Letters: Readers discuss pampered teens, trickle-down economics and licensing doctors

Seen not heard

The great unwashed, the current generation of coddled, pampered and excused teenagers who don’t know the word punishment has been taken down the primrose path. As usual, the culprits are the liberal media and liberal activists, and these kids have taken the bait hook, line and sinker.

As is their custom, these liberals do nothing but stir the pot and then step back.

We do not need children running for governor or setting policy. Hopefully, they will come to their senses by the time they grow up.

Ken Hedden

Parkville

Care for seniors

We are a nation of great compassion for abused animals. We see ads showing them starving and shivering with no medical care — abused and neglected, cowering in whatever bit of shelter they might find.

With the irresponsible attacks on Medicare, Medicaid, SNAP and Social Security by the party of “family values,” will our low-income seniors and the disabled be moving into the shelters from which the animals were removed? Will we see the same ads, except with hungry, shivering, sick human beings?

Trickle-down economics was deployed by President Ronald Reagan to excuse his massive tax breaks for the rich, and the GOP is still trying to deceive us. If ludicrous tax breaks to Missouri’s wealthy worked, the state’s economy would not rank among the bottom half in the country.

The first law of medicine is “do no harm.” Act now to defend these safety-net programs. Put your overpriced, fancy phone — the one that cost twice a month’s groceries for a senior — to good use to save older Missourians, who paid taxes all their lives so they would have a safety net when they were elderly and needed it. Call your legislators.

Jan Lancaster

Springfield, Mo.

Security funding

The March for Our Lives students want more gun control. But Second Amendment activists say no gun control and instead our schools should be secured.

So how about a law slapping a $10 fee on every gun sale, with the money dedicated to securing the almost 100,000 public school buildings in our country? With about 25 million guns sold per year in the U.S., all our schools could be secured within a few years.

Michael Cunningham

Kansas City

Voting tomorrows

On Saturday, hundreds of thousands of people gathered around the nation to protest a lack of sensible gun control. Many of the organizers were high school and college students. They are our future.

Here, 5,000 to 6,000 people assembled in Theis Park. Several groups from Kansas and Missouri, including the Kansas City League of Women Voters, registered more than 250 new voters.

Politicians take notice: If you don’t change your minds on sensible gun control, we will change your faces.

Susan K. Scholl

Kansas City

Reporting doctors

In response to your article concerning doctors who lose their licenses only to move to other states and be relicensed (March 26, 4A, “Doctor was sued for malpractice 13 times, but he’s in ‘good standing’”): As a retired attorney, I’m often asked why so many attorneys are disbarred. It’s not that there are a lot of bad attorneys. It’s because attorneys police themselves.

You can get disbarred for anything that has even the appearance of impropriety. If you are disbarred, every other state will honor that decision by your state bar association and will not issue you another license. In fact, if you as an attorney know of another attorney who has acted with the appearance of impropriety and don’t report him or her to the bar, then you can be disbarred.

If doctors held their own accountable with the same consequences, both to the incompetent doctor and to themselves, then malpractice insurance costs would plummet and people seeking medical care would be better served.

Until doctors decide to blow the whistle on their incompetent colleagues, health care will not improve.

Allen DeCamp

Shawnee

Gordo’s price

I saw that the Royals played two exhibition games the other day. It was one of those deals with half the team forming one squad and the other half playing another game. The Royals won one game 9-5 and lost the other 10-0.

I did not even have to look at the boxscore to know which team Alex Gordon was on. He was on the team that got shut out, and he had his usual 0-fer

Can the Royals really keep that massive hole in their lineup?

Ken Brill

Kansas City

This story was originally published March 28, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss pampered teens, trickle-down economics and licensing doctors."