Letters: Readers discuss texting while driving, Sheriff Tom Thomas and violent crime
Car distraction
I recently learned that Missouri is one of only two states that does not make texting and driving illegal for all drivers. I don’t even walk and text.
I can’t believe this is allowed. Driving is too serious, and accidents can obviously be deadly. This is something the General Assembly should act to fix. It’s a topic we should all agree on.
My mom and I use time in the car to really talk to one another. We allow no technology.
Even if our state can’t pass a law to keep us safer, at least I hope you will not text and drive next to me.
- Leonardo Borders, Kansas City
Editor’s note: Missouri law prohibits only those 21 and younger from texting while driving.
Has my vote
As a 50-year veteran of local politics, having worked for Kansas City Public Works, Jackson County and Johnson County, I have experience with the elected officials in the metropolitan area.
My experience as director of infrastructure and transportation for Johnson County from 2000 through 2012 allowed me to work with Dave Lindstrom while he was a county commissioner. Dave is a former Chiefs player and former businessman who owned four Burger King restaurants on both sides of the state line. He has entered the race to replace Pat Roberts as U.S. senator from Kansas.
I worked with more than 150 City Council members during my 28 years in Kansas City, 30 county legislators during my five years at Jackson County and more than 25 commissioners during my 12 years at Johnson County. I have not worked for a fairer elected official than Dave during that entire time.
Dave is in this race for the right reason. He will bring fresh, honest ideas for the state. We have had too many career politicians. Many jump from one political position to another to eat from the government trough.
Please vote for Dave Lindstrom for U.S. Senate.
- Mac Andrew, Kansas City
Honorable service
Tom Thomas, longtime sheriff of Platte County, recently passed away. I met Tom in 1973, when I was an assistant prosecuting attorney in Platte County. I later worked with him as prosecuting attorney and circuit judge until his retirement in 1996.
Tom was a man of integrity, good character and good humor. He had genuine care and concern for the people who worked with and for him.
Through his 27 years as sheriff, he oversaw and developed the Platte County Sheriff’s Department as it became a large, modern, professional law enforcement organization. He left an admirable, indelible memory and impact as sheriff, and he exemplified what a public official should be.
I liked, appreciated and respected Tom, and I am honored to have known and worked with him.
- Owens Lee Hull Jr., Weston
Poor judgment
Recently, I was privileged to attend an 11-session class titled “Introduction to Judaism,” taught very effectively by the rabbis of a local temple congregation. One effect of this experience is that I now take anti-Semitism personally.
The recent hate killings in New Jersey and New York hit me in the gut.
I feel like climate activist Greta Thunberg, addressing those in the global power elite who deny the reality of climate change and thus steal the future from the world’s youth, when she asks, “How dare you?”
Although the letter to the editor Wednesday questioning why Hanukkah recipes were published in The Star on Christmas Day is certainly nothing like a hate crime, it nonetheless strikes my Catholic sensibility as implicitly anti-Semitic, and the decision to publish it as rather ill-advised. (8A)
- Nancy McDowell, Kansas City
Other causes
Wednesday’s editorial on how to cut Kansas City’s homicide numbers offered recommendations but missed a couple of obvious ideas. (8A, “How Quinton Lucas can meet his 2020 resolution to cut KC’s homicides to under 100”)
First, improve parenting. Teach people right from wrong, that pulling out a gun and shooting someone is obviously wrong. Teach children respect for life — all just blatantly simple things that are missing in society.
And second, teach children conflict resolution in school. Pulling out a gun is not the solution to a dispute. Show them how to disagree without coming to the conclusion that the other person doesn’t respect me and therefore the solution is homicide.
The culture in our society is broken. And until it gets fixed, we’ll end up with the same outcome.
- David Kellogg, Overland Park
This story was originally published January 3, 2020 at 5:00 AM.