Letters: Readers discuss the Thai cave rescue, Southwest Airlines fun and homeowner citations

Worldwide concern

My family and I followed the rescue to save 12 boys and their coach who were trapped in a Thai cave for more than two weeks. (July 10, KansasCity.com, “Daring rescue saves all 12 boys, soccer coach from Thai cave”)

When I first read with great relief that the boys had been found, the challenge then became how to safely get them out of the cave despite potential lower oxygen levels and with more rain to come. I am happy to learn that the rescue operation was a success. It is indeed refreshing to see the world come together in a spirit of hope.

Janet Griffiths

Lenexa

Airborne gift

My brothers and sisters recently flew to Las Vegas for our baby brother’s 60th birthday. Southwest Airlines made sure all 10 of us could sit together.

As our flight progressed, attendants brought him a crown they had made with pretzel bags and drink stirrers, and they also gave him a bottle of champagne. They had all the passengers close their window shades to make the cabin dark except for the flickering blue lights in the ceiling, which looked like birthday candles. And then they led the plane in singing “Happy Birthday.”

I just wanted to tell everybody about something wonderful that happened on an airplane. Thank you, Southwest Airlines flight attendants.

Patricia Tiehen

Kansas City

Wrong targets

I am writing on behalf of Kansas City residents who are being harassed by the policy of ticketing homeowners because of the condition of their properties. This practice is predatory and affects low-income homeowners to a much greater degree. With its practices and policies, the city is perpetuating wealth inequality, gentrification and racial segregation.

Homeowners can lose their homes or even go to jail for accumulating city-imposed fines that they have difficulty paying. The city should be looking for ways to assist these homeowners, not punishing them with the possible loss of their properties.

This might be an opportunity for the city to encourage homeownership by amending deadlines for repairs, offering fine amnesties and assisting with low-interest loans so that the repairs can be done in a timely manner. Any of these approaches would be better and more effective than further burdening already stressed homeowners with repetitive fines or jail sentences.

The city’s approach of further penalizing those who have trouble making their needed repairs shows a lack of compassion as well as lack of vision for a city that is livable for all.

Ingrid Montrachet

Kansas City

Bipartisan work

It takes courage, commitment and vision to address the growing threat of climate change.

Rep. Lynn Jenkins of Kansas joined the U.S. House of Representatives’ Climate Solutions Caucus on June 12, along with five other congressmen. This brought the caucus total to 84 members. Then, on June 27, Rep. Kevin Yoder and another member joined the caucus, bringing the total to 86. That makes two Republican members from Kansas.

Thank you, Reps. Jenkins and Yoder, for joining this non-partisan caucus. Because the caucus mandates equal Republicans and Democrats, the members are now 43 Republicans and 43 Democrats.

Citizens’ Climate Lobby is a national organization with more than 100,000 members and 450 chapters in almost every congressional district. It formed the Climate Solutions Caucus along with two Florida congressmen and has been recruiting for the caucus ever since.

Thank you for being true leaders and making a difference that counts. Now we Kansas citizens have an opportunity and obligation to lobby for action.

We can lobby for a real solution such as Carbon Fee and Dividend, which does not grow government and removes carbon from the atmosphere faster than any other proposal on its own. It stimulates the economy and returns all fees to households.

Anthony Schmidt

Lawrence

Tip the scales

I believe President Donald Trump should not be able to nominate any judges, let alone Supreme Court justices, until his legal issues are resolved. He is the only person who can, in effect, nominate the judges who might decide a case involving himself.

The Supreme Court may have to rule on whether a president can pardon himself, and other courts may rule on dealings of the Trump Organization (one is coming up in October) and issues yet to be determined by the special prosecutor’s investigation.

It is difficult to apply “innocent until proven guilty” to Trump when there is so much doubt about his actions and motivations and there are so many lawsuits working their way through courts.

He shouldn’t just wait until the midterms to have his Supreme Court nomination confirmed. He should wait until all the doubts about the legitimacy of his presidency and the criminality of his businesses are settled.

Stanley Stern

Overland Park