Letters: Readers discuss Barack Obama’s legacy, a KU football stadium and NFL protests
Cause of strife?
A Sept. 27 letter writer ascribed our current racial protest issues to President Barack Obama. (14A) I would like an explanation of how this president — who never taunted people or nations on Twitter, was diplomatic, tactful and socially acceptable — caused all of this. Was it because of the color of his skin?
And, on another topic, unless he is going to pitch in and do some hard labor for several days, which is highly unlikely, I suggest that President Donald Trump skip his trip to Puerto Rico and send instead the amount of federal money the trip would have cost.
Ruth Fine
Paola
Teach or play
Congratulations to Entertainment University, formerly known as the University of Kansas.
We understand that young minds cannot get an adequate education at your school without the very best sports facilities and hopefully teams to match. I’m not sure your $350 million investment will meet the criteria of the educational institutions of today, but it’s a start. (Sept. 23, 1B, “KU’s costly vision comes with less obvious price: more pressure to produce”)
I’m sure this investment will attract more “one and done” young men to the basketball program and provide them an opportunity to hone their skills, coached by the best money can buy, to advance to the next level of competition.
We just hope that the students residing in those gender-neutral dorms get to see as much action on the field of play as they experience in the residence halls.
And to think: Parents, you get all this for fees starting at only $50,000 a year.
What? You ask about academics? Really, we don’t have time for that. We are here to entertain.
Bill Burns
Overland Park
Inconvenient meals
I’m a recipient of frozen meals as discussed in the Sept. 13 front-page story, “Hot meals, daily contact for shut-ins being replaced.”
All the food delivered — even the milk — needs to be kept frozen until ready to eat.
Well, I’m in a wheelchair with numerous physical disabilities.
Need I say more?
Janet K. Thomas
Grandview
Do it for DT
The Kansas City Chiefs’ players and personnel are addressing the social issue of pregame protest during the playing of our national anthem. I am writing today not in my capacity as a former elected official of the city, but rather in my capacity as a close friend of the late Derrick Thomas.
As the B-2 bombers would fly over Arrowhead Stadium, Derrick would feel a personal sense of pride knowing that his father, U.S. Air Force Capt. Robert Thomas, had given his life in the ultimate sacrifice to protect our freedom.
I stood with Derrick in Washington, D.C., as he searched for his father’s name on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. Derrick clearly understood the famous saying: “For those who fight to protect it, freedom has a flavor that the protected will never know.”
Derrick would not ask anyone to give up a right to do what all are free to do. However, knowing No. 58 personally, I know he would ask each member of the Chiefs’ organization to stand up to respect the playing of the national anthem.
Carol Coe
Kansas City
Dangerous animal
What if the Missouri legislature became convinced that our state would benefit from the introduction and management of a mountain lion population for the purpose of providing additional quarry for hunters?
Let’s say that after our Department of Conservation had succeeded in creating a large population of big cats, and Missouri’s hunters had begun to enjoy this new resource, we found that in 2015 the lions had caused the deaths of three Missourians and injuries to 346 more.
I’d guess that the overwhelming majority of Missourians would absolutely demand that the big cats be eliminated.
The damage described above is inflicted on motorists every year by Missouri’s artificially inflated deer population, but few of us care. Why would we feel so outraged by mountain lion predations and be so apathetic toward the same destruction when it’s caused by deer?
I think the answer is simple. Deer are sleek and agile herbivores. They are “harmless,” doe-eyed creatures that do not arouse instinctive fear in people. Lions are an ancient enemy. With their fangs, claws and the icy leer of a predator, they scare us to death.
In present-day Missouri, the very different attitudes toward these species is irrational.
We should not tolerate either mountain lions or deer in our state. Human life is too precious.
Cal Winter
Jefferson City
This story was originally published September 30, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Barack Obama’s legacy, a KU football stadium and NFL protests."