Letters: Readers discuss ‘whitesplaining,’ the national anthem and military spending
No militias
Armed militias have no place in America. We are a democratic people who hire police departments to protect us.
It is intimidating when armed people stand around rallies or other gatherings. Don’t let America slide into a state of fear and intimidation with armed thugs patrolling our streets.
Charity Gourley
Lenexa
Explain it to me
I was particularly motivated to share the concept of “whitesplaining” after reading an Sept. 5 letter to the editor (8A) about NFL players choosing to kneel during the national anthem, not respecting the flag (as the writer understands it) and telling us “what the U.S. flag is.”
Although definitions vary, Wiktionary defines whitesplaining as a modern colloquialism that generally refers to the act of a non-minority explaining something condescendingly to someone who is not white — especially regarding race relations or minority behavior, presuming the listener’s inferior understanding.
According to this letter, these athletes couldn’t possibly have a thoughtful rationale for doing what they’re doing, so he will gladly (condescendingly) explain.
Don’t these black athletes know that people died for that flag? Thanks for the reminder. I don’t think they knew that.
At the core of whitesplaining is the notion that the white experience is the one American experience.
Instead of feeling obligated to explain what the U.S. flag is to these black athletes, perhaps some people ought to ask themselves why others see America so starkly different from themselves.
Guy Adam
Niederhauser
Kansas City
Football anger
Sigh. Here we go again with the wailing and gnashing of teeth about football players taking a knee during the national anthem.
I’m sure the same people writing to protest that also wrote letters to protest players murdering people, drinking and driving, beating up their girlfriends, beating up their children, cheating, abusing animals, bullying other players, committing sexual assault — do I need to go on?
Obviously, the offended didn’t write letters about these scandals or we’d have nothing to read in the Opinion section but letters about football scandals.
If you really want to get all excited about injustices regarding football players, maybe get hot under the collar about the fact that they’re causing serious brain injuries to themselves rather than worrying about what they’re doing during the national anthem.
Please remember that the whole purpose of freedom in this country, which presumably the national anthem represents, is to give people choices.
Annette Bright
Overland Park
Defense dollars
Sen. John McCain is wrong when he writes that defense spending levels “have been woefully inadequate for years.” (Sept. 3, 15A, “It’s time for Congress to return to regular order and start working”)
Combining the regular defense budget with the Overseas Contingency Operations war slush fund, nuclear weapons spending in the Department of Energy and the Department of Veterans Affairs, we spend about $900 billion a year on defense. That’s about $3,000 per U.S. citizen and well over half of federal discretionary spending.
This is a crushing burden for a country whose real security is in its citizens having food, housing, health care, education and other human requirements for life.
Dave Pack
Lenexa
To forgive
When Dr. Martin Luther King was in Chicago to expose the racially biased housing practices of local real estate agents, he came under such strong opposition that he remarked that people in the South should come to Chicago to learn how to hate.
The hateful letters I see in the paper regarding Confederate monuments have convinced me that people in Johnson County already know how to hate and feel free to express it in the most repugnant terms.
When these statues were built in the late 19th century, those who had fought in the Civil War were passing away and their sons sought to honor their courage, not their cause, before they were all gone. Do not forget that it took almost 50 years before a World War II memorial was proposed in Washington.
We have been a forgiving people, having forgiven the Germans, the Japanese and even the Vietnamese. How unAmerican is it to not forgive our own people and to deny them the dignity of an acknowledgment of their sacrifice, courage, dedication and devotion to a cause that we now see as flawed?
Dick Davenport
Lee’s Summit
This story was originally published September 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss ‘whitesplaining,’ the national anthem and military spending."