Letters: Readers discuss ‘thoughts and prayers,’ electric cars and Keystone pipeline

Give ’em a bone

At the heart of the tax-reform debate is the question: “Does lowering the tax rate on businesses help the economy?” It has its skeptics, and those who lived through the great Kansas tax experiment feel justified in that skepticism.

The skeptics will argue that it’s been tried over and over again, with little success. And its proponents will argue that it’s the only way for us to compete in an increasingly global economy.

But why should we take this leap of faith?

It seems as if the goal is growing the economy, and we’re assuming that reducing corporate taxes will achieve that objective. No one would disagree with the goal of creating more jobs. So the dialogue should revolve around new jobs, not lower taxes.

What if instead we created a scale that would reduce the corporate tax rate based on actual job creation? It would reward companies that create the most jobs with a 25 percent tax rate, but would not reward those that don’t create new jobs.

When you train a dog to sit, you give him a treat after he sits. If you give him a treat before, he will just wait for another treat.

Matthew Mellor

Overland Park

We can take action

I take strong objection to the Nov. 17 commentary by Joe Warren, “Thoughts and prayers are more than enough.” (15A) It is profoundly irresponsible to advocate prayer as an adequate response to America’s scourge of gun violence.

Our neighbors are dying, children are being gunned down at school, families and communities are being forever plunged into grief, and yet Warren throws up his hands (or rather clasps them together) and says we cannot do anything more about it.

The core of his proposition is nihilism, not faith. He concludes his essay with a canard ripped from the NRA’s propaganda: Since violence is a part of human nature, why try to prevent it?

Indeed, why wear seat belts, why remove lead from drinking water, why take any safety measures whatsoever? It’s in God’s hands, he says.

Time for a reality check. We’re not talking about abstractions here. We’re talking about bullets ripping into flesh, mauling bodies, ending lives, destroying families, terrorizing cities.

But there are reasonable, achievable solutions to prevent gun violence, and the vast majority of Americans favor implementing them. We must engage in logical, fact-based discussions to advance concrete solutions for the protection of our community — a community in which gun violence is causing particular devastation.

While Warren concerns himself with the next life, it remains our business, the business of serious people who truly care about making America a better country, to focus on this life, the fragile mortal life we all share, and to preserve and cherish it.

Tom Toro

Kansas City

In remembrance

When you gather around your table for Thanksgiving or around your tree at Christmas, please say a prayer for comfort and peace for those who have lost loved ones due to continued gun violence.

Let’s remember those who are not at the table, not around the Christmas tree and not with their loved ones to celebrate their religious holidays.

Janet Duncan

Kansas City

Power source

I don’t understand why anyone would say electric vehicles produce no emissions. In this area of the country, a large percentage of electricity is generated by burning fossil fuels. According to the KCP&L website, 80 percent of its generated electricity comes from fossil fuel.

Moving emissions to somewhere else does not mean a vehicle makes no emissions.

I will save discussion of the inefficiencies in generating, transmitting and storage of electricity for later.

Philip Hattaway

Prairie Village

Fortune teller

What? You’re kidding. There’s a leak in the Keystone oil pipeline? (Nov. 20, 5A, “More crews sent to Keystone pipeline leak”)

Who could possibly have seen that coming?

Pamela Bennett

Lenexa

This story was originally published November 21, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss ‘thoughts and prayers,’ electric cars and Keystone pipeline."