Readers react to KU basketball, guns in colleges and fracking
KU basketball
The winter of 1947, I was a new area resident and first experienced the excitement of basketball at the University of Kansas. We listened to all of the radio broadcasts.
That season, one game proved to be a thriller. Fans expressed disappointment (almost sorrow) at missing the game. A repeat full broadcast date was announced. I recall neither the exact date nor the name of the visitors. I do remember that we listened with pleasure and were more relaxed.
Frances N. Black
Kansas City
Guns in colleges
The frightening prospect of carrying guns at Kansas universities is to become reality in 2017. The Missouri General Assembly is considering it. And now a Kansas bill proposes to lower the concealed carry age from 21 to 18, assuring even more gun-totin’ kids on campus. Permits and safety training no longer are required to carry concealed.
Youths with guns, proponents say, will magically make campuses safer. Wrong. Odds are tiny that students will pull a pistol to stop assailants, but risks are big for negative results. Consider:
▪ About 1,100 of 25,000 college student suicide attempts annually are successful. Gun suicide attempts are 85 percent successful, so the overall success rate could rise significantly with easy access to guns.
▪ Dorms are easy targets for theft. Stolen guns usually go to criminals.
▪ Thousands of young people are shot every year in gun accidents.
▪ Fights could escalate into gun incidents.
▪ Half of students binge drink at least once a month. A Harvard study found gun-carrying students binge drink, do drugs and get arrested for DUI more than the average student.
Campus carry is scary. Tell your legislators to stop it before it starts.
Loren Stanton
President
NE Kansas Chapter
of Brady Campaign
to Prevent Gun Violence
Prairie Village
Oily euphemisms
Why talk about “fracking”? Why not, “earthquake-inducing oil extraction”? The junk food industry came up with Ding Dongs and Ho Hos as funny words for harmful food, and the oil industry has followed suit. But that doesn’t mean we have to use its fun-filled word for harmful environmental practices.
Scott Michie
Overland Park
Future gun strife
If you think that taking the car keys away from your elderly grandfather for his own safety is a headache, just wait. There will be war on the hearthstone when we start taking away the millions of guns purchased by baby boomers when they reach the same condition as your elderly grandfather.
Tom Davis
Merriam
Sunshine shield
Missouri has an important law called the Sunshine Law, which makes sure that citizens, reporters and charities have access to public records. But I’m extremely concerned about legislation that would gut our terrific Sunshine Law.
House Bill 1414 would prevent citizens from requesting data on agricultural operations. Data on agriculture can deal with the safety of our food supply, the environment and treatment of animals.
If we don’t have access to these records, large-scale factory farms will be able to operate in almost total secrecy. Our family farmers don’t have anything to hide, so only corporate-owned farms, which pollute our water and treat animals poorly, would benefit.
In that scenario, everyone loses. So, please join me in urging state lawmakers to vote no on HB 1414 and SB 928.
Lynne Rees
Kansas City
Judge cartoon
I thought conservatives were the mean-spirited people while liberals loved and cared deeply for everyone. I guess that is only for those who agree with their way of thinking.
The incredibly cruel and demeaning March 8 cartoon by Lee Judge was more than mean-spirited. It was childish, nasty and disrespectful.
Many years ago, I had the opportunity to interview Nancy Davis and her husband before Ronald Reagan began his political career. I found both to be gracious and friendly. Her death marked the end of an era of civility and achievement. She should be honored and remembered for the remarkable individual she was, not by an inane cartoon drawn from a toxic inkwell.
Deane Parkhurst
Olathe
Deniers on left
Well the left likes to accuse the right of denying the science behind global warming. Sorry I guess we now call it climate change.
But what about the left denying the science regarding genetically modified organisms being safe to consume? Genetically modified organisms have helped to relieve hunger and save innumerable lives around the world.
Now some leaders in these impoverished countries are refusing to accept these food products, which will inevitably lead to more tragic deaths from hunger.
People on the left hail Pope Francis when he agrees with climate change, but they become tone-deaf when the pope talks about abortions being an unjust talking of a human being life.
The science to him and to we Catholics (and millions of others of different faiths or non-faith) prove that a fetus is without a doubt a human being.
Michael
Sweeney, M.D.
Leawood
Political letters
March 11 letters showed presidential preferences. But none were for GOP presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. There was no need for local letters to boost support of Cruz.
He overwhelmingly won Kansas in last Saturday’s Republican caucus. That says it all.
Sandra Schifferle
Lansing
Trump’s behavior
I am uninterested in GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s small hands. His thin skin is another matter.
Despite loving to dish it out, the slightest critique brings out his juvenile and bullying antics. It is hard to imagine anyone with a temperament less suited to the presidency.
Despite his claims of being a good businessman, if he worked for anyone other than himself, his boorish behavior and harassing comments based on gender, religion, disability and race would have him hearing his favorite words, “You’re fired,” very quickly.
Paul Monteil
Kansas City
Enhance debates
Panelists who ask questions at formal presidential debates seem to be exclusively journalists. I am a former journalist but I would like to see fewer of that profession controlling the discussion.
Why not have some poets on the panels? Charles Simic and Rita Dove come to mind.
How about linguists, Noam Chomsky, for example? A novelist would be great: Robert Day, maybe or Toni Morrison (I do miss Kurt Vonnegut, now). What about philosophers, economists, architects — people with fresh perspectives in our multidimensional America?
I think people nationally and globally would be amazed by our country.
Robert Stewart
Prairie Village
This story was originally published March 11, 2016 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to KU basketball, guns in colleges and fracking."