Letters: Readers discuss Kevin Yoder, hypocritical NFL players and taking down flags
Malleable Yoder
I thank Steve Rose for pulling back the curtain to reveal the many faces of Rep. Kevin Yoder. (July 28, 12A, “Kevin Yoder’s re-education under Trump”)
Rose has known Yoder for many years, and he has observed the politician’s transformation from liberal Republican to “full-blown loyal Trumpite.” Rose does “not find it a particularly happy story.” Nor do I.
Yoder’s lack of solid and grounded principles, his repeated remakes for political expediency and his sycophantic bent make him one of the spineless legislators who are doing nothing to protect our democracy.
Career chameleons need to crawl back under their rocks, not be sent back to Congress.
Anita Macek
Roeland Park
Look inside, NFL
The National Football League and its players continue to wrangle over a national anthem policy and say they are concerned about social justice. If they are truly concerned, they need to acknowledge the social injustice right inside their own stadiums.
Players are paid outrageous sums to play a child’s game while hundreds of concession workers, parking lot attendants and the like are paid peanuts to do very hard work.
If the players are concerned about social justice, then they need to demonstrate that justice. Let them cut their salaries by 75 percent and, with a generous contribution from the owners, use those funds to raise the salaries of stadium workers, pay for their health insurance and set up college funds for their children.
What say you, players? Are you ready to walk the walk, or are you just whining?
Wayne Byrd
Overland Park
Real ‘right thing’
I’m wondering why The Star would print a guest commentary from Brad Parscale, manager of President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, on whether Sen. Claire McCaskill will “do the right thing” and vote to confirm Judge Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court.
Every issue Parscale raised is what those on the far right tell us “defending the Constitution” means: assault weapons, immigration, hobbling the Environmental Protection Agency and so on.
McCaskill also represents the moderates and left-leaning residents of Missouri. Sen. Roy Blunt certainly won’t represent those groups, so I think she needs to.
Who does this guy think he is to even insinuate what “the right thing” is in regards to confirming a Supreme Court justice?
Actually, the right thing would have been for the Senate to hold a vote on Merrick Garland during the final year of President Barack Obama’s two terms.
Teri Weiter
Raytown
This isn’t justice
The three Overland Park police officers who recently quit their jobs were absolutely wrong in violating the public trust. (July 27, 3A, “3 Overland Park officers resign over false seat belt tickets”)
Yet, there is a certain irony in this situation that cannot be ignored.
In a justice system that touts itself as the best in the world, there are significant flaws. Every day in courts around the country, people enter into traffic and criminal plea agreements that do not reflect the offenses for which they were stopped or arrested. In some traffic courts, individuals plead guilty to lesser charges and agree to pay higher fines to avoid the insurance implications. In some criminal cases, prosecutors and defense attorneys agree to allow suspects to plead guilty to lesser charges, thereby avoiding trials and perhaps keeping people out of jail.
However, there is one indisputable fact in all of this: Our justice system is a convoluted mess. Not because it was established that way, but because we have allowed it to evolve into this disorder.
Somewhere along the way, we learned that to make and accept deals is to have justice served. This concept is as absolutely wrong as the actions of these three officers.
Jeffery R. Dysart
Overland Park
Why different?
The same people who insisted that anything having to do with the Confederacy (its flag, statues and other symbols related to history) must be taken down are now irate that an intentionally defaced and desecrated American flag was taken down on the University of Kansas campus. (July 12, 4A, “Ire from governor, others brings down a flag at KU”)
These people insist that the removal of the flag, which was part of an art project, violates the First Amendment guarantees of free speech.
Am I the only one who is confused?
Steve Vick
Lee’s Summit