Letters: Readers discuss travel to Cuba, fighting Trump and Real ID
Cuba travel
On Feb. 19, I read an article in The Star titled “Cuba welcomes American tourists, but few are visiting.” (8A)
My wife and I just returned from Cuba, and the real reason that few are visiting is summarized in the last sentence. “The 54-year-old U.S. embargo ... bans tourism to Cuba by Americans.”
The Cuba we met was filled with pleasant, accommodating people. The system of governance is different but open to discussion and building rapidly within its own limits.
Cubans would welcome you, but the U.S. embargo would not. It is a desirable destination discouraged by our current domestic policy.
Larry Snyder
Hamilton, Mo.
How to fight
I’m a Republican. I’m also anti-President Donald Trump. And I’m surprised at how badly the Democratic Party and anti-Trump Republicans are combating the president. It shouldn’t be hard.
The man’s credentials less than a month in show him to be massively incompetent at accomplishing even the morally dubious goals his supporters want to see happen. The man lacks the patience and humility to hear intelligence reports, lacks the judgment to appoint skilled advisers and has thinner skin than a millennial drama queen.
You want to stop Trump? Target his incompetence and his foolishness.
Point out what an impotent gesture a border wall would be, how useless his travel ban would be at stopping actual terrorist threats, how his cabinet picks have been beset by failures and possible treason, and how his biggest foreign policy idea is to kiss up to a foreign power that can’t even manage the Olympics properly.
You want to hurt his support? Show that he’s not just doing wrong; show he’s doing wrong in a slow, stupid manner.
Show he’s weak.
Nathan Hopkins
Warsaw, Mo.
Longtime friend
Every time President Donald Trump calls the press my enemy, I say, no — the press is my lifelong friend, especially The Kansas City Star.
Even as a child, I used the paper to prepare reports for school and often found my lunch wrapped in its pages. Mother swatted flies with the Star — her kids, too. She lined drawers with it. Made newspaper hats. Clipped Star coupons.
There are recipes in my cookbook cut straight from the paper, and in my files are obituaries of loved ones, historic front pages and pictures of our city’s Super Bowl and World Series wins. A framed “Remember When” column hangs in the kitchen, and a paragraph from the sports pages about my husband’s hole-in-one sits on his desk.
The paper talks to me, and I talk back — to its reviews, funnies, reader comments, op-eds, features and all those in-depth stories worthy of the ink.
Is The Star perfect? Hardly, but what friend is?
I don’t always agree with the candidates the editors endorse. I don’t like the reduced size of the Faith section, and I’d like less sports and more puzzles. Still, we two remain trusted friends. Have been for 70 years.
Sue Wright
Liberty
ID laws
For 50 years, we have been visiting the Fort Leavenworth National Cemetery during the Memorial Day weekend to place flowers on an uncle’s grave. My husband can no longer make this trip, so our son and his wife have taken over this family responsibility.
On their last visit, they were not allowed on the base to visit the cemetery because their ID consisted of a Missouri driver’s license, and these are no longer accepted on federal installations.
Come on, Missouri. Let’s get with most of the rest of the country and update our law.
Betty Wood
Liberty
Happy diversion
“Thank God for sports.” I don’t know who’s responsible for that quote, but I agree.
Scorching news from around the world could ruin my day. But first thing every morning, I read the sports section of The Kansas City Star.
I can read where the Big 12 basketball teams are in the national rankings. I see times when games that I don’t want to miss are being played. Sportswriters bring a human touch.
In Surprise, Ariz., Royals manager Ned Yost said, “Look, we got a really, really good team.” George Brett at spring training said, “Hopefully, they get off to a good start.”
What better way to begin my day than to read these comments from a popular and caring manager and from an endearing, World Series-winning baseball player?
Go ahead, read the one-sided editorials, critical commentaries, the death count by handguns. But be sure to read the sports section of The Star or other media. I guarantee you: Joy will spring in your heart.
Betty Swisher
Kansas City
This story was originally published March 5, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss travel to Cuba, fighting Trump and Real ID."