Oprah for president, DACA recipients and fighting litter

Fish across oceans

I write from a small European town called L’Estany in Catalonia. I just wanted to express how impressed I was when discovering longtime Kansas City guitarist, singer and songwriter, Samantha Fish, through YouTube three months ago. (Dec. 28, 5A, “Belle of the blues”)

Being so far away, in a country where blues and rock never had their own tradition, I can’t imagine the size of her career in the blues family of the U.S. But I’m sure she deserves all the success she already has, and all the success that is yet to come to her.

The first video of her that I saw gave me the same feeling I had when I first came across rock music as a child. Within seconds, I knew I was already a Samantha Fish fan.

I am enjoying every video and every second of her five albums. She puts her heart into every note she plays and every word she sings. What she transmits with her playing I can’t explain.

I hope she tours Catalonia or the south of France some day in the near future.

You have a jewel in Samantha Fish, even if she has moved to New Orleans. Please take care of her. She’s great.

Josep A. Gaspar

L’Estany, Catalonia

President Winfrey?

Oprah Winfrey for President? Now there’s an interesting thought.

I have a short list of qualities I look for in a candidate. Let’s see how she rates.

1. A good leader is wise. A wise person has a broad range of experience and uses it to solve problems. He or she communicates these solutions to get people to buy in and implement them. Check, check and check for Oprah.

2. A good leader has a strong sense of justice, an understanding that no one is above the law and all must be held accountable for their actions. Did you hear her Golden Globes speech?

3. A good leader has courage. It remains to be seen if she has the political courage to stand by her principles when it might cost her votes, but I don’t think you can question her personal courage in the face of tabloid fat shaming.

4. A good leader is humble, admits failings and understands that the presidency is an institution and the person with the title is only a tenant. No doubt Oprah can do this.

Looks like a good idea to me.

Fran Abram

Overland Park

Welcome mat

Eight hundred thousand Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program recipients in this country are anxiously waiting and worrying about possible deportations. They have been successful in working and paying taxes here.

They should be humanely vetted and have opportunities to work toward U.S. citizenship. It would be cruel to send them back to the nations of their parents. Most of these individuals have lived and worked only in the U.S.

On the Statue of Liberty at the entrance to New York Harbor, words of wisdom state, “Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.”

We need to welcome those covered under DACA as citizens as if they were our forebears who came to the shores of this nation years ago. Everyone in the United States must contribute their abilities and skills for an optimal society.

Marlow Ediger

North Newton, Kan.

Just deserts

There is justice in the Chiefs losing in the playoffs. Those Chiefs fans who degrade Native Americans every Sunday with that insulting Tomahawk Chop and childish, drunken chant got what they deserved.

We have enough bitterness in our political atmosphere. We don’t need to add racial division to the mix every “Red” Sunday at Arrowhead.

Daniel L. Anderson

Lee’s Summit

Gross exaggeration

There is a trend in recent weather forecasting that I find not only silly, but untruthful.

Last Friday, I heard weather one TV channel emphasizing not what the weather actually was, as measured by professionals, but what the weather “felt like” to members of the public: minus 40 degrees. The actual temperature was not given.

Yes, it was darn cold that day, but nowhere near minus 40 degrees.

To be fair, I have heard this sort of emphasis and exaggeration on other channels as well. Soon, truthful forecasting will be just a bit too boring, and then the slippery slide begins.

Is this what we really want, America?

June B. Padgett

Kansas City

Doing his part

I’ve read two letters to the editor recently about trash on the streets of Kansas City.

North Prospect in Gladstone is generally free of trash every day.

I’d like to thank the walker whom I’ve seen carrying a plastic bag full of garbage for this.

Do as I do, and honk twice in appreciation when you see him.

Al Halstenberg