Letters: Readers discuss cord blood, Rep. Kevin Yoder and the printed word
Mothers’ gift
This Mother’s Day, I would like to honor the mothers who donate their newborns’ umbilical cord blood after their babies’ deliveries.
A newborn’s cord blood is rich in lifesaving stem cells, which have unique lifesaving potential but are usually discarded after delivery. Stem cells offer hope to patients who suffer from leukemia and lymphoma, and a cord blood transplant can be a cure for patients battling blood cancers and other disorders.
St. Luke’s cord blood program collects donations from eight area hospitals. We hope expectant families who deliver at these hospitals will become aware of their opportunity to donate. Donations are always needed, especially from minority communities, where patients struggle to find matching donors.
There is no cost to donate, and the donation is safe for both mother and baby. Expectant parents just need to ask their doctors a few months before delivery about the safe, simple process and complete some paperwork before delivery.
I thank every mom who makes the effort. A simple cord blood donation may save a life. Moms who donate umbilical cord blood are truly making a difference in the lives of others.
For information, visit saintlukeskc.org/
Bill Ward
Director, St. Luke’s
cord blood program
Kansas City
Kudos to Yoder
After eight years of skyrocketing health care premiums, fewer providers and more government mandates, I was pleased to see that Rep. Kevin Yoder had the courage to vote for the American Health Care Act to return health care to the hands of doctors and patients, and out of the government’s.
Yoder’s vote is only the first step toward making this new health care bill official law. This bill now goes to the U.S. Senate, where I hope our elected officials use common sense to fight to bring costs down, eliminate onerous regulations and allow free-market reforms to fill the health care market.
I know Yoder faced tough partisan critics leading up to his vote. This might not be a perfect solution to the disasters of Obamacare, but Yoder’s vote moves us further away from the burdens of that debacle. It is a welcome first step. He rolled up his sleeves, made tough decisions and listened to the folks who hired him for this job, and voted yes.
We need more leaders like Yoder who know we need a clean break from politics as usual and put taxpayers and patients first.
Brett Hildabrand
Shawnee
Automated future
If President Donald Trump’s tax plan passes, corporations would not only be able to bring billions of overseas dollars back tax-free, but they could then use those bucks to buy robots and expense the investment to avoid paying any other taxes for years to come.
A bunch of losers would be out of work, but robot-repair guys should do great.
This just in: Smart money is investing in automated robot maintenance.
Tom Stroud
Overland Park
Old, new school
As printed newspapers and magazines across the country continue to shrink, the literary culture is waning. Ghosts of past reporters wander aimlessly, trapped in an increasingly paperless nightmare of electronic fiction, wondering why present-day stories no longer require research and truth to be considered factual.
As the past rounds the bases on its way to the present, the future has already been written. Past news articles were reviewed and edited by people who thought the truth of the story mattered. Today’s website stories have been Kardashianed into a mishmash of truth that has little basis in fact.
I know eventually, as older subscribers like myself pass away, the newspaper I grew up with will completely transform itself into an electronic news blip designed to fit the reader’s phone or tablet.
I’ll admit I’ve often been online at the very same time I’ve been reading the paper. And through the accidental combining of those activities, I couldn’t help but notice how much different website journalism is from print journalism.
Today there is an onslaught of website authors who need only claim absolute belief in the gibberish they pass off as factual. The new website philosophy in news is if you believe it to be true, then it must be true because you believe it to be true.
So goodbye, research. Adios, facts. Tweet, tweet to common sense.
Anything that any fool says appears instantaneously somewhere. Don’t believe me? Just ask Sean Spicer.
For those of you who don’t know who Sean Spicer is, get yourself a newspaper.
David Vanderwell
Olathe
This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss cord blood, Rep. Kevin Yoder and the printed word."