Letters: Readers discuss standing up for Greitens’ rights, Easter animals and Facebook
Greitens’ rights
As the largest African-American clergy organization in the state, the Ecumenical Leadership Council of Missouri stands in stark opposition to some of the political policies of Gov. Eric Greitens. We want to provide health coverage for more Missourians through Medicaid and repeal right to work.
Still, we recognize that although he has been charged with serious ethical and legal violations, he is still Missouri’s governor and deserves the same legal protections that we all deserve. In other words, he deserves due process.
Circuit Attorney Kim Gardner is a highly skilled professional prosecutor, widely recognized for her integrity and non-partisan approach to prosecuting those accused of criminal behavior. She will present the evidence and let the jury or judge decide the outcome.
With that said, unless or until a jury of his peers pronounces him guilty, Greitens is still Missouri’s 56th governor, and like all of us he should benefit from the presumption of innocence, by the public and the media.
Bishop Lawrence M.
Wooten
President, Ecumenical
Leadership Council
of Missouri
St. Louis Chapter
Think of animals
Every year, animal rescue volunteers save abandoned ducks from ponds and unwanted rabbits from parks. Large numbers are turned over to shelters and rescue groups who struggle to find homes for them.
Domestic rabbits, ducks and chickens cannot survive for long in the wild despite what the seller might have told you. The birds can’t fly, and no domestic animals know how to hide from predators or find food, so they usually fall victim to hawks, dogs and coyotes, or they die from starvation.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say ducks and chickens should not be handled by young children because of the risk of salmonella exposure, which can result in hospitalization and even death.
As a veterinarian, I ask you: Please don’t buy an animal you don’t plan to keep for 10 to 20 years.
Choose toys and treats for your Easter baskets.
Julie Burge
Grandview
Shut it down
If Facebook were an airline, a food-handling business or an amusement park, it would be closed.
It should give subscribers a month to copy the information they want to keep, then fold. The geniuses could go back to the drawing board and invent another billion-dollar bilking business — and this time, figure out how to write a code that doesn’t allow theft of personal information and constant invasive monitoring.
I never created a Facebook account because just going through the preliminary steps made me uncomfortable. If someone like me, who likes to be social, was warned off by simple questions that clearly were formed to place me in a commercial box, imagine how vulnerable someone less wary is.
Good riddance to what is now old technology. We shouldn’t be selling our lives to get a peek into our neighbors’ business and social lives.
Ellen Murphy
Mission Hills
Help children
Given the recent horrific massacres at our schools and the continued national conversation about gun laws, I applaud the University of Kansas Medical Center for purchasing the former Environmental Protection Agency building in Kansas City, Kan., in order to provide mental health services for our young people. (March 22, 16A, “KU Health plans mental health facility at former EPA building”)
Mental health services are severely needed for our youngsters. However, while necessary, they are insufficient.
This is a two-prong issue. Yes, good mental health is absolutely essential. But easy access to weapons that are intended to kill people, and not intended for hunting, must also be addressed.
Some good ideas have been promulgated by a wide spectrum of people. Waiting periods to purchase guns, outlawing bump stocks, eliminating assault rifles, eliminating large-capacity magazines and restricting assault weapons from people under the age of 21 are but a few ideas that have been advanced.
The right to bear arms for a well-regulated militia is a constitutional right. However, shouldn’t the common good temper our constitutional rights? Shouldn’t they be tempered by asking, Do we have a civil society?
Protect our children — yes. Protect the National Rifle Association — not so much.
Jim Caccamo
Kansas City
Evenly applied
Our president wants to punish drug pushers with the death penalty. Does that mean the Sackler family and Purdue Pharma, making billions off Oxycontin and denying its addictive properties, would be subject to the same discipline?
Everett Murphy
Kansas City
This story was originally published March 25, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss standing up for Greitens’ rights, Easter animals and Facebook."