Letters: Readers discuss a good deal to build at KCI, trouble contacting Sen. Jerry Moran and personal responsibility with guns
Airport a deal
Congratulations to Ray Kowalik, CEO of Burns & McDonnell, for having the courage, foresight and confidence to offer a private-sector solution to a public-sector problem.
As a frequent traveler, I think Kansas City International Airport is outdated and very passenger- and airline-unfriendly. We are long overdue for a new airport.
What a travesty that council members, namely Katheryn Shields and Quinton Lucas, decided to go negative as they focus on their never-ending quest for more publicity. (May 13, 1A, “Airport terminal proposal is greeted with skepticism”)
The Star was wrong for focusing on publicity-hungry politicians and “skepticism” instead of celebrating a bold move by a local businessman and world-renowned architectural and engineering firm.
Do the politicians really think a business and businessman are up to nefarious activity when Burns & McDonnell says it expects a 3 percent rate of return? The vast majority of area travelers who fly more than once or twice a year know how badly the city needs a new airport.
Thank you, Mr. Kowalik and Burns & McDonnell, for answering the call.
Phil Holderness
Kansas City
Let’s face facts. The intransigence of Kansas City voters makes it unlikely that any single-terminal airport will win their approval, no matter the financing. Their negativity on this issue is abetted by the editorials of The Star, which is annoyed that it was not allowed at the table when the recent negotiations were going on. The Star fans the flames of negativity with its constant harping on this important issue.
Perhaps it is not a pipe dream to think the airport could eventually find its way to the Kansas side.
Robert Meegan
Overland Park
Paying attention?
Usually, I begin my day by sending a polite, short, snappy email to Sen. Jerry Moran telling him how to handle the business of being a senator. I always receive an unvarying reply thanking me.
Now I am worried that I may not be as important to Moran as he says I am. He looks like a bright, clean-cut Kansan, although I have never seen him in person. (He doesn’t hang around Douglas County much — if ever.)
Sadly for our relationship, I’m afraid he’s not listening to me carefully. In the past weeks, I have received a letter thanking me for asking about the American Health Care Act. I didn’t.
Another letter thanked me for asking about Social Security. I hadn’t.
What I had written about were my great hopes that the air will stay clean and our children will continue to be well educated, fed and safe in spite of President Donald Trump’s activities to the contrary.
I guess my question is: We are urged to write, phone, fax, email our legislators, but does anyone even read or listen to what constituents have to say?
Nancy Pike Hause
Lawrence
Fact, not emotion
Jacob Dorman recites several “darn facts” in support of banning guns on college campuses in his May 11 guest commentary, “I resigned from KU to protest Kansas gun laws.” (15A)
Unfortunately, those facts are mostly emotions and feelings rather than objective solutions.
The basic question, “What are you going to do at the moment you’re attacked?” was tragically answered in 2015 by the shooting death of Ethan Schmidt at Delta State University in Mississippi, where both guns and murder are banned.
The Kansas Legislature recognizes that laws banning guns do not by themselves solve any problem. It is disingenuous and deceitful for educated people to perpetuate such myths. Educators are supposed to encourage reasoned thinking based on the truth and facts, not wishful thinking.
Laws do not solve problems. People following laws solve problems. Setting high standards for personal responsibility should be our goal. Educating students otherwise is criminal in itself.
Dennis Batliner
Overland Park
Historical omission
“Trump says ‘no politician in history’ has been ‘treated worse or more unfairly.’” (May 18, 1A) He seems terribly thin-skinned for a tough-guy president.
Without thinking too hard, the following came to mind (other politicians and assassinated presidents also qualify): Abraham Lincoln, James Garfield, William McKinley, John Kennedy, Theodore Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Bobby Kennedy, Harvey Milk, Barack Obama, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and Julius Caesar.
Trump may feel like Caesar, who was stabbed to death by political colleagues, before the investigations are over.
Jim Babcock
Robinson, Kan.