Readers react to Kansas, guns in the Capitol and pensions

Suffering Kansas

Some in government truly wish Kansas great harm. First, they locate all sorts of plagues and pathogens in the heart of our state — Manhattan.

Then they promote fracking to cause earthquakes to break open so-called containment.

Finally, they encourage heavier use of fossil fuels, which stimulates greater tornadoes to spread poison and disease across our landscape.

Oh, the horror.

Worse yet, they may move a few federal Guantanamo Bay detainees to Fort Leavenworth’s prison.

Have they no shame?

Tom Stroud

Overland Park

Old West shootout

Why go through the statehouse privacy-intruding metal detectors when the Kansas GOP, American Legislative Exchange Council robots are declaring nothing is against the law?

Yes, be sensible and remove those ugly, insensitive metal detectors. They serve no purpose and are also known as a waste of tax dollars, which is the typical view of ALEC robot politicians.

The ALEC sheep are deregulating — America human bodily injury be damned.

Hey, if one or two bad guys show up then dozens of self-defense, gun-toting humans can indulge in a guns-a-blazing scenario. If people get hit by flying bullets as a result of a self-defense fiasco, so what?

It’s not against the law. Better have the most expensive health insurance on the planet because nothing else will cover the cost of surgery as a result of shoot ’em up injuries.

Or will the ALEC robots set aside billions of tax dollars to cover the medical expenses should such an old-time saloon-type brawl take place? Lawsuits will be filed by the dozens.

Richard Heckler

Lawrence

Pensions targeted

As the sun set on Dec. 16, 2014, Americans went to bed with the assurance that their retirement income was protected by the Employee Retirement Income Security Act. At the dawn of the following day, they were no longer guaranteed the promised pensions they had worked so hard to earn.

Few knew that at the stroke of midnight the Multiemployer Pension Reform Act of 2014 attached to the Omnibus Spending Bill became the law of the land. Fewer still understood that this 11th-hour attachment will affect no fewer than 1.5 million workers, possibly reducing monthly benefits by as much as 65 percent.

It sets the stage for future attacks on benefits for millions of others. Who will be next in the never-ending attempt to take us back to a pre-Roosevelt era?

This rush to grab retirement income of troubled multiemployer plans is just the beginning of what may be the newest craze on Wall Street. The fast-track nature of this pension heist hopes to get the Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service approval while Americans sleep.

After this initial group is fleeced, hedge-fund managers and the derivative traders will not stop there. Their resounding cry will be, “Next?”

Michael A Savwoir

Kansas City

Refugee quandary

I’m wondering why Syrian refugees would want to come to America? We have more guns than any other country in the world. And we’re gun crazy.

We shoot people in their homes without opening the door. We kill people standing in their driveways.

You can get killed making another driver angry. Children have multiple ways to get killed — in school, with supposedly unloaded guns or loaded guns left unattended.

We live in neighborhoods where neighbors on all four sides have guns. If you don’t do what a police officer tells you to do you can get killed.

There is no place in America that is safe, not even a church.

Joe Purcell

Kansas City

Millennials’ pain

Ike Uri is telling us that today’s college students are not coddled (12-19, Commentary, “Students raise safety issues on campuses”)?

Is he going to the same University of Kansas that is trying to build a $17.5 million dormitory for 32 students (1-16-2014, B4, “The $17.5 million project will house men’s, women’s basketball players”)?

Has he compared the dormitory options available to his generation with those available to his parents’ generation?

Has he compared the food-service options available to his generation with his parents’ generation?

I suggest he read a little history to get a perspective.

Clark Israel

Pleasant Valley

This story was originally published December 22, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Kansas, guns in the Capitol and pensions."