Letters: Readers discuss Declaration of Independence, Hobby Lobby ad, KC murder stats
No Declaration
I appreciate The Star’s reorganized editorial board’s more balanced presentation of differing points of view. However, you completely blew it on July 4 by not printing the Declaration of Independence.
Yes, I can get it online, but what an inspiration it has been for many years to open The Star on this day and read our nation’s founding document. Hope you reinstate the tradition.
Tom Owens
Kansas City
Hobby Lobby ad
Once again, Hobby Lobby raises the specter of a national religion couched in cherry-picked quotes July 4 in a full-page ad in The Kansas City Star. Hobby Lobby’s view that we are a “Christian nation” is wishful thinking.
In a 1797 treaty with the Muslim nation of Tripoli, President John Adams declared the government of the United States “is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion.”
“James Madison, A Life Reconsidered” by Lynne Cheney showed Madison understood how a government-sanctioned religion would lead to “great ignorance and corruption” and if unleashed would “facilitate the execution of mischievous projects.”
Beware the “mischievous projects” of Hobby Lobby, or anyone else who tries to reconstruct our history for their own purposes.
Bernadine Kline
Liberty
Murder stats
In Sunday’s Star, the lead article was headlined “Murder capital,” referring to Kansas City. This headline is totally misleading because Kansas City is not even the murder capital in Missouri — St. Louis has held this title for many years.
Even the article showed statistics that St. Louis has almost twice the murder rate as Kansas City. Moreover, the alarming comment that Kansas City has a higher murder rate than Chicago completely sidesteps the total number of homicides in each city. In 2016, there were 762 homicides in Chicago, and in Kansas City, the number was 130.
A significant point made by the article is that Kansas City, like most major cities, has a big murder problem and it often involves young black males as both victims and perpetrators. The article also notes a continuing failure to solve murders. The situation suggests that more connections need to be made between law enforcement and the communities most affected by murder in Kansas City.
Hopefully, The Star will avoid sensationalist headlines in the future but still achieve its goal of identifying and discussing serious local problems.
Patrick Sirridge
Leawood
Come together
Health care is not a liberal or a conservative issue. Everyone eventually needs health care during their lives. Both sides of the political spectrum have been blindsided by insurance companies and their need for greed. We are not getting the best medical care, and more and more people are being left behind.
Insurance is a risk-based gambling concept that generates profit from beating the odds. That is not the key to medical care. We need to move from an insurance-based health care system.
Frankly, when you add up the amount of money spent on insurance premiums, deductibles, co-pays, medications not covered by insurance, hospital write-offs for uninsured and the cost of fraud cheating the insurance companies, we could all be covered by a better system through an administered pay-in pool.
We have to be smarter than the problem. We need consensus, not contentiousness. Stop forcing your will and move to work together. Get the insurance, drug and medical-supply lobbyists out of the pockets of our congressmen and senators.
Ladies and gentlemen, clean up your swamp. Work together for the common good.
Patrick W. Emmett
Overland Park
Dear Mr. President,
You are truly taking a lot of ugly criticism.
There was another fellow who got his fair share of criticism and bad press. His reaction was, “If you can’t take the heat get out of the kitchen.”
My hope, Mr. President, is that you absorb his simple wisdom. So buck up. You won’t be able to make America great again if you keep making America “grate.”
Barbara Reese
Olathe
Trump tweet
On Saturday, President Donald Trump tweeted this on voter fraud, “Numerous states are refusing to give information to the very distinguished VOTER FRAUD PANEL. What are they trying to hide?”
I would respond: “Trump refuses to release his tax returns to the VERY DISTINGUISHED American people. What does he have to hide?”
Dolores Hart
Richmond
This story was originally published July 5, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Declaration of Independence, Hobby Lobby ad, KC murder stats."