Readers share views on guns on campus, welfare in Kansas and the Catholic Church
Ban guns on campus
Allowing guns on campus is a terrible idea.
Most attacks depend on surprise. When a firearm is involved, the adeptness and strength of the gun user determines the outcome. Meanwhile, everyone within range of the fired bullets is at risk of injury or death.
Carrying a weapon gives a false sense of safety when common-sense avoidance of being an easy target would serve the public better.
Helen Roser
Manhattan, Kan.
Help for needy
Lord, when did you see me hungry or thirsty or in need? The Lord replied, “Remember, when you help the least among us, you help me.”
Did the governor of Kansas not understand?
Jerry Featherston
Kansas City
Hope in church
It was with sadness that I learned that Bishop Robert Finn had resigned.
Sadness for all those who have been hurt by the bishop’s failures.
Sadness that a church leader had to resign in response to scandal. Sadness for all those dollars spent defending the bishop instead of helping those in need.
Sadness that the bishop did not have the integrity to resign upon his conviction in a court of law. Sadness that the pope apparently had to ask the bishop for his resignation.
Sadness that there are too many who are focused on the bishop’s conservativism as if it were the reason for his failures. Sadness that we had to endure this sad ordeal for as long as we did.
However, this resignation provides an opportunity for hope. And, we need hope right now.
For in hope we can find the strength and opportunity for compassion, forgiveness and healing.
David Mertz
Lenexa
Trans-Pacific pact
The Star editorial on April 20, “Americans need to see details of trade deal,” is correct in demanding transparency on the Trans-Pacific Partnership and saying no on fast track.
Democrats and Republicans alike have peddled so-called free-trade deals since the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1993.
There’s a disturbing pattern: 1) The president and his boosters come up with some phony study promising thousands of new jobs. 2) The media echo it but don’t fact-check. 3) The president sells the deal to members of Congress, promising bridges, air bases and appointments.
No one reads the agreement to find out that it surrendered our rights to buy locally made goods, protect our resources, stop poisonous food imports or maintain jobs that pay family wages.
People never talk about how the shiny new agreement was ghost-written by the biggest corporate lobbyists in the pack.
They are silent about the investor-state dispute settlement system, which lets foreign corporations overrule our laws in rigged, unaccountable international tribunals.
President Barack Obama and Republican leaders (with a few Democrats) are now pushing the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Fast Track (or Trade Promotion Authority) to grease the wheels for passage.
Tell your elected representatives that you’re sick of this free-trade swindle. If you work, breathe, eat or believe in self-government, tell them vote no.
Judith Ancel
Cross Border Network
Kansas City, Kan.
Transparency needed
The headline on an April 20 editorial in The Star rightly says “Americans need to see details of trade deal.” I would have thought the process was like Obamacare: “You need to pass it to be able to see what’s in it.”
Jim Dingwerth
Olathe
Brownback’s failings
Unfortunately Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is at it again. When will he start looking out for all residents of Kansas?
It seems he is still doing all he can for the wealthy and trying to tax the rest of us any way he can. He certainly has not shown he is capable of managing our state in any respectable manner.
Gov. Brownback is not alone in his mismanagement; other Republican leaders are going along with whatever he wants. They keep making mistake after mistake, and then don’t know what to do to correct their errors.
It appears their thoughts are to cut funding from almost all existing programs and then increase taxes to cover the income shortfall.
Doesn’t Gov. Brownback realize that his inability to manage is hurting all taxpayers? Why anyone would continue to back Gov. Brownback is incomprehensible to me.
Those of you who voted to put him in office, wake up and put a stop to the irresponsible mismanagement of our state.
Gov. Brownback, you are hurting all of us. It’s time to start doing the job you were elected to do.
Edward L. Keating
Fort Scott, Kan.
Shaming poor people
Although I am pleased the Kansas Legislature has made certain I won’t have to encounter any welfare recipients on my next Viking River Cruise, I am very disappointed that in enacting the laundry list of items forbidden for purchase by Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients, the legislators banned all tattoos (4-17, A1, “Kansas tightens welfare laws; Missouri may be next”).
It seems to me that they should have made an exception and actually required all public-assistance recipients to have tattooed on their foreheads, “I am a leech.” That way we could identify those people and call the police if we catch them sneaking their kids into the city swimming pool.
That’s the least Gov. Sam Brownback could have done for us poor, beleaguered taxpayers. Oh wait, I forgot. As a partner in my law firm, I don’t have to pay income taxes in Kansas anymore.
Oh, well, I’m glad we can publicly shame these poor people anyway — but we need to be able to know who they are.
David P. Troup
Manhattan, Kan.
KC’s responsibility
I have to laugh at the contortions Uber and its supporters are going through to convince people how innovative and different it is.
I don’t care if you’re using the latest app or a rotary-dial phone on the wall, you are still contacting a business to have it send a driver (excuse me, “independent contractor”) to pick you up and give you a ride for a fee.
In other words, it’s exactly what a traditional taxi service does.
Issues of cleanliness, courtesy, being an employee or contractor and even the cost of the ride are irrelevant and are not what Kansas City is trying to address with the latest ordinance.
The city’s — like that of most other municipalities — is that if someone is going to provide rides to the public, that person needs at least a cursory background check as well as insurance adequate to protect passengers.
As was stated during the debate, the city cannot win the public relations war. It will be criticized for enacting regulations or will be criticized if it doesn’t and something goes wrong.
I am happy the city took the responsible course of action.
Larry Stice
Kansas City
Independence Center
Independence Center is one of the finest shopping centers left in the Kansas City area, and it is because of insightful owners who manage to find great retailers to replace any outgoing shops and the fact that an actual police station is at the mall. The city of Independence is determined to keep the center from becoming another Blue Ridge Mall.
The Center, as it is known to shoppers, is one of the last surviving indoor shopping centers in the Kansas City area.
We have watched as delinquents created such havoc that Bannister Mall, the Blue Ridge Mall and others gave up and closed because of the reckless behavior of the youths who made those places hangouts.
Because there is a police station in the mall, the Independence Police Department is quick to arrive if trouble occurs, as officers did in 2012 when there was a verbal argument and shooting between teens.
Thank goodness the owners of the Independence Center (the Simon Property Group) and the city are so determined to keep the Center a beautiful place to shop and exercise.
It is a vital institution for Independence.
Lynn Pierce
Independence
This story was originally published April 22, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on guns on campus, welfare in Kansas and the Catholic Church."