Letters: Readers discuss compost pests and protecting us from the federal government

History lesson

Two historic events could have changed drastically what our federal government would become.

The first was the adoption of the Bill of Rights in 1791. The second was a secret order by President Richard Nixon in the summer of 1970 that would have had profound implications on our basic rights.

Nixon’s Huston Plan sought to strip away the rights guaranteed in the Fourth Amendment by giving him absolute authority to spy on any American without a court order. He had to rescind his order because Attorney General John Mitchell and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover refused to go along with it.

When the Founders adopted the Bill of Rights, it was intended to protect us from the power of the federal government. Had Mitchell and Hoover fully performed their constitutional duty, they would have gone to Congress and reported what the president had tried to do.

If they had done so, that likely would have ended Nixon’s presidency then, and it might have set a precedent to remove President Donald Trump from the Oval Office.

- Michal Betz, Wichita

Prying fingers

I hope Prairie Village has airtight containers to hold residents’ food waste with its new curbside composting program. (Nov. 21, 7A, “Suburb to be first in Kansas City metro to pick up compost”) It’s a great idea for the environment and really good for the Earth. But what are they going to do about their new vistors — the raccoons?

- Janet K. Thomas, Grandview