Letters: Readers discuss Sly James, military-style firearms and changing seasons
Recode it
Perhaps our new airport could receive a new designation: SLY instead of MCI.
Jonathan Frazier
Kansas City
Unbecoming
Mayor Slay James is to be congratulated for leading Kansas City to endorse a new terminal at Kansas City International Airport. I couldn’t vote for the project, but I was supportive.
However, he spoke poorly in victory. Calling those who opposed the project “haters” is a discredit to the office. (Nov. 8, 1A, “Takeoff! KC voters give overwhelming approval to KCI single terminal”)
There were (and are) serious issues, and many, if not most, who opposed the project did so for principled reasons. It really wasn’t the time to quote pop queen Taylor Swift.
David Overman
Parkville
Gun violence
I know the NRA is a formidable force in American politics, as I have been an NRA life member, hunter and recreational shooter for more than 50 years. Like most people, I am heartbroken over the mass murders in Las Vegas and Sutherland Springs, with nearly 90 killed and more than 500 wounded by two madmen.
But before Congress turns away, saying nothing can be done — nothing at all — about shooters using military-style weapons to murder large groups of innocent civilians, I’d like our representatives to stand in front of a mirror, look into their hearts and quietly ask themselves one question:
“Would I vote differently to control the private ownership of semi-automatic assault rifles with large-capacity magazines if my own children or grandchildren had been murdered?”
I know gun control is among the hardest of issues. I also know that keeping firearms from crazy people would be a good place to start.
Two good first steps would be to institute a meaningful universal firearm background check system and to close the gun-show purchase loophole.
Michael Pandzik
Shawnee
In hindsight …
I just recently heard an Ivy League expert panelist on CNN say we do not want a politicized CIA like the one serving President George W. Bush that got us into the Iraq War.
The theme, of course, is familiar: There were no weapons of mass destruction, but Bush wanted to invade Iraq and somehow manipulated the CIA into saying that Iraq had WMDs.
First, George Tenet, CIA director under Bush, was a President Bill Clinton appointment, not a Bush crony.
Second, why would anyone think Iraq had WMDs? Just because Tenet said WMDs in Iraq were a “slam dunk”? Or maybe because virtually every intelligence agency on the planet thought Iraq had WMDs.
Or because Saddam Hussein had twice used WMDs. According to The New York Times, Saddam had murdered a million of his own people, many with poison gas, and was responsible for another million or so in the war with Iran where he also used poison gas.
Or because Clinton initiated an act of war in the late 1990s to attack Iraq’s WMDs. Or because Saddam wanted his adversaries to think he had WMDs as a deterrent.
Iraq with WMDs? Ridiculous.
Jim Kilen
Kansas City
Fall’s onset
Fall has arrived. It always fills me with conflicting emotions. Sadness and melancholy, and delight in the beauty of trees with crowns of ruby and amber.
The colors slowly cover the tree’s body. Yet, still, I feel for completion of the uncompleted, loss of dear friends and regrets for times that have gone.
Each season brings its own emotions. Fall will bring the first breath of winter. But then winter offers a sprig of green grass here and there, foretelling the arrival soon of spring.
Perhaps my moroseness is a result of my aging. When I review my life, filled with its difficulties but also its joys, I am satisfied. Perhaps you have similar feelings of gloominess.
If so, try to enjoy dazzling landscapes and the red maple in your neighbor’s yard. See your experiences as gains, not as losses. These gains multiply and build your portfolio of a life. It’s worth a try.
Hello, fall. Welcome to our world.
Nancy Cramer
Independence
Build the wall
Now that the Sutherland Springs shooter’s surname has been revealed as Kelley, it’s obvious that a wall between the U.S. and Ireland would have prevented this tragedy.
Dan Cram
Overland Park
This story was originally published November 9, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Sly James, military-style firearms and changing seasons."