Letters: Readers discuss KC traffic signals, Greitens’ athleticism and racism in Dr. Seuss

Stop and go

I like to come to an intersection that has a flashing yellow light, because you can proceed if there are no cars coming instead of sitting at a red light. That’s progress in Kansas City. Thanks, public works department.

Roberta Lancaster

Kansas City

Show of power

Gov. Eric Greitens, I sense you may need more ways to bolster your role as Missouri’s macho man, and I think I can help:

▪  Try riding a bucking Brahman bull shirtless at the Missouri State Fair. (Take that, Vladimir Putin.)

▪  Parachute into the next Jackson County Legislature meeting. Believe me, Frank White won’t veto you — that I can promise you.

▪  Dance to the “Missouri Waltz” while doing a handstand and keeping perfect rhythm.

▪  Swim a mile upstream in the Mississippi River while towing a barge with your teeth. This should be easy, since you are a former Navy SEAL.

▪  Drive a Formula One race car from the Iowa-Missouri border to the Missouri-Arkansas border on back roads in two hours.

▪  Finally, you could run the world’s longest race by starting at the governor’s mansion there in Jefferson City all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. By the time you arrive, that White House might be your new residence. Or not.

Rock on, Governor.

Carole A. Sapp

Independence

Change channels

Famous men behaving badly. Not-so-famous women gaining notoriety, revenge and a paycheck.

Sounds like a grade B soap opera.

Bob Tobia

Lee’s Summit

Unhappy ending

Conservative Washington Post columnist Ed Rogers wrote recently that Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby may have “channeled Atticus Finch” by helping Democrat Doug Jones get elected in the Alabama senatorial election, but all is not well.

In Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird” set in Depression-era Alabama, Finch defends Tom Robinson, a poor black man, accused of molesting Mayella Ewell. Finch’s defense of Robinson is convincing, but he loses nonetheless.

In those days, judges, juries and communities were more likely to convict an innocent black man than even the sleazy but white Bob Ewell, Mayella’s father and the most likely perpetrator of the crime.

Atticus Finch may not be particularly hopeful.

Bill Boley

Kansas City

More help needed

What’s really going on? Three months ago, Puerto Rico was hit by a hurricane and lost power and water. A lot of homes were torn apart. But this place seems to be overlooked, because there is still no power or water in many places.

Even though island residents have come together to repair homes and do other work, I ask: Why hasn’t this issue been better resolved? As a country, we need to come together and help these people.

Brandi York

Overland Park

What isn’t there

So now Dr. Seuss’ “The Cat in the Hat” promotes racism? What promotes division and racism is a professor like Philip Nel trying to stir up a controversy where none exists. (Dec. 17, 2C, “Does racism taint kid lit? K-State professor says yes”)

At least he admits that people don’t see the racialized origins of the Cat in the Hat, Bugs Bunny or Mickey Mouse. Maybe people don’t see such origins because they don’t exist.

Perhaps Nel is a bit like the cat, saying, “Look at me! Look at me! Look at me now!”

But I, like the fish in the same book, say, “No, I do not like it, not one little bit!”

Gerie Owens

Overland Park

Service, not self

The early American patriots were mostly well-to-do individuals who saw their duty to be protecting the trust that had been placed in them and not as an opportunity to enhance their wealth and that of their affluent friends.

Unfortunately, the utterly ludicrous proposal to rob the public of such a powerful tool as free access to the internet so that a comparatively few individuals might make huge profits continues an inexcusable trend by the current administration to put individual profit above the public good.

What in the world makes so many politicians think that election to public office is an open-ended invitation to serve themselves and their friends at the expense of the electorate?

Sam Pennington

Peculiar, Mo.

This story was originally published December 18, 2017 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss KC traffic signals, Greitens’ athleticism and racism in Dr. Seuss."