Readers share thoughts on government spending, weapons, education

Control spending

Let’s get real, America. Neither Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s nor Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s tax plan has anything good to offer, and one thing is attached to both — the Internal Revenue Service.

Isn’t it bad enough that the federal tax code is thousands of pages? Do we want more regulations and changes and to be bothered with the continuous headaches they include?

We need to abolish the 16th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution (income tax) and replace it with a national consumption tax a lot lower than the proposed fair tax.

We need to get real and quit these spending sprees, especially in military spending and free social services.

We need to get real like Canada did in the 1990s. Starting in the 1960s because of liberalism, the Canadians veered sharply left and turned Canada into a massive welfare state within 16 years.

At the brink of economic destruction, major decisions and major cuts were made. They enforced fiscal restraint and got it under control.

We are there now, where Canada was in the 1960s.

Steve Hohe

Shawnee

Ban all weapons?

Some people want to ban guns. Let’s do it better.

Ban all items that kill. Here is a list: cars, knives, screwdrivers, hammers, baseball tools of all kinds, hands, feet and poisons.

Who will turn in guns? The good persons, of course.

But the bad people will be laughing their heads off because we made their job that much easier.

Think about it.

Robert A. Stompoly

Lexington, Mo.

Education need

Each year, no matter how wonderful and glorious and epic, summer must come to an end. For most students living in the United States, this signals the time to go back to school.

For many other kiddos around the world, however, the end of summer marks another year they are denied access to education.

This is a major deal because the power and potential of education is absolutely unlimited.

In knowing this, it’s astounding to grasp the idea that, according to a 2014 U.N. report, 57 million primary-school-age children around the globe are denied education entirely. Among those who do make it into a classroom, 250 million kids, or 40 percent of the world’s primary-school-age children, can’t read.

These statistics don’t have to be destiny. Change can come in the form of advocating for the Education for All Act (H.R. 4481).

The act calls for improvements in educational opportunities, breaking down the barriers to school attendance, retention and completion.

To improve kids’ lives around the world, call on your elected officials to support the Education for All Act.

Christine Rock

Olathe

Meat-free life

This year’s highest-grossing movie releases include five that feature animals prominently — “Finding Dory,” “The Jungle Book,” “Zootopia,” “The Secret Life of Pets” and “Kung Fu Panda 3.”

Nearly half of our households include a dog, and nearly 40 percent have a cat.

Two-thirds of us view them as family members and cherish them accordingly. We love our animals to death. Literally.

For every cat, dog or other animal that we love and cherish, we put 500 through months of caging, crowding, deprivation, mutilation and starvation before we take their very lives, cut their dead bodies into little pieces and shove those into our mouths.

And that doesn’t even include Dory and billions of her little friends, because we haven’t figured out how to count individual aquatic animals that we grind up for human or animal feed.

The good news is that we have a choice every time we visit a restaurant or grocery store. We can choose live foods — yellow and green vegetables, legumes, fruits, nuts, grains, as well as a rich variety of grain and nut-based meats and dairy products.

Or, we can choose dead animals.

What will it be?

Victor Wing

Kansas City

This story was originally published September 16, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on government spending, weapons, education."