Letters to the editor
Politicians’ vocabulary
I'm always amazed at how we seem to pick new words. When home computers came on the market they had their own language: reboot, bluetooth, etc.
Politicians when they get caught in lie, they “misspoke.” This new word is for politicians.
It means that you didn't lie but fudged on the facts or rearranged the facts to make you look better. Of course the new word for that is “brownbacking.”
Joe Purcell
Kansas City
Paying for college
Calling for a “new college compact,” Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton unveiled a plan aimed at making college more affordable and reducing the crushing burden of student debt. But is college education a public responsibility or not?
People are required by law to stay in school until age 16. The public passed the law so there is a responsibility to fund the requirement. When I went to college in the 1950s, it was viewed as a public education responsibility. I paid $20 per semester in total fees. The state paid everything else.
At some time during the 1960s, it was determined that college education was only being used by 10 percent of the population and was a choice and not a requirement. Fees were raised accordingly.
Current proposals for debt relief are moving back to a form of full public funding. In general the U.S. needs as many educated people as possible.
The future is about more technology, and the education process will require more effort to master the information.
Richard Blaisdell
Kansas City
Love in politics
There can be no further argument. In politics, we have fallen in love with stupid.
John Chapman
Gladstone
Traffic safety
After 36 years in law enforcement and having been to many traffic crashes, I have to say one of the best methods of providing first responder safety at the scene of a crash is a procedure used many times by the California Highway Patrol called “a traffic break.”
It’s a procedure where an officer will use his or her patrol car as a “break” to slow down traffic approaching a crash. By continually weaving across all lanes of traffic and not allowing any cars to pass, the officer begins reducing their speed, which in turn begins to reduce the speeds of the cars following them.
By the time the patrol car has reached the scene of the crash, speeds of approaching traffic have been dramatically reduced to a much safer level to pass. Once the officer has passed the scene he or she can go back and repeat the process until the crash has been cleared.
It has worked for many years in California and has caught on in other states as well. It may not eliminate all secondary traffic crashes, but it has proven to reduce them.
Walter Humphrey
Kansas City
This story was originally published August 18, 2015 at 4:59 PM with the headline "Letters to the editor."