Letters: Readers discuss Browne’s vandalization, Robert De Niro and Jenee Osterheldt
Home-grown
The Irish Times reported Tuesday that Browne’s Irish Marketplace was vandalized with graffiti reading “Immigrants Not Welcome.” (June 12, KansasCity.com, “‘Immigrants Not Welcome.’ Vandals deface historic Irish Midtown storefront”)
The business has been in operation since 1887. It seems to me that the descendants of its founders are more American than President Donald Trump, who is half German and half Scottish.
It would be nice if the citizens of your country would learn their history.
Derek Mulready
Clogherhead
County Louth
Ireland
Unnecessary
Hollywood A-listers such as Robert De Niro would be wise to remember that it was eight years of President Barack Obama’s “my way or the highway” approach to governance that eventually led us to elect the Barnum & Bailey of negotiating as our 45th president. (June 12, 7A, “Defiance, tears and a dancing squid: The Tonys had it all”)
Want to spew vitriol toward President Donald Trump? Fine — just be sure you’re looking in the rearview mirror when you do it.
Jim Eschrich
Lenexa
Double standard
After reading about Robert De Niro’s foul political commentary at the Tony Awards, I decided it is obvious that these awards shows no longer serve their original entertainment purpose and have become political soapboxes.
Let’s get rid of them and take them off the air. They have become divisive and irrelevant. They are no longer family-friendly or entertaining, and listening to the Hollywood elite drop F-bombs isn’t funny or necessary.
De Niro is a high school dropout and former gang member. I don’t need his political opinion.
I am not sure why he has recently been given a platform to insult and rant, other than he is famous and part of the liberal elite establishment. If someone had said the same about President Barack Obama, he would have been labeled a racist and taken off the air.
The double standard is getting old. Let’s move on and find something more worthy to put on TV.
Frank Green
Kansas City
Sad, fond farewell
How sad for Kansas City; how wonderful for Boston. Jeneé Osterheldt just came back, and I was so excited. Now she is leaving. (June 12, 6A, “Kansas City, I love you, but it’s time for me to move on”)
I wish her the best. I will sorely miss reading her columns. We all need her voice.
Carleda Williams
Kansas City
Chipping away
In the Supreme Court’s ruling in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute, democracy has taken another hit. (June 12, 6A, “Supreme Court upholds Ohio’s purging of state voting rolls”)
Make no mistake: This decision does not contribute one iota to the perfection of our union. This action of voter disenfranchisement works against an obvious goal: a government created by proper representation of the populace.
That there was a bigger problem of misrepresentation (such as illegal voting) has never been proved, so why “fix” it? The court’s decision is an arbitrary overcorrection that serves partisan goals.
Justice Samuel Alito erred when he argued, “The failure to send back the card coupled with the failure to vote … is significant evidence that the addressee has moved.”
It is evidence of nothing. The significance of what it implies is debatable. Disproving is easier. Just one such disproof was offered by Justice Stephen Breyer who described “the human tendency not to send back cards in the mail.”
Politics aside, consider demographics. This takes representation away from the poor, clearly benefits the affluent and further empowers the powerful. (And then consider party affiliation again.)
If the tools of democracy are corrupt and defective, what hope do we have of constructing a house we can be proud of?
Walter Klammer
Kansas City
Help available
The loss by suicide within a couple of days of each other of two international giants — former Kansas Citian and designer Kate Spade and international food expert Anthony Bourdain — should make it all the more apparent that this self-inflicted tragedy can happen to anyone, even those we think have everything.
As a result, we should each try to be more aware of any possible indication of this problem. Contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255.
Richard L. Berkley
Former mayor
of Kansas City
Kansas City
This story was originally published June 12, 2018 at 8:35 PM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Browne’s vandalization, Robert De Niro and Jenee Osterheldt."