Letters: Readers discuss the Chiefs’ Neil Smith, Three Percenters and adult manners

A giant heart

Former Chiefs player Neil Smith recently helped a pregnant woman to dry land after torrential rains hit Kansas City. (Aug. 24, 4B, “Woman in flooded car rescued by Chiefs icon”)

The memory I have of Neil is the time he visited my first-grade class at Burke Elementary School during the late 1980s, when his career was just starting with the Kansas City Chiefs.

Neil talked to the children about the importance of learning. He is a caring person, and the children were delighted that he took the time to come talk to them.

As we all know, Neil is an imposing figure to little kids. He passed out signed pictures to all of the students.

After Neil left, a little girl asked me, “Was that man a giant?” Some classmates said he was.

My first-graders were right, as children many times are: Neil Smith, the gentle giant, was recognized by these little people before anyone else.

Thank you, Neil, for proving the children correct. You are still the same after all these years.

Barbara D. Ham

Raytown

Logical extension

I suppose the Three Percent United Patriots are the “well-regulated militia” the Second Amendment mentions, aren’t they?

I’d like to know more about who regulates them and how. Can we expect armed clashes in the future and with whom?

That is the scary result of this country’s gun-culture tradition, which was unopposed by the many for too long.

Klaus Karbaumer

Platte City

Time to behave

I understand what the president’s supporters are saying. I am thinking that if I acted like the president, I would not be where I am today. What if we did not “take any crap” or if we had been loose cannons?

How many times did we restrain our bluntness when we were employed? I for one worked very hard at restraint. I did survive and am retired.

Now, please, let us all act like the mature adults we have worked hard to become.

Theresa Cotter

Belton

Minimum wage

I oppose Mayor Sly James’ most recent attempt to force local businesses to adopt his minimum-wage program.

We all know that hard workers deserve to be paid for their work, but instituting a program to punish companies that can’t voluntarily comply is utterly improper.

All this does is guarantee that the established companies with deep pockets and the mayor on speed dial keep getting more and more city contracts, while pushing smaller companies out of the way.

Small business can’t afford to overpay possible underperformers.

A living wage would need to fluctuate by industry and position. Is it a small-business owner’s job to calculate the living wage of each applicant? Does a single parent deserve more than a teenager getting his or her first job while living at home? This cannot be the responsibility of business, and this is not the responsibility of government.

A reasonable wage is set by the workers and their abilities, not by their situations. Find training, work your way up. Minimum-wage jobs are entry-level jobs, not careers.

Manufacturing a false minimum wage deteriorates the options of businesses and the underemployed alike.

Kevin McEvoy

Kansas City

Coming apart

Reading John C. Danforth’s column on the need to disavow President Donald Trump (Aug. 26, 11A, “Republicans must break with Trump and his divisiveness”), I was struck by Rep. Kevin Yoder’s remarks at his recent town hall.

Yoder said he believes Trump wakes up every morning wanting to do what is best for the United States. Then I see where Ed Martin and other Missouri Republicans want GOP officials to denounce Danforth. (Aug. 30, 4A, “Missouri conservatives call for Hawley to condemn Danforth’s criticism of Trump”)

Clearly, Trump has become the liege lord to whom fealty must be pledged regardless of what happens to the nation.

Were Trump’s remarks on Charlottesville (third version) best for the United States? Was pardoning Joe Arpaio best for the United States? These actions serve, as has most of his presidency, to divide the nation.

Danforth said Trump is the most divisive figure in American politics since George Wallace. Fortunately, George Wallace never became president.

We need Republican leaders to speak up and disavow Trumpism. If most keep drinking the Kool-Aid like Yoder, the GOP will become the party of the Great Divider, not the Great Emancipator. Tragic.

Bond Faulwell

Overland Park

This story was originally published September 3, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss the Chiefs’ Neil Smith, Three Percenters and adult manners."