March 18, 2016 10:00 AM
Clashing freedoms
Regarding the “peaceful” protesters at the March 12 visit from Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump, we need to dispel the fiction that mean and bigoted Trump supporters have been oppressing innocent bystanders expressing their opinions.
Many protesters carried signs blaming Trump for “hateful policies,” but the irony is that these protesters were the ones being hateful.
They used racial slurs and insults on black and Hispanic Trump supporters, as well as minority police officers. Almost all Trump supporters were well-behaved toward our law-enforcement officers.
Anti-Trump protesters used this event to vent their anger toward our police. Angry protesters were flipping off police officers and Trump supporters, slapping mounted patrol horses and taking swings at security guards.
They were not met with much resistance by Trump proponents. Many of these interrupters also brought their antics into the Midland theater. Instead of using their designated protesting area, these individuals interrupted a private event with hateful language and gestures.
Regardless of how we feel about Trump, we need to draw a line between what is exercising freedom of speech and what is violating Mr. Trump’s and his supporters’ right to free assembly.
John Sulzer
Kansas City
Hocus-pocus cuts
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t St. Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield’s money (campaign funds) the power behind Gov. Sam Brownback’s Kansas tax cuts? Now, Sinquefield is trying to take city earnings taxes away from Kansas City and St. Louis via the same tactic — campaign contributions.
Can’t any of the state legislature meddlers in Jefferson City see what is going on in Kansas? Brownback has failed to pull an increased-revenue rabbit out of his tax-cut hat.
In fact, he can’t even pull enough of a rabbit out of his hat to meet Kansas’ current debts. What makes people in Jefferson City think they can help Kansas City or St. Louis by doing Sinquefield’s bidding and cutting our revenue?
Go away, Rex Sinquefield, and take your tax-cut myths with you.
Steve Grant
Kansas City
Diuguid column
Lewis Diuguid’s March 16 column “Urgency needed to curb climate change” ventures into absurdity. The climate changes, and the proper term is seasons, not climate change.
The seasons were established to keep the Earth viable to produce materials and crops and to sustain life. The destruction of the Earth will occur, but not by man, and it will be more dramatic than a slow change in temperature.
Leon Cook
Kansas City
Public defenders
I am appalled that our society continues to treat our public defenders — police officers, highway patrol troopers, firefighters, etc. — as criminals when human errors are made.
These individuals make mistakes in judgment in the same way I did as a medical professional. Our public defenders are treated by society as criminals when they are only trying to do their best, just as I did as a physician.
The difference is that I was sued for malpractice and paid a dollar penalty. These poor souls who are only doing their best to protect us are sometimes sent to prison.
Something needs to be done to correct this misappropriation of justice.
G. David Dixon, M.D.
Leawood
GOP out-Trumped
Enjoy your front-row seat to another embarrassing moment in political history that rekindles memories of 1948 when the Chicago Tribune erroneously declared Republican Gov. Thomas Dewey of New York the winner over President Harry S. Truman.
GOP leaders made a risky bet with a clumsy attempt to derail their leading presidential candidate, Donald Trump. But he responded by raising the ante and canceling the next GOP debate, letting them know who is in charge (3-17, A8, “GOP debate is canceled”).
Score one for the “Art of the Deal” and zero for the GOP. Let this serve as a lesson to GOP leaders, especially Sens. Mitch McConnell and John McCain, and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Keep your hands on your wallets when confronting New York’s favorite developer.
Isn’t it an enjoyable respite to see the GOP squirm in its self-made quagmire instead of us over its ill-conceived gridlock in Washington, D.C.?
Ginny Kudlinski
Overland Park
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