Letters: Readers discuss an unlikely Trump-Russia connection, complete streets and horse welfare
Can’t be bought
The liberals in Washington and in the media are going crazy with all these tales of President Donald Trump or his staff meeting with Russia during the presidential campaign to affect the outcome of the election.
Tell you what: We’ll just forget about the fact that the Trump machine is a big enterprise that has been doing business all over the world for many years.
We’ll even go so far as to allow that everyone Trump has ever known was meeting with Russians during the campaign in an effort to affect the election.
I hear a lot of blowing off steam, but the real issue — what I and so many people I know really have to know — is what process did Russia use to force me to vote for Trump, when I really, really wanted to vote for Clinton?
The next question is why the Russians did not put Clinton into office. A healthy contribution to the Clinton Foundation would have gotten them anything.
But Trump has plenty of money.
Hmm. Oh, well, what next?
Lonzo Simmons
Bates City
Healthy streets
If you were told there was a treatment that could result in weight loss, improved heart health and better moods, would you turn that down? The city council of Kansas City has just such an opportunity before it with consideration of a “complete streets” ordinance.
Complete streets would prioritize all modes of transportation, making our streets safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, public transit users, the elderly and the disabled.
Research shows that inactivity is a significant factor in heart disease and stroke. While active transport innately increases our physical activity, complete streets also affect our overall health by increasing access to essential goods and services, such as the grocery store and local health clinic.
Diverse and active transport help reduce the health disparities that hamper our underserved neighborhoods.
Voting for complete streets is a vote in favor of livable neighborhoods and a culture of health and a rejection of ZIP code as a main determinant of life expectancy.
Dr. Sanjaya Gupta
President, American
Heart Association
Kansas City
Leawood
Working horses
If animal rights organizations, such as Animal Action of Kansas City, that are protesting the holiday carriages on the Country Club Plaza truly believe that horses pulling carriages is cruel, then they need to take their efforts to the numerous Amish communities around the region.
They should tell these people to stop “abusing” horses by making them pull those black carriages as a matter of daily routine.
These people aren’t just having horses pull carriages around a few city blocks on level terrain with slow traffic. Horse-and-buggy communities routinely have horses pull carriages for many miles a day up and down steep hills and across and along paved highways with high-speed traffic, including in extreme heat and cold.
Although there may be some risk of a carriage accident involving traffic on the Plaza, have you ever investigated an accident on a rural two-lane highway where someone in a car or pickup doing 60 mph hit one of those buggies?
If you animal rights people were honestly concerned about cruelty and safety, you’d take a stand against what is, by your definition, even more cruel than the Christmas carriages on the Plaza.
Joseph Turner
Stewartsville, Mo.
We can act
It seems as if summers are hotter, winters are colder and spring and fall have been getting shorter with each passing year.
There has been less rain to cool down the record heat, no snow to justify the frigid temperatures and even fewer conversations about how we can help stop climate change.
Even if Kansas has yet to see any major implications of climate change, that does not mean we should sit idly by and watch the world heat up, one degree at a time.
We need open conversations inside our schools and households about the dire consequences of climate change and, most importantly, we need to acknowledge our own shortcomings.
One way we can reduce our carbon footprint is to recycle more and minimize use of Styrofoam and plastics. Another way we can help our environment is to start using public transportation or walk and bike on a more regular basis, as opposed to driving alone.
The most important method is to get the conversation started. I cannot stress this enough. Create opportunities to educate yourself and those you interact with.
These conversations are helping to bring awareness to people and spur them to action.
Kayleigh Boos
Lawrence
This story was originally published December 6, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss an unlikely Trump-Russia connection, complete streets and horse welfare."