Letters: Readers discuss Worlds of Fun brawl, Tyreek Hill and Midwest flooding
Teens must learn
The Star’s April 24 editorial about a fight at Worlds of Fun suggests responsibility for teenagers’ behavior starts with their parents, but I disagree. (14A, “Responsibility for Worlds of Fun brawl starts with parents”)
Teenagers are not toddlers or even grade-schoolers. One purpose of adolescence is to learn the responsibilities and consequences of adulthood without the heavy burdens placed on adults when mistakes are made. Responsibility for teen behavior starts with the teens, but is shared with their parents.
To suggest that Worlds of Fun treat teenage guests with the same infantilism that helicopter parents treat their children is an insult to this purpose and the independence of all teenagers.
The 18th birthday does not bestow miraculous maturity. Only experience matures individuals. Expecting 17-year-olds to have constant adult supervision simply delays the needed experiences until bigger mistakes can be made — and the consequences are more severe.
Katherine Mawhinney
Columbia, Missouri
Tiny type
I notice that other states display their names in large letters on their license plates. Then I see Missouri’s new bicentennial plates with the state’s name so small you almost need a magnifying glass to read it.
What are we trying to hide?
I’m proud to be a Missourian, and I would like our license plate to show it. Let’s have a redesign soon with “Missouri” in large letters.
Bill Betteridge
Independence
Flooded out
I cannot recall being at a funeral or wake and seeing more pain than that in the faces of the farmers meeting with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers about Missouri River flooding. (April 18, 1A, “Actions taken by the Corps under review”)
These farmers’ grief is not just over the loss of cropland or grain in their bins. Most have farmed the same land for generations.
This is about the loss of family heritage, income, work and likely their homes. This is about being the guy who lost it all, who couldn’t keep the farm afloat when he had so many strikes against him.
These farmers learned right away that their ruined grain, stored for better prices, is not covered by government relief. Their good growing soil was replaced with river sand.
Tariffs, junk prices for grain, uncooperative weather, debt and spray-resistant weeds were already dealing a slow death to the small farm. Then the flood drove a stake through the heart of what was left.
It’s not just the Corps that must address this disaster. A comprehensive Department of Agriculture system of technical and emotional support, debt restructuring, loss prevention and recovery, and trade opportunities must be built into an overhaul of America’s promises to farmers. Now.
You saw it in their faces. Tomorrow is already too late.
Leann Karbaumer
Platte City
How it ends?
It was the sardonic playwright Henrik Ibsen who wrote, “You should never have your best trousers on when you turn out to fight for freedom and truth.” The point? You will get muddied.
Such is the real-life fable now being played out in Kansas City over the Chiefs.
The blame game has begun. Prosecutors who can’t (or won’t) prosecute; witnesses who won’t (or can’t) testify; a press that panders and prints and airs team propaganda instead of exposing; the Chiefs’ entire organization that skipped Morals and Ethics 101 while in college; a minority community that casts a blind eye on its own; preachers who speak on “the idols of the Chiefs” instead of the one true God; and, finally, the mob known as Chiefs fans (who dare tamper with our national anthem) for their frenzied, group-think allegiance.
We are all to blame. We have all been muddied.
Until vile treatment of children and women stops, until the Chiefs get rid of players they know are problems — whatever the price, we should wear black on Fridays and Sundays during the NFL season.
Better yet, what if people just quit watching the Chiefs? Only then, put on your best Sunday trousers.
Bob Tobia
Lee’s Summit
Only skin deep
Last month, a baby with a non-contagious, genetic skin condition called ichthyosis was kicked off an American Airlines flight because of the appearance of his skin. (March 1, KansasCity.com, “Airline kicked SC woman and son with genetic skin condition off flight, mother says”)
Working in pediatric dermatology, I am sadly not surprised by this story. Every day, I care for kids with red bumps and blisters, discoloration and hair loss. Unlike a child with a heart condition or diabetes, my patients have their diagnosis plastered all over their skin.
My patients are bullied because of how they look. Their parents keep them home out of fear of well-meaning bystanders offering medical advice at the grocery store.
Imagine being treated this way while dealing with intense itching that keeps you up at night, being unable to bathe without pain and enduring lab work and injections. This leads to low self-esteem, decreasing the likelihood of participating in group activities. The effects are long-lasting, with depression and poor self-image persisting into adulthood.
When you see my patients, resist the urge to stare, offer unsolicited advice or treat them differently. Take a cue from my 2-year-old, who doesn’t care about another kid’s bumps and blisters, as long as that kid will share her graham crackers and knows the words to “Baby Shark.”
Stephanie Kronberg
Kansas City