Goodbye to Nike, Westport danger and Danny Duffy’s award

Not my dollars

After reading that Nike had made former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick the face of its “Just Do It” advertising campaign, I immediately called the Nike headquarters. (Aug. 5, 8A, “Kaepernick ads create $43 million in buzz for Nike”)

After I was on hold for a short time, a nice gentleman answered, and I told him I would be buying no more Nike merchandise as a result of Kaepernick being its new face. I’m sure that hearing from a woman in Kansas had no meaning to him, but at least I felt better expressing my feelings.

Sara Colt

Mission Hills

How ya feeling?

Our fine weather forecasters have taken it upon themselves to now include not just what the weather forecast is, but what it “feels like.”

Please cease and desist, guys and gals. We don’t want guesses and exaggeration — just the facts, folks.

June B. Padgett

Kansas City

The right example

It was refreshing and hopeful to listen to the eulogies at Sen. John McCain’s funeral. People with decency and respect for differences of ideology, race, culture, gender and social status. People with integrity and a vision of inclusiveness.

We rise together or we fall together.

Being a mother, grandmother and great grandmother, I have seen that the best way to treat children throwing temper tantrums is to ignore them. The more attention they receive, the more their behavior is encouraged.

Perhaps it would be good for the press to ignore our current administration’s childish behavior and focus on people with integrity, wisdom and intelligence, seeking good for all.

Patty Wernel

Overland Park

Weigh the options

The North American Free Trade Agreement has served the U.S., Canada and Mexico for 24 years. Last year, U.S.-Canada trade totaled $582 billion.

Many economists credit C. Fred Bergsten as a primary architect of NAFTA. I suggest that, in a nationally televised program, President Donald Trump and Bergsten discuss NAFTA and the president’s proposal to replace it.

In 1961, Bergsten graduated valedictorian of what is now Central Methodist University in Fayette, Mo. Educated further at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, he became a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution before becoming the youngest addition to President Richard Nixon’s White House staff.

Bergsten founded and was director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics from 1981-2012. For many years, this Washington-based organization has been among the most-quoted think tanks in the world. Bergsten has served presidents for 37 years and authored 40-plus books on international economics.

Trump proposes to scrap NAFTA and on Sept. 1 warned Congress not to “interfere” with his own replacement. I suggest that Americans deserve the right to hear a meeting of the minds of the exponents of those two rival trade agreements.

Garth Leigh

Kansas City

Wrong on Westport

I was shocked when I read The Star’s Sept. 5 editorial about Westport security. (14A, “Westport shouldn’t look like a crime zone”) You are concerned about making it appear to be “a de facto crime zone.” Westport is a crime zone.

Your suggestions of placing screening devices at the entrances of private business is just absurd. People who are killed in Westport are often killed on the streets, not in private businesses.

You stated your concern about the loss of sales tax revenue. Please explain that to the families of people who have been shot or stabbed in the area.

Robert Haas

Liberty

Choose again

I was shocked to hear that Danny Duffy is the Royals’ nominee for this year’s Roberto Clemente Award. Really, Danny Duffy?

I’m sure Duffy has done a lot for the community, as I’m sure all the other candidates for the award have done for their own communities. But can’t the Royals come up with a better, more deserving nominee?

Duffy is less than a year removed from pleading guilty to driving under the influence after being found asleep in the drive-thru lane of a Burger King in August 2017.

Come on, Royals. Your play on the field has been as poor as your nominee for the prestigious Clemente Award. What a disappointing choice.

Phil Riedel

Olathe

This story was originally published September 6, 2018 at 8:37 PM.