Letters: Bob Dole, horses and Girl Scouts in Kansas diocese

Two statesmen

I got an invitation to attend the ceremony awarding the Harry S. Truman Award for Public Service. The Kansas City Chiefs and former Sen. Bob Dole, a Republican, were the recipients.

Although a staunch Democrat, I decided to go. Dole and Truman had many parallels. Both respected farmers. Both favored responsible government spending. Both were collaborators and negotiators. Both dealt with some of the most pivotal leaders in modern history. Both were pragmatic Midwesterners.

Dole has advocated for farmers, veterans, the disabled, women and even animals. He remains unabashedly patriotic and hopeful about America’s future. Both Dole and Truman championed everyday people.

But the part of Dole’s acceptance speech that resonated with me the most was this: “Bipartisan policy is almost always the policy that best serves the American people.” This is both astute and contemporaneous.

Truman and Dole shared the quality of a great sense of humor. America owes both huge debts of gratitude for their incredible records of public service.

Dole described himself humbly as “just a kid from Russell, Kansas.” I left the Truman Library on May 1 as a fan of Republican — yes, Republican — Sen. Bob Dole.

It was truly an evening well spent.

Patty Petet

Independence

Unneeded cruelty

Premarin is a drug for menopausal woman. Pregnant mares’ urine is used to manufacture it. Catheters are inserted to drain the horses’ urine while they are confined to narrow tie stalls where they can’t turn or lie down for weeks at a time. Equine gestation is 11-12 months.

Mares might be turned out for two hours every two weeks. Once lame or unable to reproduce, they are slaughtered.

Yes, medications play a vital role in our lives, but this one is unnecessary. I have made inquiries to people who work in the medical field, and they have given me strong responses: They won’t prescribe Premarin solely because of the abuse that occurs in making it. There are better alternatives.

Google “Premarin mare,” but be prepared for alarming, graphic pictures of foals being slaughtered and horses in unsavory conditions — all for menopausal relief for us two-legged mammals.

Voice your concern to your representatives, doctors and Pfizer, which markets Premarin. Stop supporting and using this drug. Support horse and foal rescue organizations. This is one thing that we can make right.

Tina Anguish

Overland Park

Russian threat

The most perverse and degenerate things our leaders do are not personal behaviors they are trying to hide, but actions they take openly.

Moving American missile batteries, tanks and troops right on Russia’s borders threatens to bring an end to every one of us and the end of our world as we know it.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is correct when he says we don’t understand the implications of these actions. The tiny number of people who are building Russia to be a threat so they can profit are the real enemy.

They and all their ignorant supporters should realize that hydrogen bombs are a lousy method of suicide.

Michael Stone

Leawood

Summing up

The latest from the guy in the Oval Office:

He demands all reports and briefings that reach his desk be no more than one page, yet his supporters say he’s a detail-oriented guy. Well, sure, that’s obvious.

He quotes what a dead president said about the Civil War. Now we know the president is a medium.

He asks why the Civil War happened, a question people don’t ask. Obviously, none of the 50,000 books written on the subject have ever considered that question.

He learns how the world works from other world leaders, earlier from Germany, the latest from China. Of course. Why do your own studying when others will do it for you?

He says he likes to work. That is shown in the near-weekly trips to Florida to tend to his golf course.

He would be honored to meet North Korea’s Kim Jong Un and invited the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte to visit. What could go wrong?

He says we can draw our own conclusions and can have our own opinions. Thanks, but we don’t need your permission for that. He also says he doesn’t stand by anything.

Ah, at last — something on which we agree.

Steve Barnhart

Kansas City

Serious offense

A question for the Kansas City, Kan., archdiocese: Will I go to hell for eating a Girl Scout cookie? (May 2, 1A, “Kansas archdiocese severs ties with Girl Scouts, urges end to cookie sales”)

Pat Binda