Readers share views on loving America, language and senior programs
Loving America
Many people on television have asserted that the president does not love America. They bounce around in their seats and get very excited when they are saying this.
I would find their statements more believable if they would show me how much they love America. I could accept the fact that they loved America if they would say, publicly “Buy American,” or “Thank a veteran, buy American.”
I have noticed that public figures and state and federal lawmakers are very careful not to say, “Buy American” when they are saying how great America is and how much they want to protect American values. It is easy to accuse someone else of not loving America, but showing that you do is more difficult.
Arthur Basler
Lee’s Summit
More word issues
I appreciate Robert Willson’s “As I See It” (5-27, Opinon) in which he clearly explained the non-necessity of using the word “issue.”
My pet peeve is the frequent use of “sort of” and “kind of.” Even on the well-respected NPR, I hear interviewees and even those who do the interviews using sort of instead of a word of clear meaning. I wonder if the frequent use of this hedge-like word is because the world is so uncertain.
People are afraid of being quoted, in case their statements prove wrong tomorrow. But even in everyday use, are we all so short on vocabulary that we cannot think of what we really mean?
How can something be a sort-of majority. It is or it isn’t.
Linda Prugh
Overland Park
Senior programs
Old age and general disability were listed as cause of death for seniors for decades. But the real reason was poor diet and hygiene, lack of preventive medical care and loneliness.
Malnutrition leads to falls and chronic health problems. Missouri senior centers provide meals programs, social opportunities, counseling and transportation.
Missouri does not need more corporate welfare in the form of tax breaks. Missouri seniors need senior agency funding restored to the 2008 level.
The general revenue fund can only cover so much. That should include restoration of senior agency funding because seniors need it so much. Call your legislators.
Senior centers welcome everyone, regardless of income — even aging billionaires — so they will be OK.
Jan Lancaster
Springfield, Mo.
Cost of college
As an 18-year-old about to ship off to college, I’m dreading the debt I will soon have to face. Since 1985 (the days of “Back to the Future”), college tuition has increased astronomically.
In the same time, inflation has increased at a much lower rate, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The strange thing is, nothing is stopping this abomination.
For some, President Barack Obama’s call for two years of free community college is a godsend. But for many, including me, higher education at a reputable university is still grossly overly expensive.
For what reason is this? Well, as the Washington Monthly’s Benjamin Ginsberg has pointed out, administration costs at universities have skyrocketed since the 1980s.
I can only hope that by the time my college debt has been paid off I can finally buy that flying Delorean.
Michael Hart
Kansas City
Obamacare woes
We are finding new problems with the new preferred-provider organization offerings from the insurance marketplace plans.
We go to local doctors when the marketplace tells us they are in network. We find out later that the facility (their only facility) is not in network. To further complicate matters, facilities are now charging a facility fee on top of the copay.
Insurance companies tell us they are double billing and will not pay both. So, we are stuck with two bills.
John Neebe
Columbia, Mo.
Citizen protections
Our nation was established with a very dark line drawn between military and police. The British Army enforced martial law on most of the known world, where the residents had two options — obey or obey after the military did bad things to you and your family.
Amendments two through eight of the Bill of Rights restrict the government from the abuses that all of British empire suffered under the redcoats. By nationalizing the police, we would replicate the exact situation that caused the revolution — a society policed by a power that is accountable only to a leadership 3,000 miles away, and the people had very little mechanism to petition for redress of grievances.
A national police, whether directly reportable to the federal powers or governed by a national standard, would recreate the system our forefathers despised and risked their very lives to oppose.
The police are already equipped to look like a national force. We must resist the legal attempts to make this a reality at all levels of government.
I hope those who read this will join me in bringing this issue to the attention of their representatives both local and federal.
Chris DeWeese
Trimble, Mo.
Economic boost
For the last couple of years as the U.S. economy has added thousands of jobs, the message from the naysayers has been that wages are stagnant. I don’t disagree with this; I’m sure it can be backed up by facts.
My problem is the tone in which this message is delivered. Is it just me or is the implication that this is somehow the Obama administration’s fault or, worse, the employee’s fault? It seems to me it is solely the fault of the employers.
Businesses have been given tax breaks in recent years supposedly to add jobs, which they have, but low-paying jobs.
Quit acting as if stagnant wages are the employees’ fault.
Company CEOs, presidents and managers, please pay employees more. It is up to you.
Job applicants are usually stuck between a rock and hard place — between low wages or no wages. Raise the minimum wage, or better yet don’t hire anybody for minimum wage.
When you put more money in the pockets of those who are most likely to spend it, the U.S. economy will improve for all.
Jeffrey M. Elmer
Lee’s Summit
Recall election
People have been pointing out the folly of the Kansas governor and his compliant legislature experimenting with untried budget considerations from which everyone of us suffers in one way or another. Shifting surplus funds from various programs to general revenue is only a Band-Aid.
Above all, the state shouldn’t have to issue bonds to replace funds shifted from the KPERS pension fund. Levying additional taxes on property, tobacco, alcohol and everything else inevitably affects the middle class and poor at a time when they are already struggling, as it does to cut spending on programs such as health, education and welfare.
There is simply no way our administration should be left to the ideological whims of a governor and Legislature when it has long been apparent that their great experiment is a failure.
In contrast, when I returned to my home state of Kansas in 1974 after 27 years in the Air Force, Bob Bennett was governor. At the end of his term he left a sizable surplus for his successor.
I am sorry to say I think it’s time to start thinking about recall.
Robert R. Cook
Manhattan, Kan.
Ease up on speed
As a fairly new transplant from a big city called Chicago, where I lived for 45 years, I was very surprised in this much smaller metropolitan area by the aggressiveness of the drivers. In Illinois I learned to drive 55 mph, as the speed limit remains on most highways.
It is very hard to consider doing 80 mph as most drivers do here. I learned to do 65 but still get beeped at, dirty looks and sometimes the finger. I’ve been practically run off the road at times.
Why is everyone in such a hurry? Why do we need to do 85 mph?
It’s a question I’m perplexed by because I thought Chicago was the tough town. Just a request: Please don’t give some of us a hard time just because we don’t want to qualify for the Indy 500.
Andrea Moore
Blue Springs
This story was originally published June 2, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on loving America, language and senior programs."