Readers share views on the the SpongeBob SquarePants 400, religious bigotry and a church theft
Cartoonish Kansas
May I suggest that in keeping with naming the spring race at the Kansas Speedway the SpongeBob SquarePants 400 that maybe they should run the race backward to keep in the spirit with the way Gov. Sam Brownback is leading the state (3-3, B2, “NASCAR meets Nick”).
Gary Brown
Platte City
Religious bigotry
What does it say about Republican voters that someone thought a whispering campaign that Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich was Jewish would hurt his chances as a candidate for governor (3-3, Editorial, “Bullying within GOP politics must stop”)?
What does it say that this kind of thinking would be successful among the party’s base?
What does it say that Schweich felt it needed an explanation?
When will the party realize that this is anti-semitism and bigotry cloaked in justification?
Deborah Cohen Ball
Overland Park
Theft at church
Whoever stole the blue van from Leawood’s Church of the Nativity recently, shame on you. It is bad enough that you stole it, but did you have to torch it, too?
That old van’s only purpose was to haul equipment to churches in the area during Lent for the Theatre at Vis production of “Station” and to its summer youth musicals. Now this group is struggling to find a van to use.
If you would like to know more about this community organization or help with procuring another van, please visit www.theatreatvis.org.
Barb Domke
Kansas City
Cut officials’ pay
With the election now months in the past and officials of Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration offering as their solution to our state’s financial crisis that we should “live within our means,” I suggest we start with this: Let the governor and all state legislators take salary cuts to the equivalent of the minimum wage.
That should save a few bucks.
Rev. Don Wilson
Overland Park
Rules for ice safety
There have been too many tragic accidents on ponds this winter by ice skaters and others (3-2, A-5, “Woman dies trying to help dog”).
For safety’s sake, please follow the three absolute rules below for ice skating on ponds:
▪ Verify thickness is at least 5 inches. Be sure to check at several locations on the ice.
▪ Always have a friend or two with you.
▪ Always have an aluminum extension ladder at the shore to give anyone who falls through the ice something to grab and use to pull himself or herself out. Ladders are better than ropes because they can be extended across weak ice with less danger to both the rescuer and the victim who falls through the ice.
Violation of any of these rules could be fatal.
Vernon Reed
Liberty
Virtue of tolerance
Racism is an easy sell because it comes with our mother’s milk. It floats in the air at every cocktail party.
Biological life is not comfortable with differences. Tie a red ribbon around the neck of a goose in a flock of white geese, and the others will peck him to death.
I am saddened by how acceptable racism has become for so many of us. That was pointed out by a letter Heinrich Himmler would have been proud of, forwarded to me by a longtime friend whom I had always considered to be rational and decent.
It also went to a lot of other people whom I know, nice people, who either were not as shocked as I was or were afraid to speak up.
Still, I thought that World War II had settled bigotry’s hash. That is why I am proud to have served.
However, racism is a hard snake to kill.
We need to remember that tolerance is an essential virtue, and without it, we are just another flock of geese.
We also need to remember that bigotry will kill a democracy as certainly as a python will kill a fawn.
Ben Vineyard
St. Joseph
Postage come-on
Two times in the last three months I received in the mail an official-looking document from the U.S. Postal Service promoting an online site for printing postage on my personal computer.
To entice people to sign up, the offer includes nine free stamps printable on the home computer.
To sign up for the service, people need to give their credit card and other personal information. After going through the process, people are then directed to log in to their account.
Upon doing so, I could find no way to print my free stamps. I also found out that this site is not operated by the U.S. government but a licensed private company.
I sent a negative email to the stamp company, and it sent a reply stating in part: “Our free nine-stamp NetStamps Label Sheet promotion works with
Stamps.com Online, our browser-based program only, and is not available with our PC-based software.”
What followed was a very complex set of instructions that the average person would never figure out.
Let this be a warning to anyone who receives such offers in the mail.
Michael Sugnet
Kansas City
Truman, Republicans
The “whisper campaign” is not new to the GOP. President Harry Truman warned in 1948 that the battle is against special interests who will stop at nothing to gain power.
Referring to the campaign by the Ku Klux Klan against Democrat Al Smith, Truman said, “The leaders of the Republican Party served notice on America ... that they would stop at nothing in order to gain power.”
Rather than working to resolve our immigration problems, as courageously advocated by Jeb Bush at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland last week, too many in the GOP seek the same anti-immigrant voter whom the Klan appealed to in 1928.
“Don’t think that the elephant has changed his habits in the last 20 years,” Truman warned. “This Republican elephant is not that kind of elephant. They’re trying to make you believe he has that new look, but he hasn’t.”
Truman identified that the issue then — the willingness of wealthy special interests to stop at nothing to preserve their wealth and privilege — remained unchanged.
“Fundamentally,” said Truman, the issue then was the same as 20 years earlier, “that is, the rights of all the people against special privilege for the few.”
Lawrence Levine
Leavenworth
Tom Schweich
Missouri Auditor Tom Schweich touched the tip of the iceberg, and it ended his life (3-1, Commentary, “Losing Tom Schweich: A setback for reform”).
It also has the potential to end the political career of Catherine Hanaway and expose her major sponsor’s million-dollar scheme.
Our Missouri Republican Party has become special interests suspect, and all voters of our state share this shame.
Will Jones
Maplewood, Mo.
United States of Koch
I am writing this letter to criticize David and Charles Koch, so those who support them might not want to read what I have to say.
After having placed their stooges in office to control Congress by spending millions during the last election, the brothers are willing to spend an additional $900 million (maybe more) in 2016 to put their kind of stooge in the White House.
So I wish to have the remaining time I have to exercise my freedom of speech before these self-made tyrants outlaw even that.
I don’t wish to be awakened someday late at night to the sound of heavy boots.
As libertarians (another word for anarchists), they will weaken, and then destroy, the government we all have known.
They and others like them, such as Grover Norquist, will place us all in peril, especially to terrorists who are already overrunning Yemen and parts of Nigeria, where there is no strong government.
Of course, the Kochs aren’t worried about this. They have the kind of money that will buy the security they will need against these future terrorists.
But what about myself and others like me?
For whom does the bell toll? Does it toll for thee?
Michal Betz
Wichita
This story was originally published March 4, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on the the SpongeBob SquarePants 400, religious bigotry and a church theft."