Kansas City Star: Mary Sanchez

Obama is reaching out to 'value voters'

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 21:02 CDT

Barack Obama is channeling JFK these days. Oddly, he’s doing it through one of George W. Bush’s more controversial policies.

Veterans in Mill Creek Park often have instructive stories to tell

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 21:06 CDT

In the language of newspapers, some stories are “briefs.” Short reports, not considered significant enough to warrant full-length treatment, except they almost always could if a reporter had the time, and the paper the space.

Nostalgia distorts married life of the past

Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:38 CDT

There are many ways to address the problem of fathers abandoning their responsibilities. Preaching about morals is just one, and alone it probably won’t do the trick.

Presidential choice will echo across globe

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 20:20 CDT

The world is becoming more and more connected, integrated by trade, migration and technology. So it is not surprising that people across the globe are following the U.S. presidential election with more than just passing interest.

Obama already aids racial reconciliation

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 20:15 CDT

As far as race goes, Barack Obama would make strides for the nation by simply being there; he wouldn’t even have to “address” the issue formally, although I suspect he would.

The future of women doesn't depend on Hillary's bid

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 20:31 CDT

I suspect that part of Hillary Clinton believes that she is valiantly carrying on for women everywhere. The irony is, for my generation, we don’t need her to anymore.

A disturbing gap between theory and practice

Mon, 26 May 2008 21:21 CDT

Recently published research proposes that hospitals may inadvertently be placing differing values on the lives of patients, depending on whether they are a premature infant at the edge of viability, or an older patient.

Are immigration raids really doing what backers claim?

Mon, 19 May 2008 22:09 CDT

For the “deport em all” crowd, the increase in federal workplace arrests of immigrants is no doubt cause for joyous applause. For those prone to deeper thinking, an obvious question presents itself: Are the raids really affecting the problem of illegal immigration?

Hillary Clinton should step aside, gracefully

Mon, 12 May 2008 21:08 CDT

“A lady always knows when to leave the party.” Or so my mother used to say. It’s time for Hillary Clinton to take a tip and leave — not the party, of course, but the presidential race.

Trying to stop the cycle of urban violence

Mon, 05 May 2008 21:21 CDT

Preventive public policy should take into consideration how violent criminals are created. If unresolved grief is at play, there are measures that could affect it better, and maybe limit the bloodshed.

The minority candidate's burden: To ‘explain' his race

Mon, 05 May 2008 20:04 CDT

God forbid that I should ever have to stand up and “clearly and unequivocally”denounce everyone I’ve ever been close to who has expressed views that are less than politically correct.

Bush wasted an opportunity on immigration

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 20:40 CDT

Both men proclaim a reverence to God. Both avow that faith is their guiding principle. Pope Benedict XVI in his actions seems to bear that out. As for George W. Bush, I’m beginning to have my doubts.

Easy access to guns, but no respect for them

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 22:22 CDT

Deaths such as that of Lori Reynolds — the Kansas City, Kan., bartender who was shot six times because she refused to serve a man a drink — have to be taken into account as much as the right responsible people have to own guns.

Obama's comments leave a bitter taste

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 19:47 CDT

I’m surrounded by the type of small Midwestern towns Barack Obama so carelessly labeled as full of “bitter” folk. My mother is from such a town, smack in the middle of Kansas.

Bashing free trade won't fix economic woes

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:25 CDT

There isn’t much of a national consensus on the benefits of free trade. True, machinists and textile workers dislike it, while farmers love it (at least for now). But most Americans don’t know what to make of it.

Perception vs. reality: KCK vs. KC schools

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:40 CDT

Certain commentary morphs to near mantra when the topic is the Kansas City School District. Among the most often repeated: “Why can’t the Kansas City, Missouri, School District be more like the Kansas City, Kansas, School District?”

Complacency: The one benefit of citizenship the U.S. no longer can afford

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 20:48 CDT

The words came out of her young mouth as biting, harsh truths. American-born kids, the ones who are legally here, they waste it, the teenager told me. They do drugs, they drink, they don’t study. They join gangs or simply think the gang life is hip.

King had some hard truths to tell America

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:07 CDT

I have a dream. A dream that, one day, this nation’s veneration of Martin Luther King Jr. will not be limited to the platitudes that get wheeled out every year to mark his birthday or Black History Month.

Time to scrap the racial conspiracy theories

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:11 CDT

It’s time for the Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright Jr., and others like him to get a clue that there are better ways to deliver their messages — which, I have no doubt, can be messages of hope to people who don’t have much.

Sorting through plans to fix KC's schools

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 19:10 CDT

Before rolling your eyes at the thought of yet another group convening to discuss Kansas City's schools, this one might be different. The Council of the Great City Schools is at the right starting point: the disconnect between the area’s residents and the children in the district.

Obama needs to show Latino voters that he's for them

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 19:48 CDT

If Barack Obama succeeds in winning the Democratic presidential nomination, the Latino vote will be critical to him in the general election. He’s going to need to court and closely guard it.

Obama handles Farrakhan issue with savvy

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 22:32 CST

“I would reject and denounce.” With that utterance, Barack Obama deftly beat back yet another round of guilt by association, a game that continues to chase his campaign. In his televised debate with Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, Obama was baited by both his opponent and moderator Tim Russert to repudiate Minister Louis Farrakhan, the black separatist leader of the Nation of Islam, who recently opined that he liked the idea of a black man in the White House.

A young woman who dreams of freedom

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:54 CST

This is the story of Zember, also known as Mu Lo. She is a young woman who lives outside a Thailand refugee camp, a place like a human zoo. Zember, one of those on display, is protesting for her freedom.

Smart politicians campaign for Latino vote

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 21:39 CST

Now is the time for Latinos to leverage the clout of their vote. Simplistic “Si se puede” (“Yes we can”) platitudes aren’t going to cut it. Latino voters care about the same issues that resonate with other citizens.

Nation should realize value of Down syndrome babies

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 22:41 CST

Earlier this month, two suicide bombings held the headlines on two accounts: the numbers of dead and those who unwittingly carried the bombs to the targets.

Public needs the truth about predawn raids

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:19 CST

OK, America, here's the deal: Federal agents are conducting predawn raids, without warrants, to round up immigrants, but you don't need to know the details. Apparently, you don't care enough about the issue.

Gaining clout through skills and finesse

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:40 CST

Consider the varying ways the term “leader” is applied: self-anointed, elected and those who come by their stature through hiring or promotion.

After Barack Obama, racial politics won't be the same

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 21:40 CST

The question isn't so much, Is America ready for a black president? Rather, the more pertinent query the candidacy of Barack Obama poses is this: Is America ready for a president who could lay bare the country's mixed up, outdated concepts of race?

Trafficking in the oldest of human faults

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:33 CST

The outrage is unrelenting and understandable — but at this point unnecessary. In October 2006, a 13-year-old St. Louis area girl hanged herself in her bedroom closet after her heart was broken by an online crush.

Two for the price of one - all inventory must go!

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 23:07 CST

The promise of “change” as an emerging catchphrase for the presidential campaign poses an interesting dilemma for Hillary Clinton.