Readers react to food safety, Syrian migrants and Kim Davis
Food safety in U.S.
New York University professor of nutrition food studies and public health Marion Nestle said people have been eating genetically engineered foods for decades without “a catastrophe” (9-6, A1, “Your dinner has been (forever) modified”). It took 50 years for our fearless regulators to ban most of the toxic pesticides author Rachel Carson warned us about in “Silent Spring.” The Food and Drug Administration waited 65 years before stopping the feeding of arsenic to chickens and 40 years before taking a few, timid steps to address antibiotic resistant bacteria on meat.
Then there’s the trans fats fiasco. When it comes to food safety in America, we are on our own.
Craig Volland
Kansas City, Kan.
Limited U.S. offer
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, the tempest-tossed to me:
I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
I guess this invitation does not apply to the women, men and children of Syria. Germany can take care of them this time.
Arlin Buyert
Leawood
Same-sex marriage
Kim Davis goes to jail for religious reasons, but I can’t find a Bible that condemns gay marriage at the exclusion of all else (9-6, A16, “Clerk’s actions shake truce on gay marriage”). Adultery, divorce, sex outside marriage, sure. What about the biblical injunction for a man to marry his brother’s widow upon his brother’s death? Taking the Lord’s name in vain could lead to refusing service.
I can imagine a bride or groom using the Lord’s name in vain, and we’re saying it might be perfectly legal for public servants to refuse to do what they’re paid to do and they’ve agreed to do.
Bill Underwood
Overland Park
Clinton’s campaign
Obstruction of justice. Cover-up. Dirty tricks. No, I am not reliving the news headlines of the 1970s or having flashbacks to the Nixon-era Watergate coverage. These things are coming to light with the reports of Hillary Clinton’s Democratic presidential campaign. I see the reports that her private, off-site, non-secure email server was forfeited to the FBI, and low and behold, what was on it? Nothing.
Surprise, it had been wiped clean. Pourquoi? Only she can tell.
As secretary of state from 2008 to 2012, she was required by federal law to use government-approved means of communication. What part of that do we not understand?
President Richard Nixon’s tapes had an 18-minute gap, presumably erased, and it cost him the presidency. I see no difference in the credibility of Clinton’s server being wiped and Nixon’s gap. Do you?
Hillary’s campaign trail should go right through the courtroom doors.
Richard Plackemeier
Kansas City
To Kim Davis
Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s (9-6, A16, “Clerk’s actions shake truce on gay marriage”).
Michael Costello
Olathe
Cuba’s problems
A free Cuba — not so. I share in the excitement of the American flag flying over Cuba.
Yet, one of the major downsides is the number of dissidents who still fill Cuba’s prisons.
How can we Americans celebrate President Barack Obama’s dream come true with a country having so many dissidents in prison?
And, now, Obama wants to return Guantanamo to the Cuban government.
Guantanamo Bay, the largest harbor on the island, houses the U.S. Naval base. It was acquired by the U.S. in 1903 and still is very strategic to our military interests. Hopefully, relations will improve with Cuba, but the process should be gradual and will take more than the year and a half Obama has left in office.
Steve Katz
Leawood
Water break service
This summer we had a water line break in front of our house. We noticed it about 5 p.m. The people who take care of our sprinkler system came and turned off the water valve, but it didn’t stop the leak.
I called Kansas City Water Services at 5:30 p.m. and, because it was after hours, was switched to 311. The lady was very nice, took my information, gave me a confirmation number and then said it was after hours so she didn’t know when the city repair crew would be out.
By 6:30 p.m., there was a man looking everything over. He then went to every house on our street suggesting people save water.
By 7:30 p.m., we had a lot of action. The big equipment came in, and we had six men working.
They had to take out part of our driveway but filled the hole before they left. By 11:30 p.m., they were finished and gone.
A company came out within 10 days and concreted our driveway.
We were so amazed at how fast everyone responded and did such a good job.
Ed and Barbara Lusk
Kansas City
Right-to-work bill
As an Episcopal priest, I have had the privilege of supporting workers who are fighting for economic dignity, better wages and a voice in the workplace. This battle is their constitutional right.
It is a moral imperative to value all work and to build communities that promote dignity and justice for all. If the dignity of work is to be respected, workers’ rights must be safeguarded: fair wages, benefits, freedom from discrimination and the right to organize. Protection of these basic rights is critical to the common good.
So-called “right-to-work” legislation violates economic justice by lowering wages, decreasing benefits, negatively affecting working conditions and inhibiting workers’ ability to seek redress of grievances. Such proposed laws promote poverty, not dignity, and create economic disparity, not justice.
The core value of faith traditions is the worth of every human being. Economic justice is intrinsic to this value. The Missouri legislature should sustain Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of HB 116/SB 569.
Let’s build an equitable playing field for all workers, one that stands on the foundations of dignity and respect.
Rev. Susan McCann
Rector
Grace Episcopal Church
Vice Chair
Communities Creating
Opportunity
Jobs with Justice
Workers’ Rights Board
Liberty
Iran nuclear deal
Once again, Republicans are on the wrong side of science.
They continue to be wrong concerning global warming.
They were wrong on the Ebola scare.
They are wrong concerning the nuclear deal with Iran.
In a letter supporting the arrangement, 29 of the nation’s top scientists, including Nobel laureates, veteran makers of nuclear arms, former White House science advisers and the world’s most knowledgeable experts in the fields of nuclear weapons, state that the accord has “more stringent constraints than any previously negotiated non-proliferation framework and will advance the cause of peace and security in the Middle East and can serve as a guidepost for future nonproliferation agreements.”
Seth McClintock
Overland Park
Trump’s upper hand
It’s too bad that the television network CBS and other news media companies are out to skewer Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. They don't practice true journalism when they point out Trump’s every weakness.
They lose, Trump wins.
Sheryl Hay
Weston
Republican voters
After 35 years of trickle down, deregulation and tax breaks for the upper bracket, the mainline Republican candidates are polling in the single digits. The rank-and-file Republican electorate is beginning to understand that unless you have a sizable account earmarked “campaign contributions,” the GOP does not represent you.
This election cycle the same voters are flocking to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and to a lesser extent Sen. Ted Cruz. Let’s hope it does not take three decades before they understand what P.T. Barnum meant when he said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
Richard Bono
Lenexa
This story was originally published September 11, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to food safety, Syrian migrants and Kim Davis."