Readers share thoughts on the Ethnic Enrichment Festival, Ferguson and immigration
Festival in park
The Kansas City area should be proud of the Ethnic Enrichment Festival held every year at Swope Park (8-17, A4, “Ethnic festival draws crowds”). I attended Saturday evening, and from my experience it had to be a record attendance.
The weather was perfect. For $3 per person, free parking and sample plates to share for about $5, it is affordable for everyone. The entertainment provides a sample of the fabulous diversity we enjoy in our community.
I have the event on my calendar for next year.
Patrick Carr
Kansas City, Kan.
Ferguson tensions
I am a retired police officer and I do not profess to understand what is happening in Ferguson, Mo. However, I do know that the looting and burning solve nothing.
They are barbaric, uncivilized acts against people who had nothing whatsoever to do with the shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown. To me, it shows the world how stupid people are. Bring in a good lie-detector expert.
Make everyone involved, including the witnesses, take a lie-detector test. Only then will the real truth be known.
For the Ferguson Police Department, get onboard dash cameras and pocket recorders, and then your actions will not be so easily questioned.
I hope peace, truth and tranquility will come to the town soon.
Alice Brandom
Parkville
Peacekeeper needed
In 2009 President Barack Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for (in part) his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples.
It seems to me that someone with those chops would be a slam-dunk in showing up in Ferguson, Mo., to lead the way for calm among all.
Maynard Mitchell
Independence
E-cigarette ploy
Didn’t it seem like a great idea to find an alternative to cigarettes that might be healthier?
The common misconception is that e-cigarettes are that savior.
As much as America would like to believe that, we cannot.
Companies such as Altria, parent company of Philip Morris, are trying to weasel their new products into the lives of children by debuting new e-cigs with deceitful advertising techniques.
Most children have seen the movie “Frozen,” and therefore Altria will call its newest campaign “Let it Glow,” which plays off the hit song “Let it Go” from the movie.
The point in appealing to children is to encourage them to start smoking sooner.
Research shows that the earlier one starts, the greater the chance of addiction.
This is a call for help.
Talk to your legislators about putting regulations in place to keep dangerous e-cigs out.
Protect America’s future.
Jordan Elder
Kansas City
Catholic payout
When I read how the Catholic diocese is willing and able to help with the legal costs of offending priests, it makes me angry.
Now millions of dollars are being allocated for this purpose.
But when an ordinary, everyday Catholic contacts Catholic Charities seeking help, this person often cannot get emergency assistance.
So many needy Catholics would not be needy if the legal fund went to help them.
Dottie Jefferson
Kansas City, Kan.
Innocent suitcase
My parish, St. Mary’s Episcopal Church at 13th and Holmes streets, had a wonderful volunteer social worker for many years.
The old church had a couple of closets filled with suitcases and boxes of belongings from his clients — people from the streets — who were going to jail or elsewhere for a time.
They asked our social worker to care for their things until they returned, and he did. The old church no longer has our wonderful volunteer as well as no regular minister. It is open only for a Saturday hot meal for the homeless and one Sunday service.
I wonder whether the suitcase with clothing and an umbrella that caused such an outcry (8-19, A4, “Suspicious package triggers big worries”) might have been a satchel left with our former social worker for safekeeping until the client could return. If so, our humblest apologies.
Come by on the weekend, friend.
Betty Herndon
Kansas City
Immigration, U.S.
Immigration in America won’t go away.
Originally it was the Mexicans. Now it’s Central American Latinos who are heading north to the land of milk and honey.
Comprehensive immigration reform with a pathway to citizenship is a must. Deportation will not work.
The Texas governor will call out the National Guard to stop the kids at the border but will do little about the drug cartels.
The North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994 allowed U.S. products to be sold in Mexico and destroyed the agricultural economy there.
Subsequently, Mexicans started the migration north searching for jobs to help their families survive.
Ascension Hernandez
Shawnee
U.S. citizenship
In the late 1950s, I married a lady from Germany.
At that time, she had to have lived in the United States for five years, have full-time employment, learn English, attend citizenship classes, pass a citizenship exam and recite the solemn oath that the president and other elected officials must swear to. This oath was heard by the judge who was signing the documents for citizenship.
In my opinion, people seeking citizenship in the United States should have to wait their turn and then be required to complete the above-mentioned criteria to become a citizen.
I might add that my wife had two daughters, and they had to wait until they were 18 years old before they could apply for citizenship.
Wilbur C. Watts
Appleton City, Mo.
Regulate capitalism
So it’s socialism that some people are worried about. How about fascism?
Fascism protects corporate power. What is called socialism in the U.S. is not government ownership but government regulations.
Who in his right mind would want no regulation of our economic system? Capitalism does not regulate itself.
This is a diabolical notion put forth by fascists in our country. We had examples of underregulation of banks and savings and loans, and the Bernie Madoff affair resulted, and who wants the largest military on earth regulated by a pea-sized government?
One may have noticed our military-congressional-industrial complex trying to scare us into believing that China and Russia are getting ready to attack us. China and Russia together could not even imagine challenging the U.S.
There is no way to avoid a ruling class. Therefore we must hope we can have a ruling class that will want to let freedom prevail along with a well-regulated capitalist society.
Joseph Butler
Shawnee
U.S. mess in Iraq
Of all the poor excuses barked by professionals such as former President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain and regurgitated by the media, the mantra that “pulling our troops out too soon” caused the present chaos in Iraq takes the cake for ignorance.
How about a decade of obliterating Iraq with missiles, cluster bombs, mortars and machine-gun fire, annihilating its infrastructure and slaughtering tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women and children in perpetual night raids simply because we have no reliable means for distinguishing ordinary Iraqi citizens from alleged terrorists?
Had our plan been to create terrorists from scratch and maximize hatred of the U.S. around the world, we could not have found a more fertile strategy.
That was the Bush and Dick Cheney plan. Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Paul Bremer were eager to play the game of nation-building.
Eventually, the heads of American presidents (past and present) are going to roll for this, along with those at the Pentagon and in Congress who are responsible for the turmoil they have unleashed with such impunity.
Dennis Weiser
Kansas City
This story was originally published August 20, 2014 at 5:29 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on the Ethnic Enrichment Festival, Ferguson and immigration."