Letters: Readers discuss Johnson County transit, the term ‘senior’ and Billy Graham

Keep it at home

The tone-deaf, tax-and-spend Johnson County Commission sees an advantage to using “$300,000 in available funds” to support bus service for non-residents of Johnson County commuting to jobs in the private sector. (Feb. 7, 1A, “Bus plan to help workers get to jobs”)

The most obvious question: What are “available funds”? Does the county budget include play money that can be spread around?

And Commissioner Steve Klika isn’t satisfied with the original service proposal. He wants midday bus service as well. Why not include stops at the mall, grocery store and so on so it’s ultraconvenient? And what do the county commissioners believe the county will reap from this experiment? It won’t raise tax revenue because the employees will spend mostly in their home cities.

We were told in the recent past that the county must have its tax increase to fund libraries, parks, a new courthouse and mass transit. I guess that meant transit for non-residents.

Reed Plate

Overland Park

Offensive term

It is time to stop using the antiquated term “senior” when referring to older adults. It is patronizing, demeaning, discriminatory and hurtful to many. The term likely has origins in the 1930s and became essentially codified in common language with the Medicare Act of 1965.

We have junior and senior faculty, researchers and business partners. We do not have “junior” adult human beings, and we should not label older adult human beings “seniors.” No other group is identified with a patronizing label rather than its age demographics — adolescents, young adults, middle-age adults, older adults.

I am professionally and personally offended by this language. “Senior” is also a marketing ploy, with inconsistent ages from 55 to 70.

As for “senior discounts,” I encourage older adults to refuse the term and call it what it is: an age discount. That works and is understood.

In the July 2017 issue of Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, an editorial says the journal “will require that authors use the term ‘older adult’ when describing individuals aged 65 and older.”

We should all do the same.

Sharee A. Wiggins

Overland Park

Run the numbers

As a civil service retiree, I get any changes in my pay or withholding sent to me. I couldn’t help but notice that as my pay increased, my tax withholding decreased by a very similar amount — yet I’m in the same tax bracket before and after the tax cut.

Result: I get a bigger paycheck now but will get a much smaller tax refund next year (after the November 2018 election).

How many of you who are cheering the tax cut have checked to see if this applies to you, too? And, yes, I have factored in the increased standard deduction.

This isn’t true for all taxpayers, but I think it’s true for many if not most of us.

Face the facts. If you’re not a millionaire, you got conned. The Koch brothers and the politicians they buy are laughing all the way to the bank.

Bob Ferguson

Kansas City, Kan.

It’s over now

To the Kansas GOP:

I’m a lifelong conservative, and you no longer have my vote. Better to elect Democrats (at least they are clear about their motives) and hasten the reckless spending that adds trillions to our debt.

Shame on the U.S. Senate for burying last week’s appropriation decision under the Honoring Hometown Heroes Act. You dishonor the real heroes with your feckless conduct.

Mike Weaver

Lansing

Signs of health?

Can you say “irrational exuberance” about the stock market? It’s been that way — irrational — since the current president took office.

The Trump administration keeps trying to tell us the economy is in good shape. So why for the last year have I kept seeing stories where retail chains are closing many of their locations or laying off people?

Several major businesses here in Kansas City are going to shutter their doors or are in financial trouble, such as Harley-Davidson, Teva Pharmaceutical and Procter & Gamble.

Don’t tell me the economy is doing well.

Becky Leith

Raytown

Novelty needed

That Billy Graham’s column is on the comics page is somehow appropriate. But if The Star must be religious, it should add daily Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Bahai, Shinto and other columnists. Otherwise, lose Graham and make room for something that matters to a wider swath of subscribers.

Also on the comics page, new daily offerings from Garry Trudeau’s “Doonesbury” have been missing for at least a year. On television it would be called dead air. In The Star it might be called dead space.

Isn’t it time to move forward on both fronts?

Mike White

Kansas City

This story was originally published February 11, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Johnson County transit, the term ‘senior’ and Billy Graham."