Letters: Readers discuss comforting kids, women’s rights and Sen. Josh Hawley
Caring warmth
In light of recent negative reporting on the Kansas Department for Children and Families, I’d like to point out a positive program involving community quilters and the state agency.
In 2018, Starlight Quilters Guild in Overland Park adopted a community service project called Project Warm Embrace, a statewide partnership between local DCF offices and community quilters established in 2008.
When being removed from their homes, children often are given only a few minutes and a trash bag to gather their belongings. The mission of Project Warm Embrace is to ease this transition with the gift of a fabric “dream bag” and/or a quilt to let each child know that someone cares.
With the support of two area quilt shops, Prairie Point Quilt & Fabric Shop in Lenexa and First City Quilts in Leavenworth, Starlight members have donated 400 quilts and 800 dream bags since February 2018. Everything from fabric to machine quilting was donated by guild members. Monetary donations from the Rotary Club of Shawnee Mission and area residents were used to purchase other supplies.
For information about Project Warm Embrace, contact James Harmon, Kansas City Region administrator at the Douglas County DCF office: 785-832-3860 or James.Harmon@ks.gov
- Donna di Natale, Lenexa
For the people
Jan. 21 will mark 10 years since the Citizens United ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which declared money to be the equivalent of free speech. This has opened the floodgates to “dark money” from unknown sources that is used to influence our lawmakers. It infringes on people’s votes by drowning out their voices.
Many issues are affected by dark money to the public’s detriment: immigration, climate change, health care, prescription drugs, the opioid crisis and more. Policies that would address these issues are opposed by corporations and their donors.
To address this, the non-partsian American Promise organization backs a new 28th Amendment, which has been co-sponsored by more than 185 members of the 116th Congress from both parties. It would uphold the rights of humans over corporations and special interests.
To find out more about the 28th Amendment and the efforts to limit dark money, go to americanpromise.net
- Edward Acosta, Olathe
Missed milestone
In the 2020 Rose Parade, there was at least one float, which featured women of color, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the passage of the 19th Amendment, which secured the right to vote for white women.
Although a 100th anniversary is something to celebrate, I was disappointed that I saw no mention that 45 years later, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 finally gave women of color the right to vote.
If we don’t speak the truth about our legislative history, we will continue to be over-trusting, naive citizens and voters.
- Terri Butel, Kansas City
Time will come
Sen. Josh Hawley continues to be a disappointment for Missouri. One would think that having been a clerk at the Supreme Court, he would have gained some wisdom from the experience.
So far, he has fallen in line with the Kool-Aid sippers in the GOP, stating obviously lame and baseless opinions. (Jan. 3, 4A, “Missouri’s Hawley wants to dismiss Trump’s ‘fake impeachment’”)
He won’t be up for re-election in 2020, but I can wait.
- George Baggett, Kansas City
Future is watching
Republicans often base their actions on what they consider the “original intent” of the Founding Fathers. They must be aware, then, that several of the Federalist Papers addressed impeachment.
The most controversial concern was allowing the Senate to act as a jury. In Hamilton’s Federalist No. 65, here is what he wrote in favor of the idea:
“Where else than in the Senate could have been found a tribunal sufficiently dignified, or sufficiently independent? What other body would be likely to feel confidence enough in its own situation, to preserve, unawed and uninfluenced, the necessary impartiality between an individual accused, and the representatives of the people, his accusers?”
Ultimately, the Senate was the chosen body to act as a jury.
Today’s question is: Can the current Senate be “sufficiently dignified and sufficiently independent”? Is there “necessary impartiality”?
It is my hope and expectation that my Kansas senators and others will have the courage to not be pressured by the president or by party, but rather to listen to the evidence, weigh it carefully and vote according to the best interests of our country.
Our democracy rests on your actions. What will be your legacy?
- Karen I. Johnson, Westwood
This story was originally published January 5, 2020 at 5:00 AM.