Letters: Leawood’s sculputer ‘mistake,’ abuse of women, minimum wage

Leawood’s mistake

Give me a break. The city of Leawood cultural arts coordinator has purchased an abstract sculpture for $160,000 and doesn’t know where to put it (9-17, 913 “Abstract sculpture to be added to parkway median in Leawood”).

That is like buying a truck and finding out that it doesn’t fit into the garage. Besides being ugly, the sculpture does not fit into the setting.

What happened to good sense? How about traditional art for a traditional city? North Leawood was “graced” with a contemporary art piece — Porch Lights — several years ago.

This does not fit into the neighborhood, yet we have it. It’s time for a new cultural arts coordinator with a feel for the area.

Marilyn Hail

Leawood

Battered women

Most of the people in this country were shocked this month to see a video recording of an NFL player, Ray Rice, beating his then-fiancee senseless and dragging her out of an elevator in Atlantic City.

After receiving this beating, his fiancee decided to marry him anyway, and the Atlantic City authorities have done nothing. NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has come under fire for suspending Rice for just two games and even put under pressure to resign.

The NFL is just another entertainment industry. Why should it be held to a higher standard?

Rapper Chris Brown has repeatedly pulverized his girlfriend. However, his recording company has done nothing.

Where is the outrage? I am not standing up for men who abuse women.

I am wondering why more organizations do not aid in reducing this horrid crime.

Joe Lavender

Lenexa

Minimum wage

Our minimum wage has not been raised for 20 years. I think it should be increased but phased in over five years.

Since it applies in large part to the fast-food industry, consider the negative implications of higher minimum wages. First it could bring about layoffs.

Secondly, it could result in higher prices. A five-year phase in schedule would allow companies to adjust more easily to the higher payroll.

Steve Katz

Leawood

Different treatment

The city of Merriam bent over backward to make life comfortable for Ikea, the European furniture retailer. The store opened on schedule with much fanfare.

The city added police officers to control the traffic and even named a street “Ikea Way,” not to mention the tax breaks and waivers of city sign codes for the big business..

The opening of our small Merriam retail store did not go so smoothly. The bureaucratic foot-dragging, pointless design changes, strict adherence to every comma of the building codes and the adversarial attitude at City Hall caused a long delay in opening plus tens of thousands of dollars in additional unnecessary costs.

I would think twice about opening another small business in the city of Merriam.

Ed Geither

Overland Park

Political apartheid

If you were politically active in the 1980s or just aware of the life of Nelson Mandela, then you have heard the term apartheid. Many South Africans lost their freedom or lives combating this system of discrimination based on grounds where a minority ruled over a suppressed majority.

In the United States today we are unfortunately nearing our own state of apartheid. Instead of race, creating this segregation in the U.S., the problem in our country is wealth.

As shown in the Senate vote this month, all but one Republican voted in opposition to moving forward with a possible constitutional amendment that would overturn the Citizens United decision. Polls are clear that the vast majority of Americans do not want large corporate donations dictating what happens in the nation’s capital.

However, here we are again with a minority of middle-aged to elderly white men, who accept these corporate funds, telling the rest of America that they do not care about us. Conservative friends argue there is no difference between big money donations to the Republicans and big money donations to the Democrats.

Here is proof that there is. The PACs and donors to the Democrats didn’t tell those senators to vote no.

Jack Deyoe

Olathe

Police image

I am a 17-year-old student at Rockhurst High School. I live in the Leawood area and found the story on the teen in critical condition after police used a stun gun on him to be quite intriguing (9-16, A1, “FBI to investigate use of stun gun”). Being a half-black teenager myself, I see it sort of counterintuitive to live in a city and area where my entire life I have grown to fear any encounter with police.

Stories such as this, as well as those including the Ferguson, Mo., shooting only instill even more of a sense that I should always hide from the people who are supposed to work to protect me. Although I will not speak for the victim, I am sure that he may have been very fearful of the officer, especially after being told that if he didn’t get out of the car a stun gun would be used on him.

Should the stun gun have even been used? The police officer’s first idea to fix the situation was almost as poor as the officer in the Ferguson shooting.

If the police would like the people they protect to actually respect and not despise them then they are going to have to treat each issue much more carefully. I appreciate the article on the young teen and love that awareness is beginning to be brought to the communities around us all.

Aaron Baker

Leawood

This story was originally published September 23, 2014 at 6:57 PM with the headline "Letters: Leawood’s sculputer ‘mistake,’ abuse of women, minimum wage."