Readers share views on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Michelle Obama and immigration
Trans-Pacific pact
If the Trans-Pacific Partnership passes, we will need to change our Pledge of Allegiance to better reflect the new circumstances. A more accurate version would sound like this:
“I pledge blind allegiance to the blood-stained flag of profit, and to the oligarchy for which it stands, one unrecognizably divided nation, under the money-god, with unconstitutional spying on Americans and justice for those with money and connections.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership is like the North American Free Trade Agreement on steroids.
NAFTA ultimately sent 5 million jobs overseas. This Trans-Pacific Partnership is a bad idea and has been kept secret for the last six years while your and my futures have been manipulated, shaped, designed and compromised to maximize profits for multinational corporations.
These are the same people who brought down Wall Street, with no one going to prison. They are now pulling the strings connected to a lot of the world’s commerce. Sadly, our president doesn’t get it and is pushing for the passage of this horrible partnership.
Just remember, when NAFTA went through, the powers that be promised us prosperity and a lot of jobs.
Well, how did that work out for Americans? This next manifestation of so-called free trade will, at best, turn our country into a large sweatshop.
James L. Wrolstad
Liberty
First lady’s speech
I am writing to encourage your readers and especially to encourage African-American students to pull up first lady Michelle Obama’s heartfelt and motivational commencement address this month at my alma mater, Tuskegee University, a historically black university in Alabama.
Although some in the media viewed the address as racially charged when Mrs. Obama talked about her own challenges as America’s first African-American first lady, I sincerely believe that for students everywhere, the first lady did an excellent job of chronicling the plight of well-trained, well-educated African-Americans and how they have created a blueprint for today’s students in overcoming obstacles for finding success in giving back to America.
Enjoy the speech at www.youtube.com/
watch?v=qhUKwl5NFgE.
Edward C. Wills
Raymore
$70,000 salary
I find it very amusing conservative radio commentator Rush Limbaugh is complaining about Dan Price, chief executive officer of Gravity Payments, raising the minimum pay at his company to $70,000.
This man owns this company. If he wants to pay that much, that is his business. Maybe Price thinks of his employees as more than just numbers on time cards.
Since the late 1970s, compensation for chief executive officers has reached astronomical levels. No longer do most employers think of their employees as more than just numbers on time cards.
If more employers took the time to really appreciate their employees then they might see more productivity out of them. All it takes is getting to know your employees a little bit.
Go out of the office once in a while and say hi. If workers do a good job, tell them about it.
You would be surprised how well it works.
Dennis Parker
Independence
Royals dressed up
After viewing the Kansas City Royals and their Monarchs replica uniforms, I think they should adopt the look (5-18, B1, “Monarchs for day”).
The members of the team looked like ballplayers. Their pants did not drag on the ground. I would think this look would raise the strike zone, eliminating low strikes, and the uniform might just be cooler.
Also, it certainly didn’t hurt their hitting.
Jim Anderson
Overland Park
Immigration tangle
Republicans rant about the president’s executive order regarding immigration, but why haven’t they passed immigration reform? Why haven’t they discussed the Senate-passed bill on immigration?
The more than 11 million undocumented people did not arrive in the U.S. just during the last six years.
Consider the hazardous, unpleasant work in the meat-packing plants, chicken processing and corporate farms. Illegal immigrants work these jobs because Americans won’t work for the wages that corporate greed has reduced them to. Keeping a large number of immigrants in the dark assures a continuous supply of cheap labor.
It’s all in the 30-plus-year plan to break the unions, lower wages to benefit corporations and repay those who keep them in office.
At the other end of the spectrum are H-1B visas. Republicans want an increase in these visas to supply corporations with educated immigrants. These immigrants, some of whom come here to study and overstay their visas, are willing to work for less than Americans with degrees in engineering and the technical fields.
It’s all about the corporate bottom line.
Marlene Cooper
Raytown
Vets4Energy
Fifteen years ago, the U.S. Congress passed “The National Moment of Remembrance Act,” to encourage Americans to remember the purpose of Memorial Day and to share a moment of silence.
As a veteran, I especially hope that you will embrace this moment, take a break from whatever you’re doing at 3 p.m. Monday and maintain sixty seconds of silence in honor of the brave military men and women who have given their lives in service to America.
I would like to ask you to join me and millions of other veterans in what we think is a most fitting tribute to them: our ongoing campaign to lessen the likelihood of war (and the casualties it causes) by securing the energy independence of America.
If we made full use of the abundant energy resources we have right here in America, there would be no need to risk the lives of our military men and women in defense of other nations’ resources.
Vets4Energy supports an all-of-the-above approach to domestic energy development. Fossil fuels, nuclear, wind, solar, hydro, bio — let’s develop them all!
This Memorial Day, join the battle for an energy-independent America.
Will Kraus
Missouri Senate
Lee’s Summit
Tax shell game
I think it is time for the Republican Party to tell us the truth about supply-side economics. They tell us if we lower taxes on the rich, they will increase jobs.
This in turn will generate more revenue in taxes and more than make up for the losses generated by the lower taxes for the rich.
Of course, it has never worked.
After President Ronald Reagan lowered taxes on the rich, he had to come back and raise taxes on everyone except the top earners. He still tripled the national debt.
Gov. Sam Brownback has said lowering taxes will create jobs, and any taxes lost would be made up by taxing the people who got the new jobs. Amazingly, this did not work, and now Kansas Republicans will raise new taxes by taxing everyone except the rich.
Isn’t it time the Republicans admit this is nothing more than a ruse to lower taxes on the rich and make it up by taxing the poor and middle class?
Thomas Galbreath
Independence
Housecleaning angels
I wish to thank the firefighters and paramedics in North Kansas City. I had been hospitalized five or six times, and each time they took me to the hospital.
My apartment had not had a deep cleaning. I used to say to them, “Please don’t look at my place because I didn’t have time and I was unable to clean.”
So, on one Saturday after I had been released from the hospital, I heard a knock at my door, and it was two firefighters. They said they wanted to clean my apartment and would be back on Tuesday the next week.
They came and brought their brooms and mops and cleaned my kitchen and bathroom. I asked whether they would clean my oven, and they did.
My sister had baked some cookies, so I made the firefighters take them. They said what they did was a community service.
My apartment was not filthy. It had just been neglected.
God bless all the firefighters and paramedics in North Kansas City.
I love you all.
Rose Cook
North Kansas City
This story was originally published May 22, 2015 at 6:14 PM with the headline "Readers share views on the Trans-Pacific Partnership, Michelle Obama and immigration."