Letters: Shivashankars say thank you, ‘transracial’ claims, Brownback’s tax spin

Spelling bee family

Wow! We can’t believe that our family’s spelling journey has come to an end. Right from the first Olathe District Spelling Bee in 2006 until this year, our two daughters have competed in each of the Olathe District Spelling Bees.

Although we have mixed feelings that our children will not be participating in the Olathe District Spelling Bees any more, it feels amazing to end this whirlwind of a journey on a high note. None of this could have been possible without the overwhelming support we received from the local community, the teachers from the Olathe School District and many others from the area and from across the country.

We cannot imagine our daughters representing Olathe at the Bee without our sponsors The Olathe News and The Olathe School District. The support that we have received for our daughters at the bee truly means a lot.

It always brought a smile on the face of each of us when we heard wonderful and supporting words from the community. Even when our daughters did not win the trophy, we felt victorious because we felt we had won the support from the community. Those words inspired our daughters to keep trying, and the support has truly been a blessing for us.

Thank you all so much, again, for being there and watching our daughters grow up in this unforgettable experience.

Mirle and Sandy

Shivashankar

Olathe

Exclusive privilege

I am generally averse to discussing an issue as sensitive and controversial as Rachel Dolezal’s claim that she is a “transracial.” It’s easy to dismiss the subject by claiming she’s “nuts.”

Some people lie so often that they finally believe it. It becomes a problem when they expect others to believe it and act upon it.

Steve Katz

Leawood

Revising history

Did you see the latest episode of Sam Brownback, “Governor and Historical Revisionism”? It was truly amazing to hear that most Kansans are actually going to be better off after the state’s largest tax increase.

Equally amazing was the governor’s assertion that the extended budget battle was really the fault of the Democratic minority because they didn’t put forth any proposals to resolve the deficit crisis.

Of course the truth is that only those Kansans who benefited from the failed experimental tax cuts are going to be better off. And the Democrats did offer a very simple solution to the budget crisis: Repeal those same tax cuts. That was clearly too simple a solution for our governor.

It’s one thing to give tax breaks to a minority of taxpayers at the expense of the majority. It’s another thing to misrepresent their effect and continue to rewrite history by blaming the other political party.

Come on, Sam, we may be Kansans, but we are not completely ignorant.

Scott Roby

Lenexa

Pope, global warming

It is ironic to hear the pope pontificate (of course) about man-made global warming hurting the poor (6-20, C8, “Pope Francis’ teaching on environment faces uphill battle”). The invention of the steam engine in the 19th century was the first step to free humankind from the tyranny of human and animal power, and the introduction of fossil fuels ensured that the world’s forests would not be cut down to make it happen.

And make no mistake: The world’s poor were the primary beneficiaries of the energy revolution. The world’s wealthy elites, including the comfortable lives of the pope and the Vatican clergy, would always be insulated from the hard lives of the suppliers of human power: the poor.

And don’t think that the fig leaf of wind or solar power will ever supply this need for cheap and reliable electrical power. Atomic power could fill this need, but the same wealthy elites will not allow this to be considered.

Robert Reimers

Gardner

Spurring economy

In my lifetime, the U.S. has gone from a saving, investing and exporting society to an importing, debt-ridden consumption society. You cannot have both a production and a consumption society.

As a nation, we spent our way to the point of economic stagnation and we must spend our way out through investment, personal and government spending. Investment and personal spending are more important than government spending in our economy.

Interest rates need to go up. The key is how to get and keep the money off the sideline and into play without creating a financial panic. Accelerating the depreciation of investment property and capital goods could ignite a purchasing and refinancing boom.

These adjustments should accommodate a more orderly rise in interest rates and might help slow down tax inversion.

Our marginal income tax system helps lower wage earners yet takes away from the other brackets’ buying power to help inflate our nation. The income tax is more suited for our production society during the closed world Cold War era.

Fewer administrators at all government levels would leave more money for government services. You do not give an overspender more money or credit cards. The best phrase I can come up with for the word tax is a “necessary evil.” Therefore, I conclude the amount of income taxes collected is a sin in our consumption society.

Jeff Harkness

Overland Park

This story was originally published June 30, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Letters: Shivashankars say thank you, ‘transracial’ claims, Brownback’s tax spin."