Letters: Readers discuss leaving Westport safely, Trump overseas and kudos to Sen. Jerry Moran
Uber complication
As a student at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, I am familiar with the situation at Westport on weekend nights. You hang out with friends and drink until 2 or 3 a.m. You know you can’t drive home, so you get out your phone and request an Uber.
You wait and wait, but the Uber doesn’t arrive. Meanwhile, your friends are looking at other options. Some are thinking they’re “good enough” to drive.
Now let’s look at the situation from my perspective as an Uber driver. I receive a request from Westport. As I approach the area, there is a police barricade letting only taxis through. In fact, every path to get to Westport is blocked by a police officer.
I pull over to ask one where to go to pick someone up and am answered with, “Not my concern. You have to find a legal parking spot and have them meet you there. Move along.” However, getting a drunk person to follow directions and walk more than five blocks to meet you is impossible.
Drunken driving is increasing in Westport because of this issue, and I can’t help but think the Kansas City Police Department has been complacent about this issue.
Adam Luetkemeyer
Kansas City
Not what we saw
Commentator Andrew Malcolm’s view that President Donald Trump showed his best face when abroad at the G20 summit is in direct contrast to what most observed. (July 12, 13A, “Once again, Trump shows his best face traveling abroad”)
In the view of more analytical eyes, it seemed to be another round of cozying up to America’s adversaries and snubbing her friends and allies.
Stuart Bintner
Kansas City
Drug ads
I don’t know if I am the only person who is sick of all the pharmaceuticals being advertised on TV. They are too numerous and stupid. I wonder if that is why drug prices are so high.
The United States and New Zealand are the only countries that allow this disgusting direct-to-consumer advertising. But it won’t stop, because there are 535 reason$ in Congress it will continue.
Marlene Shulkin
Prairie Village
Study in contrasts
While my politics are probably 180 degrees from Sen. Jerry Moran’s, I have a lot of respect for him for all the town hall meetings he is doing to get feedback from his constituents. (July 7, 1A, “Packed town hall urges Moran to stand against GOP health bill”)
On the other hand, here in the 3rd Congressional District, we have a representative who does his scripted town hall call-in meetings from some unknown site. Rep. Kevin Yoder, who apparently has aspirations for higher office, needs to determine whether he’s a leader or a follower.
S. Noel Smith
Overland Park
Strong sauce
A little vodka, cream and coffee liqueur, and you have a white Russian that might take down our teetotaling Trump.
Richard C. Lumpkin
Prairie Village
McConnell, Trump
As members of Congress return to Washington this week, the contrast between the governing styles of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Donald Trump, while perhaps equally problematic, could not be more apparent.
According to The New York Times, the House and Senate together held three dozen hearings on the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, in 2009 and 2010.
The two houses of this Congress, by contrast, have together held only five hearings on legislation that would repeal and replace the ACA.
Meanwhile, from his perch on Twitter, the president of the United States has been anything but secretive when it comes to his thoughts on Mika Brzezinski, Robert Mueller’s investigation, and whether the dictator of North Korea “has anything better to do with his life.”
It does not take a constitutional scholar to look at these two styles — McConnell’s apparent love of secrecy and Trump’s apparent lack of discretion — and see a modern political incarnation of Scylla and Charybdis from Homer’s Iliad.
Even someone who approves of the president’s job performance and the efforts to repeal and replace the ACA should feel underserved by how both men have treated the process.
Chris Estep
Overland Park
Birds of a feather
Russia has always hated democracy so they partner with the Republican Party.
Doesn’t that raise serious questions about the two groups?
Jeffery Bennett
Kansas City
This story was originally published July 12, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss leaving Westport safely, Trump overseas and kudos to Sen. Jerry Moran."