Letters: Readers discuss John McCain, right to work and voter fraud

In solidarity

When I was on active duty in the Navy, many of us wore bracelets bearing the name of a POW to show support for our prisoners. I had a Lt. Cmdr. John McCain III bracelet. (You remember John McCain, the “loser,” in the words of Donald Trump in 2015?)

I wore it night and day until, after five years, he was released. I still have it and put it on again when I heard of his cancer diagnosis. I will wear it similarly until he is released again.

T.J. Snyder

Mission Hills

People or party?

It’s too soon to pile on the accolades for U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran’s “statesmanship” and “brave stand against the disastrous Senate health care bill,” to quote two recent letters.

Within hours of doing this, Moran went from hero to zero when he came out in support of repealing the Affordable Care Act with no immediate replacement.

Congressional Budget Office scores released Wednesday estimate this approach would result in 32 million uninsured and double insurance premiums by 2026 — no better, and in some areas worse, than the health care bill he opposed.

With all due credit, Moran is the one local member of Congress who has held public town halls, unlike Sen. Pat Roberts and Rep. Kevin Yoder, who have been noticeably absent. But Moran’s latest position makes me wonder whether he truly heard his constituents’ worries and anxieties in his so-called Kansas Listening Tour.

Recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation shows 71 percent of Americans would prefer the ACA be improved in a bipartisan manner rather than be repealed. It’s time for Sen. Moran to stop straddling the fence and decide where his loyalties lie — with the people or the party.

Colleen W. Knight

Leawood

Right to work

In his July 19 letter, state Sen. Will Kraus spread a little fear mongering and false information about labor unions, without any facts or data to back them up.

He suggested that the big bad bogeyman, the “big labor bosses,” didn’t want right to work. Well, I am here to tell him the hard-working, taxpaying union men and women of Missouri don’t want it.

We do not want freeloaders being paid good wages and receiving good benefits, but not paying for their representation.

Any man or woman who doesn’t want to pay dues should apply at the many non-union businesses in Missouri. Then they will not have to pay those dues — but they probably will not receive the pay and benefits of dues-paying union members.

Now let me show you who is behind this movement: David Humphreys and Sarah Humphreys Atkins of Tamko Building Products, St. Joseph businessman Stan Herzog, Missouri Republican Party chair Todd Graves and Kansas City attorney James Thomas III. Together, they have put up at least $1 million to depress your wages and benefits.

Remember that when you shop or vote in November.

Dennis Parker

Lee’s Summit

To disagree well

About a week after the election in November 2016, I sent a letter to then-President Barack Obama.

Among other things, I told him that I had not voted for him and that I disagreed with his positions on many issues. I ended my note by thanking him and his family for their service to our country and wishing them well.

Somewhere in that short note, I conveyed how my grandmother had tried to teach me to be respectful — to disagree without being disagreeable, and to remember that if I had to use bad words or yell or call people names to win, I had already lost.

On July 18, I received an envelope in the mail from the office of Barack Obama. The letter from Obama began: “Dear Clyde, thank you for your kind message …” The letter ended with, “Thanks for everything — I wish you the very best.”

God bless all our nation’s leaders and our beloved United States of America.

Clyde Waltermate

Raytown

Further step

I appreciate Kris Kobach’s efforts on vote integrity. We can see what kind of president we get when a bunch of fake Americans vote.

But all the information Kobach is collecting can be falsified. There is only one proof-positive way of separating real Americans from cheaters. That proof is by blood.

On Election Day, the real American poll worker will draw a sample of your blood to be analyzed at the voting laboratory. If it matches, you will be given a ballot.

It will be huge, and it will head off the suggestion of IQ tests for voters.

Helen Roser

Manhattan

This story was originally published July 22, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss John McCain, right to work and voter fraud."