Letters: Readers discuss William Barr’s drug fight, KCP&L and federal workers’ plight

Wrong battlefront

During the first day of his confirmation hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, attorney general nominee William Barr said of our nation’s problems with drug abuse that “the head of the snake is outside the country” and that our efforts should focus there, beyond our borders.

Unfortunately, we have been there and done that, and clearly the war on drugs hasn’t worked. What Barr fails to understand is that where there is a demand or need, building a wall will not work.

What the nominee needs to support is improving social conditions and our failing educational system here in the United States, where many school systems are increasingly shortening their classroom weeks amid reduced funding. These actions have been shown to increase poverty and drug abuse.

Ignorance at the highest levels of our government is horribly unfortunate.

Everett Murphy

Kansas City

Think local

Imagine if you built a 30-foot-high concrete wall along the western bank of Missouri’s Meramec River (all 218 miles) and completely cut off access to all people and wildlife living on that side of the river.

What if all farmers and ranchers from that side had their land confiscated through eminent domain and their access to the river cut off permanently? Then imagine recreational fishermen and paddlers had their access to the river cut off permanently as well.

All wildlife that moves up and down the river corridor would be restricted in movements from one side of the river to the other. Massive debris, damming and flooding would cause catastrophic damage to private property and natural areas. All access to the river would be surrendered to the people who live on the other bank.

Imagine doing this not only on the Meramec River, but also on the Niangua, Gasconade, Big Piney and James rivers and Huzzah Creek — about 1,200 miles of great Missouri streams in all.

This is exactly what President Donald Trump wants to do along the Rio Grande River in Texas.

Disaster.

Joe Davis

Kansas City

Our shining lights

I think I speak for most Kansas City residents when I give a heartfelt thank-you to the crews from KCP&L and the out-of-state workers for their efforts in the cold and snow, 24 hours every day, to return our power as quickly as possible after the weekend’s snowstorm.

Also, we owe much appreciation to those who removed trees and fallen limbs. You all are heroes.

Norma Spear

Kansas City

Too soon, Star

I, too, appreciate KCP&L’s efforts to restore power to customers affected by the recent snowstorm. However, The Star’s decision to publish letters to the editor from people whose power has been restored after short outages seemed rather insensitive to me because I am now four days without power, as are 2,957 other households shown on the KCP&L outage map as I write this at 8:08 a.m. Wednesday.

Roderick Becker

Kansas City

Stop the games

The inability of our elected leaders to compromise has led to the longest partial federal government shutdown in U.S. history.

I am 84 years old, and I am proud of my work as a federal employee in service to the country I love. Federal workers nationwide are now being forced to stay at home and wait for the government to reopen and are no longer able to provide the services on which our fellow Americans rely.

Middle-class federal workers and their families are stretching their pennies until the shutdown is over. Even though pay will be restored eventually, bills still arrive on time even if paychecks don’t. Many federal employees are being forced to make difficult and unnecessary financial decisions to make ends meet.

Congress and the president need to stop playing political games with our government’s services and those who provide them. We are now in a crisis, and our leaders must work to promptly reopen the government.

We must call on them to reach a consensus immediately so committed federal employees across the nation and right here at home can get back to work for our country.

Doris Biggerstaff

Olathe