Readers share views on President Barack Obama, girls basketball and TV news
Let’s show respect
The president should be addressed by his full name and not just his last name.
Could the people who run him down do a better job? I don’t think so.
I am just an old hillbilly. But as far as I am concerned, President Barack Obama is OK.
James Jacobs
Garden City, Mo.
Basketball parity
Why do people watch more boys basketball than girls basketball? I want to make a change in the world and make them be even.
Ellouise Sill
Age 8
Prairie Village
Incomplete reporting
While watching a Kansas City area television reporter interview a small-business owner regarding the recent minimum-wage increase, I had to scratch my head and say, “Whaaa?”
The owner was thrilled to pay her deserving employees more money. She lauded their hard work and the important part they played in her success. She said the increase was a great thing.
The questions I have for this completely lazy reporter is, why no follow-up to such a ridiculous statement? Why not ask this owner whether she was aware that she could pay her employees more any time she wanted?
She doesn’t have to wait for the government to force her.
I sincerely hope there were other viewers who were shaking their heads.
Linda Christian
Greenwood
Rob Lowe TV ads
I know this is silly, but pulling DirecTV ads featuring Rob Lowe as cool and uncool for deceptive advertising is ridiculous.
Am I then supposed to believe that all those anti-aging face creams work because they are still on TV ads? My hair will be thicker if I use advertised products?
Competition is alive and well, unless this isn’t America.
Margaret Kensinger
Raytown
Wild West Kansas
I know there are a lot of good people who live in Kansas, and I never thought I would say this because I used to travel through Kansas from Missouri to points west and south.
But with July 1 coming up, I will never set foot in Kansas and never spend a penny on an item shipped from Kansas (4-3, A1, “Gun permits won’t be required”). I hope a lot of people will see the folly in this new law.
It won’t happen right away, but Kansas could revert to the good old Wild West days. But this time you will not have to check your gun when you go into a saloon.
Russell Taylor
Blue Springs
High concert costs
I am frustrated big time. This month, Neil Diamond is coming to Kansas City for a concert at Sprint Center — a performance that old timers like me would like to attend. The cheapest tickets are about $60.
But then a service charge of $14.50 to $20.50 is added to the price of each ticket. This is ridiculous because it is totally an electronic transaction.
Nobody has to touch any part of the processing of these electronic tickets. Someone is laughing all the way to the bank.
I guess my wife and I will buy a copy of his best-hits CD and listen to it in the car while having a frosty at Wendy’s.
Dan Larson
Belton
State overstepping
Bigfoot is alive and stalking the Capitol in Jefferson City. I’m not referring to the creature said to lurk in Pacific Northwest forests.
Rather, it’s the trend of Missouri lawmakers to leave big footprints on jurisdictions closest to citizens.
The practice of “bigfooting” local governance is called pre-emption. It cancels locally enacted ordinances and policies and replaces them with a state law.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, in a story about pre-emption, said the Missouri Chamber of Commerce has made bigfooting a priority because local governments don’t support business. That’s sure not true in Kansas City or any other local government of which I am aware.
The Associated Press recently reported that “Republican lawmakers in Missouri’s Capitol often bristle at rules and requirements handed down from the federal government, saying they favor local authority in most matters. However, several GOP-supported proposals this year aim to hand down similar mandates to cities and counties across the state.”
As a board member and immediate past president of the Missouri Municipal League, I think this is hypocrisy, pure and simple. Missouri deserves better than a Jefferson City bigfoot lumbering down our Main Street.
Jan Marcason
4th District
Councilwoman
Kansas City
ASK to save lives
Let’s make it clear to even the most avid gun lover that we are not trying to take away your guns. We are trying to reduce gun violence.
We try to keep guns away from criminals, keep guns away from people with histories of domestic violence and reduce suicide by guns. Further, we try through the Asking Saves Kids program to stop child deaths when guns are in a home.
The ASK program is designed to train parents how to ask in a non-hostile and respectful way whether a loaded gun or a hidden gun is in a house where your kids play. The Northeast Kansas Brady Campaign to Reduce Gun Violence is promoting the ASK program.
Parents should call their school principals and ask that the program be made available. The American Academy of Pediatricians also promotes the ASK program nationally.
You can help make this lifesaving program available in your local school.
Harold Koch
Northeast Kansas
Brady Campaign
to Reduce Gun Violence
Leawood
Cigarette smuggling
Reflecting on the tax on cigarettes and the direct correlation to smuggling, I find it appalling. The higher the tax, the higher the rate of smuggling. Missouri has the lowest tax per pack in the nation at 17 cents. That is absurd.
So guess what happens? Smugglers come to states with low taxes, buy product, transport it to high-tax states and make big profits.
Why is Missouri’s tax rate so low?
I know the issue has been presented to the voters several times, and the tobacco lobby has financed its defeat.
Is it time for us to wake up? We are a laughingstock for the rest of the nation and are losing a significant source of revenue for the state.
Bob Burns
Blue Springs
Respect missing
As much as I strongly disagree with the current resident of the White House, I have respect for the office. I just wish President Barack Obama did.
Sandra Schifferle
Lansing
This story was originally published April 11, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on President Barack Obama, girls basketball and TV news."