Letters to the editor

If the owners of Mimi’s Cafes wonder why their business declined, forcing their closure, many of their loyal customers can tell them (4-9, 913, “Mimi’s Cafe”). They tried to go French.

But three cheers to Stroud’s for taking over one of the locations.

Let’s walk into a classroom of 25 to 35 students each day as a teacher. Some students are great.

Others may have been ignored at home, beaten, neglected, poorly acculturated, lack proper nutrition, never read to, ridiculed by a parent or parents who hold little respect for education or the society, or maybe some students see you as the nothing who demands that they turn off their cellphones, someone to lie to or about, someone too old, thinking that what you have to offer is unimportant.

Students may work or see their outside activities as more important. Or they may have “helicopter parents” with unreasonable demands for their children with an attitude.

Parents need to truly look at their child and themselves before foisting blame on a teacher. Kansas legislators look to yourselves and your agendas before blaming teachers.

You are where you are because of your parents and some poor teachers. Teaching is not a private sector entity, but a gift some offer to all of us.

The word is that the U.S. Postal Service is planning to close the post office in Prairie Village. Not long ago, 100 or so people went there to show their support for keeping it open.

The Postal Service has closed the post offices in other locations. Doing so in Prairie Village would cause people to travel more to get postal services.

While the cost of postage has gone up, there are still those of us who enjoy writing letters and sending bills via snail mail. Prairie Village is an excellent location and should be kept open.

Bob Sigman’s April 16 column in 913, “Conservative rhetoric on poverty is not based on facts,” erroneously suggested conservative policy decisions have left the most vulnerable Kansans in poverty, without adequate food. Sigman should follow his own advice and support his claims with facts and data.

Kansas has the most generous welfare benefits of surrounding states, with the exception of Colorado — ranking 22nd in the nation. A single parent of two, working just a minimum-wage job can receive an annual amount of $47,600, when you factor in Department for Children and Families (DCF) welfare benefits and KanCare.

This doesn’t include things such as housing assistance and WIC. Although DCF offers abundant cash, food and child-care assistance, it offers something much more beneficial, hope, in the form of employment services and poverty-prevention programs.

DCF employment service coordinators help clients by matching them to the appropriate job or training. Since January 2013, the program has helped 7,239 people find employment. Additionally, our Vocational Rehabilitation program has already helped 1,213 Kansans with disabilities this year find jobs, with an average wage of $9.92 per hour.

No income eligibility rules have changed. DCF is simply enforcing work requirements. Everyone who applies for assistance and meets the income requirements is approved.

Cash and day-care assistance recipients simply have to look for work or accept job training. I strongly urge those who cite reports to take a close look at how the numbers are manipulated. For example, the Census Bureau’s Official Poverty Measure (which our critics cite) doesn’t take into account government benefits. Also, poverty statistics factor in college students.

In Lawrence, the poverty level drops from 23 percent to 11 percent if you exclude college students not living with their parents. There is a need for welfare assistance to help those suffering temporary setbacks in life.

Welfare is not designed to be a permanent solution, and the more we can do to help Kansans be self-sufficient, the better off everyone is — especially children who won’t have to be part of the next generation in poverty.

I think it is time we got rid of the hate raging through our community and government. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has started a hate campaign against the Koch brothers because they legally use their money and influence for causes that liberals disagree with.

Even though the liberals have their own set of billionaires, they don’t seem to be able to do it as effectively as the Koch brothers. Reid is not opposed to using lies and innuendo to further his arguments.

Brendan Eich, co-founder of the nonprofit Mozilla, was forced to resign because six years ago he wrote a personal check in support of California Proposition 8. Evidently you can support gay rights without fear of reprisal, but the same is not true for people with opposing views.

Once again liberals support freedom of speech as long as you don’t disagree with them. Hate speech and lack of tolerance for opposing viewpoints is becoming commonplace.

It is time for people to call for an end to this behavior. Mozilla is easy, don’t ever use any of the Mozilla products.

Harry Reid is a different matter. One thing we can do is to let our legislators know that we disapprove of this behavior.

This story was originally published April 22, 2014 at 5:20 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor."