816 readers discuss U.S. aid, music news, ways to reduce waste in KC
U.S. aid
Antonio Guterres has pledged to make the pursuit of peace his top priority as the next secretary-general of the United Nations. I admire his efforts, and I am glad there are individuals who recognize people should be doing more to address our war-torn world.
As the world’s leading nation, the U.S. could be doing a lot more. Most Americans do not realize that only 1 percent of the federal budget goes to assisting the world’s poor. Guterres has set his goals for the world, and because the U.S. can do more to help the U.N. achieve these standards, we should.
The Borgen Project is a nonprofit organization working to reduce poverty through political advocacy. Not only will the pursuit of peace improve the lives of those living in poverty, it will also open new markets for the U.S. and increase national security. Of course, this is only true provided that Congress votes to increase funding for the International Affairs Budget.
It is my hope that Congress will recognize Guterres’ admirable efforts and help the U.N. on its pursuit of peace.
Rory Tucker
Kansas City
Music news
There are some people out there who love music so much that they’d do anything to get involved. Newspapers always have the most recent society news, and that’s great, but there should be a section just for music.
All The Kansas City Star has to do with music is festivals and concerts for older people, like bands they listened to in the 1980s and ’90s. Children would start paying more attention to the newspaper if they had music articles for upcoming concerts, tickets to buy for those concerts and new albums being released by “pop stars.”
Everything would be the same, just an added page of new music news. Lots of people still enjoy newspapers, but if there were a music page, more people will start reading it, especially young adults. If someone didn't have other resources to get their news and wanted to know what was going on in the world of music, they could just look it up in the newspaper.
Some of the music topics in the paper I haven't even heard of. The entertainment section that we have now is a good start but with a little bit of time it could be even better.
Rory Rostine
Kansas City
No more waste
Most people know that the waste you throw in the garbage ends up in landfills, but what you might not know is that we could be running out of space for dumping grounds. Imagine everything you throw into the trash each day. Then multiply that by 2 million. That's about how much trash the Kansas City metro area throws out on a regular basis.
Kansas City is trying to become a green city, and to do that, we need the full cooperation of the people. There are several things you could do to reduce waste in our city.
One of the first things you should consider is reducing the amount of waste you contribute. One way to do this is to try to buy fewer items in plastic packaging. Recycling is also important to decrease the amount of trash that ends up in landfills.
Additionally, composting old foods and biodegradable materials is beneficial. Reducing, recycling and composting can have a major positive impact on the the amount of trash created by our city. Keep this in mind, and ask yourself how you could help to make a difference.
Sam Kennedy
Parkville
This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "816 readers discuss U.S. aid, music news, ways to reduce waste in KC."