Overworked nurses, outsized legislature, reducing abortions

Our employees

I have read the redacted version of the Mueller report. It is blatantly obvious to me that Attorney General William Barr is protecting President Donald Trump.

It is right there in black and white: Trump attempted to obstruct justice. There are now more than 800 former federal prosecutors who have signed a letter from the nonprofit Protect Democracy Project agreeing that he committed crimes.

Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley are hereby on notice that the only way I will vote for them again is if Trump is impeached. No impeachment, no vote for them from me.

Someone must be held accountable — if not Trump, then my senators who did nothing.

I hope they remember they work for me and the other residents of Missouri.

Scott Bundi

Kansas City

Help nurses

In every state but California, there are no set patient-to-nurse ratios. This means that a hospital bedside nurse can be asked to care for any number of patients.

Numerous studies have found that safe nurse-to-patient ratios save patients’ lives and decrease the enormous amount of stress placed on nurses who work with patients. Safe ratios mean better care.

Nursing does not have to be as stressful as it is in many hospitals, but we need help to change the situation. When people wonder why so many nurses are leaving the bedside, this is why.

Most of us enter the profession because we want to be of service and help people. We can’t help others if we can’t even stand up for our own needs and the needs of our patients.

Hospital nurses need people in the community who will help us protect the patients. We need your help so we don’t have to suffer the effects of extreme anxiety that comes from caring for too many people at one time.

Ruth Reight

Overland Park

Pare it down

The Missouri General Assembly plans to ask voters to overturn the Clean Missouri redistricting and ethics initiative they enacted overwhelmingly just last fall.

Perhaps voters can use this opportunity to offer another initiative that would reduce the legislature from 197 members to 50 members, as well as introduce the more efficient, and less expensive, unicameral system of government.

This system with a single legislative body has worked well in Nebraska, where only 49 legislative members operate effectively.

Kenneth Lee

Raytown

Self-segregation

Have we come full circle? In 1954, the Supreme Court declared in Brown v. Board of Education that public school segregation by race was unconstitutional, even if the schools were otherwise equal in quality.

But earlier this week, in a letter to the editor in The Wall Street Journal, a college student from the class of 2020 wrote about groups from diverse backgrounds: “For institutions that want to ensure the best quality of education for everyone, offering separate administrative and housing accommodations designed for these groups seems entirely reasonable.”

Also this week, Jay Dow of New York television station WPIX reported about social clubs that cater to specific minority groups. “In the heart of an ever-evolving and ever-gentrifying Brooklyn, there is a push to create a professional and emotional support network for a familiar, but specific demographic,” he wrote.

Is the push for inclusivity over? Or are people deciding they’re just happier among folks who are more like them?

Carolyn K. Patterson

Mission Hills

There are ways

Based on her guest commentary in the Sunday Star, I can’t tell whether Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle actually knows there are ways to reduce abortions without changing the state constitution. (25A, “This abortion ruling isn’t like Kansas anymore”) Since she’s been a pro-life leader for so long, surely she already knows this, right?

Surely she already knows that increasing access to contraceptives is one proven strategy for reducing unintended pregnancies.

Surely she already knows that providing medically accurate reproductive health education is another.

Surely she already knows that reducing unintended pregnancies will drive down the abortion rate, as it has done in recent years.

Surely she already knows that such policies could be implemented by the Legislature with no question about their constitutionality.

Surely she already knows all this, which is why I have to ask why she isn’t doing anything about it.

Richard Pund