Letters: Readers discuss honoring Walt Disney, Union Station problems and Greg Orman
Favorite son
One of the most famous people in the world was Walter Elias Disney — Walt Disney. Outside of President Harry S. Truman, perhaps no one is more famous with such a direct historical link to Kansas City than Disney.
It was in Kansas City that Disney began his career as a cartoonist. His original Laugh-O-Gram Studio was just east of Troost Avenue at 31st Street and Forest Avenue. This building still remains.
He lived with his dad, mom and four siblings at 3028 Bellefontaine Ave., and he walked to his studio along 31st Street.
Kansas City should rename 31st Street for Disney. Now.
Sean Patrick O’Brien
Kansas City
Inconvenient stop
Recently, I drove a disabled friend to pick up her daughter, who was arriving at Union Station on the 10 p.m. train from Chicago.
Guess what? The KC Taste event was taking place, and normal patron parking and the street in front of the station were closed. There was no parking available on any street in the area, and the parking garages were full.
After driving around for some time, I dropped my friend at the streetcar stop and parked illegally on a nearby street.
This adventure made me aware of many problems:
▪ Frantic families with children and luggage could not find parking and would have missed their train had it not arrived late that night.
▪ Getting a wheelchair at night requires finding a guard, showing your driver’s license, making many trips up and down the elevator and then hoping there is a parking space in the garage.
▪ There was no one in the arrival area to greet visitors, help with luggage or provide transportation.
It appears no one cares about train travelers. There should always be designated parking on the east side of the station.
Come on, Kansas City, let’s solve this problem now.
Liz Luck
Overland Park
An accommodation
I had an excellent sixth-grade teacher, Mrs. Schlicher. She didn’t tolerate shenanigans and was benevolent and firm with her hormonal classroom.
She stocked the women’s restroom with sanitary pads, so if someone started her period (that’s the age) or didn’t have supplies, she was covered. It made a new and uncomfortable thing less scary.
Her generosity made that bathroom an anomaly. Most bathrooms — male, female or gender neutral — do not have menstrual products. Why not? Why wouldn’t all bathrooms have menstrual products to ease the burden on menstruating humans?
The reason (per usual) is money. It’s not a line item in facilities’ budgets.
But there’s a movement for change. There are organizations challenging the status quo — Go Aunt Flow, for instance. Their question: Toilet paper is offered for free, so why aren’t tampons? It’s all about normalizing free, available products in public restrooms.
Talk to your boss, teacher, vice principal, pastor, rabbi or favorite barista. Ask them why there aren’t menstrual products in the public restroom. Ask if they can find room in the budget.
You might end up helping someone the way Mrs. Schlicher helped me.
Bridget N. Barry
Lenexa
Wrong street
Thursday, the president said during a “Fox & Friends” interview: “I’ll tell you what, if I ever got impeached, I think the market would crash. I think everybody would be very poor because without this thinking, you would see numbers that you wouldn’t believe.”
So this is the direction our country’s moral compass has finally settled on. Just ignore the conduct. It’s only about money.
In January 2016, the president said, “I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn’t lose any voters, OK?” We all laughed. Only someone unhinged would say something so crude.
Little did we know that Trump had spent his adult life successfully intimidating and bamboozling the public. He knew exactly what he was saying and to whom he was saying it.
Now, 2 1/2 years later, enough members of the public have thrown overboard whatever moral values they once held sacred to follow this charlatan down whatever street he wants to go, as long as it’s Wall Street.
David Wristen
Leawood
Waste not
If people vote for independent Kansas gubernatorial candidate Greg Orman, they will probably end up with a Gov. Kris Kobach. Orman holds Democratic beliefs and would undoubtedly take votes away from the Democratic candidate, state Sen. Laura Kelly.
Orman is playing the spoiler, and a vote for Orman is in essence a vote for Kobach.
Penny Moeller
Mission Hills