems those efforts should instead focus on America not becoming Russia. As we approach the 100th anniversary of Red October of the Bolshevik Revolution, too many similarities exist.
The revolutionaries began with criticism of the government, massive protests, violent demonstrations, killing of government guards, desecration and removal of historical monuments and death threats against the czar.
Today: a million protesters at the inauguration; raucous town hall meetings; wall-to-wall anti-administration cable TV shows; violent demonstrations in Baltimore, Ferguson, Mo., and Charlottesville, Va.; targeted murders of police officers in Florida, Dallas and other cities; a growing crusade against historic monuments; and now a Missouri state senator calling for the assassination of the president.
Perhaps our condition is more hate than politics. Martin Luther King Jr. warned of the toll hatred takes in a November 1957 sermon at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Ala. He said: “Hate distorts the personality of the hater … the beautiful becomes ugly, and the ugly becomes beautiful.”
We should heed this message, stop the hatred and hope we do not become Russia.
Steve Maurin
Kansas City, Kan.
Scientific facts
Not all eclipses serve just as a scientific novelty.
Physicist Albert Einstein proved that his math equations, based on his theory of relativity, were correct through an eclipse. Einstein said in his theories that the sun’s gravity would bend light, and it checked out by seeing the light from distant stars without the sun interfering. Stars could be seen in different places as the light was near the corona (or outer edge) of the sun. The differences were slight, but the world’s best astronomers certified the changes during an eclipse.
Einstein’s results contradicted Isaac Newton’s theories about time and matter. They also solved problems about Mercury’s orbits that had puzzled astronomers.
They also undermined Adolf Hitler’s proclamations that Jews like Einstein were a problem for Germany.
Fortunately, Einstein immigrated to the U.S. because of Hitler. And we now use his equations routinely in science to solve problems.
Edson Parker
Overland Park
This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Ethnic Enrichment fest, Russian tactics and the eclipse."