Letters: Hypocrisy in Kansas, liberals and the booing of Sam Brownback

Kansas hypocrisy

Our governor in Kansas and the Republican-controlled Legislature take pride in the concept of both being a “red state” and a “champion of states rights.” They often chide the federal government for interfering too much in Kansas.

Legislation has been proposed to ignore the enforcement of federal gun laws within the state because the Legislature thinks that the Dodge City of 1870 should be the model for all of Kansas today. When it comes to immigration, health care, voter identification laws, education and taxation, our Legislature and our governor scream “states rights!”

They also ran on such a philosophy and won the last two elections in our red state. They wish to take us back to the bucolic Jeffersonian days of village yeoman farmers running the entire nation.

One wonders how these people would build and administer the intercontinental highway system, the Panama Canal or win World War II without a strong central government. But Kansas is for it, at least, until Colorado, harkening to its own call for states rights and legalized marijuana in defiance of federal law.

Now Kansas has enjoined in a frivolous lawsuit with other bordering red states that also champion states rights, suing Colorado to obey federal law. Now, they embrace federal interference and want the feds to step in and enforce federal law — but, only in Colorado.

So, which is it, Kansas? Are you for states rights or not? Oh, the humanity. Oh, the hypocrisy.

Tom Davis

Merriam

Herbert column

I just want to say how much I enjoyed Dandredi Herbert's April 1 column, “Rudeness instead of debate.” To make a the point using unproven assumptions, such as the only people booing Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback at the recent basketball game were liberals, and then blame the liberals for making Kansas look bad on the national stage and upsetting Mrs. Mary Brownback because of her proximity to the governor, was pure genius.

Then adding some broad strokes about President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party was classic. I have to admit I thought she actually meant what she was saying until she ended by pronouncing herself above the fray because she will “continue to be polite.”

Using humor to make a point is what makes satire so effective.

Elaine Medlar

Prairie Village

When I first started reading Danedri Herbert's April 1 column “Rudeness instead of debate,” I thought it was an April Fools joke. But apparently she is serious in saying that liberals are disrespectful to Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback, but conservatives are not disrespectful to President Barack Obama.

I was enjoying the joke until I realized she was serious. I suggest she watch one hour of Fox News to see how well Obama is respected.

Robbie Harding

Overland Park

Continuing threats

North Korea threatened “merciless punishment” against South Korea if it goes ahead with plans to open a United Nations field office in Seoul to monitor the North's human rights record. Weeks earlier Russia and North Korea have rekindled their relationship of the earlier decades and will further deepen economic and political ties under the banner of a “year of friendship (in 2015),” which seemed like a slap on the faces of the world leaders who have been tirelessly working together to discourage North Korea's nuclear ambition and Russia from fueling conflicts in Ukraine.

For this Korean-American, the new developments seem like a prelude to another Korean War, which lasted three years, during which brothers killed brothers and 3 million lives were lost, including 54,000 Americans, without mentioning the mass destruction of civilization. Six decades later, South Korea stands among the leading nations in the world.

But what has North Korea become? A poorest nation of the poor and evil of all evils.

Why is North Korea still disturbing the rest of the world with threats?

Therese Park

Overland Park

Johnson County sewers

Collaborative partnerships, creative financing and overspending are the reasons for our current economic crisis. Johnson County collaborating with Shawnee to develop the Shawnee Landing shopping center is a good example of this in action.

Reclassify the area as a contract sewer district, and you take the Bell Road community out of the multi-year battle. The city agreed to pay the developer fee for sewers. No tenants were to be found.

A developer tax is to Shawnee as a driveway tax is to Mission. After increasing the cost to prepare the site, cutting square footage and finding tenants the project fell through. The development seemed like a giant government make-work project anyway.

Now the partnership between Johnson County and Shawnee appears to be one of collusion to lay oversized sewer pipes in an old rock quarry area to attract a developer. Commissioner James Allen’s indifference toward the Bell Road community’s concerns seems to have carried over from his tenure as mayor of Shawnee to the board of county commissioners.

In a vote of 4-3, the shopping center barely got a green light for sewers. Commissioners Michael Ashcraft, Jason Osterhaus and John Toplikar voted to look into the alternatives professionally presented by the Bell Road community. I hope those who chose the familiar gravity feed system are more open to alternatives during the proposed $280 million expansion of the wastewater facility in Leawood.

Kudos to the Bell Road community for presenting solid alternatives to protect their property rights and preserve their unique neighborhood.

Jeff Harkness

Overland Park

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 4:55 PM with the headline "Letters: Hypocrisy in Kansas, liberals and the booing of Sam Brownback."