Letters: Readers discuss ‘banking while black,’ Democrats’ hate and lies on Facebook
Banking inequity
An African American friend of mine went to a local bank’s office on the Plaza to convert some dollars to euros. Her account has a balance far higher than the equivalent of the euros she asked for.
The teller rejected her photo identification card as “expired” and asked why she wanted euros, how she was planning to spend them and other irrelevant questions that clearly conveyed the message, “We don’t want your kind down here on the Plaza.”
Being white, I visited the same bank and traded for euros without insult or interrogation. The spirit of J.C. Nichols lives on.
- Donald Hoffmann, Kansas City
I hear crickets
The stock market is at an all-time high. This should be the leading story on the nightly news, but the mainstream media don’t even mention it. I wonder why.
- Jim Walsh, Overland Park
Facebook’s lies
Along with millions of others, I use Facebook to stay connected with family members. So it concerned me when an elderly relative began fretting that she was unable to access her favorite Facebook content.
She asked if anyone knew why these pages had disappeared. An avowed supporter of President Donald Trump, she was convinced the “deep state” was involved.
Over the past few years, her posts have become filled with conspiracy theories. Time and again, she stopped communicating because she believed we were making fun of her views. Our gentle prodding to stop reading whatever she had fallen prey to fell on deaf ears.
Facebook recently announced it had removed more than 600 pro-Trump pages, groups and accounts that were using artificial intelligence to create fake users who pushed political content and conspiracies into Americans’ news feeds. Suddenly, my relative’s problem became all too clear: These accounts originated from foreign countries and had more than 55 million followers.
I passed this information to her and can only hope she and millions of others will realize they were being lied to. Facts are stubborn things.
- Bernadine Kline, Liberty
Hateful Democrats
I have no words to describe the pathetic behavior of the Democrats. This is the new Democratic Party: unlawful, unconstitutional, childish and hateful. Its members’ actions make no sense unless you hate President Donald Trump, America and God, as the Democrats have shown in recent years. How about they do their job and do something for Americans, and not their socialist agenda?
America: Love it or leave it. Trump loves America and what we stand for, and is trying to preserve her as best he can against all odds. He supports Israel, our military, our Constitution, our constitutional rights, secure borders, religious liberty, life (before and after birth) and families. The government was put in place to protect our God-given rights, not take them away.
Register and vote for Trump in 2020.
- Greg Krips, Waterville, Kansas
Before our eyes
It’s one thing to lie to adults who should be wise enough to see through it, but to lie to young people who trust you as an authority is another thing.
While introducing President Donald Trump at a Turning Point USA conference Dec. 21, Rush Limbaugh told the kids, “Climate change is a hoax.”
Climate change is real, and the only thing that could be up for debate is its cause. Unless you have your head in the sand, evidence is everywhere. The storms, the flooding, the fires are pretty obvious indicators. Even the poor robins are confused, as I have seen many of them still here when they should have flown south for the winter.
Republicans may not believe in science or proof, but maybe they will still trust nature.
- Tom Wolff, Overland Park
In his court
With the President impeached, what should happen next? Millions of good-hearted Republicans think the entire process is a hoax. They want a trial without witnesses or a trial with Hunter Biden and the whistleblower as the only witnesses.
Millions of good-hearted Democrats want a full trial with only the witnesses they call.
Who can fairly decide? The Constitution specifically says the chief justice of the Supreme Court should preside over the trial in the Senate.
Chief Justice John Roberts is an honorable person, appointed by a Republican president. If the charges are a scam, he will surely throw them out. Similarly, he can decide which witnesses are relevant to the trial.
Judges make these decisions every day. It’s what they do. Let’s stop the ugly bickering and let the chief justice decide.
- Gregg Lombardi, Kansas City