Letters: Readers discuss yet another school shooting, Blair Kerkhoff on the Eagles and greyhounds
Circular motion
Another school shooting. Another child dies. (Jan. 24, 1A, “2 killed, 12 others wounded in Kentucky school shooting”)
Now the NRA tells its members that a new round of gun-control talk will begin. It asks for more money to fight gun control. It then sends more money to its legislative flunkies.
The flunkies say thank you. The flunkies send letters to their supporters — good NRA members — promising they will protect them. The good citizens send more money to the flunkies and to the NRA.
The NRA wins again. Gun-control talk is deflected. School shootings are a way of life. Another child is shot. More money and power for the NRA.
Who can stop the cycle?
Martin Orr
Kansas City
Nip it now
Gossiping is everywhere. We see it in magazines about celebrities and in schools. Gossips target everyone — not just celebrities, but everyday people as well. When you repeat rumors about another person, it is harmful. It needs to end.
If gossip didn’t harm anyone, I wouldn’t be that upset about it. But because it breaks bonds and ruins people’s trust, I believe there should be consequences. If I were a parent, I would do anything to prevent my kids from engaging in it.
People who gossip can’t change. They get addicted to it like a drug and want more. It is power.
Gossiping is like water: Once it flows into your ears you can’t shake it out, and once it gets free it spreads everywhere.
If you hear someone gossip, end it.
Hannah Lloyd
Kansas City
Character matters
Blair Kerkhoff’s characteristically fine “Eagles and Chiefs have connections at coach and QB” (Jan. 23, 1B) could have gone back further in recent history to include such Philadelphia and Kansas City football luminaries as Dick Vermeil and Herm Edwards. In the Eagles’ first Super Bowl appearance in 1980, Vermeil was head coach and Edwards a defensive standout.
Kerkhoff ends by asking whether these connections “provide a rooting interest for Chiefs’ fans.” I would like to suggest two additional good reasons for answering that question with a yes.
First are the numerous transplanted Philadelphians like myself who have long proudly called the Kansas City area their home. More importantly, anyone who had the opportunity to meet Eagles head coach and former Chiefs assistant Doug Pederson during his time here (or has watched him at a recent news conference) knows that his natural, open and humble demeanor contrasts sharply with that of the guy with the cutoff sweatshirt he will face come Super Bowl Sunday.
Isn’t it time for the good guy to win?
Mathew Forstater
Leawood
Racing dogs
A Jan. 8 op-ed made several misleading references to “subsidies” for racing greyhounds. (7A, “Dog racing not the answer for Kansas’ budget”) The money allocated to purses in Kansas, as in several other states, comes from special-purpose taxes imposed on gambling dollars and specifically dedicated to racing purses.
It also makes outlandish claims as to the operation of greyhound farms and kennels. It should be obvious that greyhounds must receive the best possible care to perform at maximum potential on the track.
Greyhound breeding farms and kennels are operated at, and held to, extremely high standards. We not only have to meet state and local regulations, but we also enforce our own rigorous standards through unannounced inspections. We ban violators for life.
It cites injury numbers that are absurdly inaccurate. The fact is that injuries occur in less than one-half of 1 percent of all racing starts nationwide, and the majority are minor enough to allow the greyhounds to return to racing in a matter of weeks.
Even when an injury prevents a return to racing, the greyhounds can transition seamlessly to life as a pampered family pet. In fact, more than 95 percent of all racing greyhounds are either placed in adoptive homes or returned to their owners as pets when they retire.
Studies show that reopening Kansas racing facilities would generate some 4,000 jobs, about $200 million in annual wages and $23 million in annual state and local revenue while piping much-needed money to ranchers, farmers, horse and dog breeders and the services they use and employ. It is a win-win situation for Kansas.
Our legislators should not let extreme animal-rights propaganda get in the way of bringing these huge benefits to the people of our state.
James Gartland
Executive Director
National Greyhound
Association
Abilene, Kan.
This story was originally published January 24, 2018 at 8:30 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss yet another school shooting, Blair Kerkhoff on the Eagles and greyhounds."