Letters: Readers discuss The Star’s Trump editorial, cyberbullying and the Nelson-Atkins
Absurd editorial
The Star’s editorial, “Silence on deadly Olathe shooting is disquieting” (Feb. 28, 10A), on why President Donald Trump hadn’t yet spoken out about the Olathe shootings, is absurd.
There are hundreds of homicides every week in this nation. Is the president supposed to comment on every one of these? What about all those other families that didn’t receive comfort and support? Why then didn’t President Barack Obama comment on every one of the 762 homicides in Chicago last year?
Was this a hate crime? Yes. Was this a disturbed individual? Yes.
It was not a mass shooting or a terrorist attack. This one shooting is not a moment of national crisis.
We cried for change in our government, so let’s give Trump more than a month in office to maybe get this nation back on track. Stop the protests. Stop fabricating and embellishing meaningless stories.
Let us as a nation at least let our president try to do his almost insurmountable job of making our nation great again.
Randy Golubski
Kansas City, Kan.
I do not agree with your editorial that President Donald Trump should say something about the Olathe shooting. We don’t even know what happened. Investigations are not complete. There will be a murder trial, and a president’s words do have power.
President Barack Obama should have kept his mouth shut about his opinion on Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. All he did was create more division.
We have a justice system that will sort this out. If you expect the president to comment on every murder in the country, then we are going to need to start electing more than one president.
Count me as one who is tired of the media trying to stir up more divisiveness and trouble all the time.
Janet Ruby
Kansas City, Kan.
Online safety
Studies show that half the children ages 6-9 use the internet every day, and the rate is even higher among older children. Often they surrender private information on social media without understanding the implications, which makes them easy targets of cyberbullying.
Children are in the process of cognitive development. The human brain doesn’t look like that of an adult until the early 20s. This means that kids are not fully equipped to comprehend the consequences of their actions, making them more vulnerable to negativity on the internet.
Twenty percent of kids who have been bullied admitted to having thoughts of suicide. That figure is concerning.
As a pediatrician, I care about the safety of our children in the real as well as the virtual world.
We as a society should address this as a public health issue. Technology companies have started doing their part with in-app reporting, blocking and so on. Parents must guide their children about using the internet responsibly.
School counselors can be vital for children with adverse experiences. Lastly, the government has to be involved in implementing education programs and intervention opportunities. Let’s give our children a safe digital space.
Sonal Sharma, M.D.
Kansas City
Art for good
In this time of alienation and uncertainty, when lies pose as truth and the truth is said to be a lie, visit the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and find solace.
Through March 19, you can commune with the human souls in the photographs of David Heath. They are striking, tangible evidence of his own search for truth, love and connection in a world that he felt had abandoned him.
Wandering through the exhibit, you will hear the Salisbury Cathedral Choir’s recorded performance in Janet Cardiff’s “Forty-Part Motet” from the next room. Spend half an hour or half a day enveloped by individual voices lifting in harmony to the heavens: a transcendent experience and profound reminder that we are capable of greatness when we rise to the occasion.
Beginning March 11, through the generous spirit and love of Henry and Marion Bloch, seekers of truth and beauty will find it in the new Bloch Galleries, where the passion and creative spirit of people long dead still move us and always will.
Then come back and fill yourself again in all the museum’s magnificent spaces. You are surrounded by friends.
Cynthia Kunz
Overland Park
What mess?
As I recall, President Barack Obama began his first term when America was at war with two countries and had just suffered the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
It makes me wonder what President Donald Trump is talking about when he says he inherited a mess.
Armand Way
Topeka
This story was originally published March 1, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss The Star’s Trump editorial, cyberbullying and the Nelson-Atkins."