Letters: Readers discuss the March for Our Lives, cultural dysfunction and the Savoy Grill
Adults can help
This weekend, Kansas City will host a March for Our Lives demonstration in Theis Park. Across the country, these marches are opportunities for a new generation of leaders to demand that our government take action to end gun violence. I am beyond excited to march alongside these exceptional students.
However, I have grown frustrated by some adults’ reactions to these protests. Some teachers and administrators are penalizing students for marching. Some parents are ridiculing those who believe the protests can make a difference.
If it weren’t for my teachers and my parents, I wouldn’t be marching this weekend. I wouldn’t know the importance my voice has in my community.
So I am saying to parents and teachers: You have the opportunity to enfranchise the children in your life and transform history. This weekend, offer to drive your children to the march, or better yet, ask to march with them. Teachers, ask your students to share their stories of the march with the rest of the class.
Most importantly, encourage them to voice their opinions. With your support, we have the opportunity to transform history and empower a new generation.
David Boedeker
Kansas City
What happened?
How did we reach the point where our federal representatives became unable to make a decision in favor of U.S. citizens, and we allow them to stay in elected offices?
In Kansas, we continue to re-elect one senator who hasn’t had a residence in Kansas for several decades and other representatives who vote in lockstep with Washington GOP lobbyists.
Their lobbyist funding is simple: accept and obey, perhaps best illustrated by the National Rifle Association.
Maybe the NRA and Congress are right: Why should we place rules around the sale of semi-automatic rifles when discussing protecting our children? Granted, these firearms were designed to assault and kill people rather than be used for hunting, but they’re fun to shoot. So are M60 machine guns and M79 grenade launchers. Approve them as well?
Is the focus of schools education? Apparently not to Congress. It’s more reasonable to turn schools into child-retention fortresses with restricted entry and easier to clothe our students in body armor. Road barriers and moats would be good. Land mines would probably be excessive.
How could America have reached this point? God help us.
This is from a 74-year-old U.S. Marine Corps veteran, gun owner and registered Republican.
Joe McMillain
Olathe
No to feedlot
Stench — an ugly word signifying an ugly odor, a word associated with feedlots, the product of thousands of animals kept in close confinement.
Nobody wants to be near a stench. But that is what the residents of western Johnson County, Mo., will have if their new neighbor turns out to be the vastly expanded Valley Oaks Steak Co. feedlot on U.S. 50 east of Lone Jack. Nearly 7,000 head of cattle will stink up the place for miles around.
Three miles due east and usually downwind of the proposed expansion sits Powell Gardens, visited by more than 100,000 visitors each year. It is one of Kansas City’s gems, 30 years in the making. Will people come when there is feedlot stench?
Missouri’s Department of Natural Resources has a history of ignoring the rights of local residents who object to proposed additions to their communities. The department places the rights of the applicant above the rights of the local citizens.
I encourage all of us to raise our voices in protest. With enough uproar, the department could honor the obligations placed on it by the state constitution and protect the well-being of all residents over the interests of a few.
David Earls
Lee’s Summit
Not my Savoy
“Oh … my … god.” This was the reaction when my wife saw the photo in The Star last Friday of what was being done to the Savoy Grill. (12A, “Iconic Savoy Grill will be reopening with a local chef”)
There are cafeterias and airport restaurants that have a more inviting look. The company redeveloping the hotel proudly pledged to The Star in 2015 that the “dark-paneled walls will be kept, along with its original stained glass, the bar and its famous front-room booths.”
Well goodbye to all that.
The Savoy was a destination location where I would take clients and visitors to the city. It was not unusual for them later to ask to pay another visit to the restaurant for a relaxing and succulent meal. It was always full, but you never felt rushed.
The new owners can say what they want about their new chef, but it’s clear from the unappealing, cookie-cutter look and packed-in chairs that they are going for volume. And that’s fine. There are plenty of other places to take guests and leisurely meet with friends.
The owners can inflict whatever business model they wish, and I hope they make a million bucks.
But please, change the name. Don’t insult Kansas Citians by calling this the Savoy. Just let the name pass quietly into history.
Dennis M. Giangreco
Kansas City
This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss the March for Our Lives, cultural dysfunction and the Savoy Grill."