Letters: Joco got what it voted for

Vote for education

I would urge all Kansans to contact their legislators and ask them to vote against SB 311. It is frightening to think that more power and more responsibility might get handed over to Gov. Sam Brownback.

It would appear that he has little regard for the ideals of checks and balances and the separation of powers. Our elected officials also need to swallow their pride and partisanship and make sure our schools do not close on June 30.

I have twin granddaughters who have already visited the school where they will start kindergarten. They are beyond excited.

What message will we be sending to them if we have to tell them: “Sorry, you can't start school today because the schools are not open. Our elected officials couldn't find a way to equitably fund all schools.”

It is, in fact, a law for all children to be educated. We need to ask our state representatives and senators this question: How do you plan on making sure this law is followed?

I don't know whether I want to pay taxes to a state that doesn't hold its citizens in the highest regard. I'm a working Kansan, a property owner and grandfather — and I vote.

Chuck Wright

Shawnee

Bright U.S. future

I have no problem asserting America is the greatest country in the world. In fact, we are greater now than when I was growing up in the 1950s and 1960s.

We have eliminated the scourge of Jim Crow laws and casual lynchings. Women are no longer banned from attending law or medical schools.

Economically, we have rebounded from the Great Recession of 2008 when we suffered massive unemployment with a slashing of equity and home values. We continue to have the best military in the world with hundreds of thousands of our troops no longer bogged down in the middle of civil wars and Middle East religious disputes.

America does have problems, but our present is better than our past. If we, the public, act with wisdom, our future can be better than our present, and we can solve the problems we face.

Bond Faulwell

Overland Park

Oust incumbents

I have absolutely no sympathy for the Johnson County people protesting school funding in Topeka. They are the ones who put Sam Brownback into the governor’s office for four more years.

He obviously took that as a confirmation by the voters of his failed policies, and Johnson County was the make-or-break vote in the election. You made your bed, now lie in it.

If you don't like what is going on, you need to toss out incumbents. I hope the people of Kansas wise up and get rid of the lawmakers in the Statehouse that the governor forced in during the last election, even displacing incumbent moderates from his own party.

George Martin

Overland Park

Rental property

. Rental licensing is designed to pick the pockets of small landlords and their tenants while turning a blind eye to the real trouble spots in the city.

Apartment complexes with their gangs, drugs and violence get a free pass from the city. If large complex owners received equal treatment they would unleash their pit bull lawyers and send rental licensing to the hell it deserves.

City councils around the country have devised this clever technique of pilfering from the little guys who can’t afford to fight back while placating the big players who have the firepower to trash their unconstitutional attacks on our freedom.

Rental licensing demonstrates government contempt for the rights of small property owners. We have a city government that will exert control over our property without taking any of the responsibilities of property ownership.

Thank you, Overland Park City Council.

Ed Geither

Overland Park

Senseless wars

Why do the candidates not talk about the senseless wars the United States is involved in? They are very expensive in both lives and money.

It would be nice to have the money we are wasting to help in this country.

Gary Levin

Overload Park

Business talent

I am not a fan of Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump. The media have hyped his “taking” a woman's home for a parking lot.

We know that eminent domain pays a fair market value (sometimes more). It's possible there was a not-to-be-disclosed sum paid by Trump.

He has paid off mortgages for people who experience hard times, etc. His employees like working for him, saying he's very fair.

He ensures his employees have health insurance, retirement benefits and merit bonuses for good performance. He may not be a big contributor to charity, choosing to make his own contributions so he knows 100 percent of his donations go directly to the people who need them.

There was very little (or no) accountability in the Internal Revenue Service and Department of Veterans Affairs scandals. The people who grossly mismanaged these departments are still working there (on taxpayer-paid salaries) and will be there until they earn huge retirements until they die (also taxpayer paid).

I wonder if Trump had been president if he would have used his business talent, and those incompetent people would be out and gone. It's issues like this that fuels Trump's rise.

Perhaps we do need him to get rid of the incompetency and fiefdoms that rule now.

Roberta Newth

Leawood

This story was originally published March 22, 2016 at 12:19 PM with the headline "Letters: Joco got what it voted for."