Letters: Readers discuss presidential history, denial of the truth, recycling and Eric Berry
History lesson
I am a firm believer in knowing history, because it will repeat itself in some way.
My father first voted for president in 1928. The previous two presidents, Warren G. Harding and Calvin Coolidge, had been Republicans. So whom did my coal miner father vote for in 1928? The Republican businessman, Herbert Hoover.
Years later I asked him, “Why Herbert Hoover?”
“Because he was a businessman.”
Well, Hoover was a very successful businessman. But he was no leader, and he was a lousy president.
My favorite story about Hoover was from when the country was falling into depression. His advisers told him there was not enough money in the Treasury to run the country. His response was, “Raise taxes.”
His advisers told him they couldn’t raise taxes because 25 percent of the people were unemployed.
So what did Hoover do? He called in company leaders and told them to continue paying workers. We now know a lot of those companies are no longer around, having gone bankrupt.
So now we have another businessman president who says he will make America great again.
Will history somehow repeat itself?
Get ready for huge government debt and huge inflation.
Who will be the next president to clean up the mess?
James Tira
Overland Park
Why deny?
I’ve tried to understand why people are so adamantly opposed to knowledge and understanding the world around them. The United States is replete with deniers, conspiracy theories and just really dumb ideas.
This thought process and voting have brought us to an oligarchy run by a few wealthy individuals.
One answer is that maybe people don’t know what they don’t know, and they find it easier to use as their guidance misinformation that supports their uninformed world view.
The fact-based science that people deny has provided them with the technology they enjoy every day. The good life has resulted from evidentially supported, research derived, fact-based information.
And yet they reject this approach, using instead conspiracy-theory internet misinformation.
I’m reminded of a young man who was intellectually capable of achieving excellent job skills and a college education but chose instead an assembly-line job for instant gratification.
Our future president and congress were elected by just this group of people with no understanding of what they did.
Unfortunately, as long as they have a chicken in every pot, they will continue on this path of ignorance.
Dale Thomas
Leawood
Eager to recycle
I read with interest the Dec. 5 front-page story, “Recycle a deer? People have tried,” about the dos and don’ts of recycling. It was very informative, as well as confusing.
For years, I have been trying to figure out what can and cannot go into my recycling bin. I have often thought it would be very helpful if the recycling companies would hold classes that would help the public become better informed.
I think that by doing so it would also save the recycling companies tons of money by having people better informed about what we should or should not recycle.
I know I would be thrilled to take part in such a program, and I am sure many other folks who want to do their part to recycle responsibly would as well. Any such program should be free of charge.
Bonnie Larimore
Kansas City
Inspiring Berry
Eric Berry scores a touchdown and gives the ball to his mom. Then, so as not to play favorites, he scores the game-deciding two-point conversion and gives the ball to his dad. (12-5, B7, “Eric Berry’s remarkable recovery punctuates win”)
How much do you think we’d have to pay his parents to sit in the stands for all our remaining games?
Suzanne Conaway
Kansas City
Diplomacy
Columnist Trudy Rubin chastises President-elect Donald Trump for accepting a congratulatory phone call from a world leader (12-7, A15, “Trump’s flippant talk is circling the globe”). She does not think he is well versed in the nuance of diplomacy and is joined by many of our elite talking heads.
This brings to mind an incident from years past. President George H.W. Bush instructed our ambassador to Iraq to tell Saddam Hussein that the U.S. doesn’t take positions on border disputes after Iraq had massed troops along the Kuwait border with clear intentions. Hussein invaded, and Bush won the first Gulf War like the Green Bay Packers playing an eighth-grade church team.
My liberal friends tell me diplomacy is “complicated.” I ask if they are satisfied with the current situation and some past results. I speculate that this is but one of many things millions of “deplorables” found lacking in the status quo.
Ron Platt
Overland Park
This story was originally published December 8, 2016 at 8:13 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss presidential history, denial of the truth, recycling and Eric Berry."