Letters: Readers discuss skin color equality, McGonigle’s and the future of the K

Future goals

I remember my upbringing in Texas and our relationships with people of color. That’s not what they were called then, but I reject the words ascribed to them. My mother had “help” once a week so she could play bridge and do her shopping. Later, when I had four little ones, my own family had a black maid, Alberta.

However, when I moved to Kansas City in 1962, I saw life differently. I became a teacher and met fine black American teachers and professionals. I tried to imagine myself in their places, but I could not. Perhaps it was too uncomfortable.

So I put away the biases and names I knew in my childhood and have striven to make amends, as if that were possible. Martin Luther King Jr. and others: You not only made your people proud, but you set an example for the rest of us. You did the most, even losing your life, in your crusade for equality.

Now what is the least we can do to honor you and carry on your efforts to achieve equality? Or, perhaps a better question is, “What is the most we can do?”

- Nancy Cramer, Independence

Familiar faces

McGonigle’s Market has been a neighborhood treasure for those of us who live in Brookside and Waldo. Although we understand Mike McGonigle’s desire to retire, we are very sad to learn the store has been sold. (Feb. 4, 5A, “South Kansas City’s McGonigle’s Market sold to Iowa chain”)

The helpful, friendly and knowledgeable employees are a great part of McGonigle’s charm. Those of us who shop there several times a week are on a first-name basis with many of them. The new owner, Fareway Stores, will give job interviews to McGonigle’s employees, but there is no guarantee they will be retained.

I suggest that we all write to Fareway and urge the company to hire all of McGonigle’s former employees, without whom the new store will be an empty shell.

- Deborah Borek, Kansas City

Through new eyes

I applaud Leonard Pitts Jr.’s commentary noting that people are missing the point about nonfiction art being just that: art. (Feb. 13, 11A, “‘American Dirt’ critics miss the point about art”)

Specifically, he addressed the hubbub over Jeanine Cummins’ new novel, “American Dirt,” and the severe backlash for the author.

I was curious about the book when Oprah Winfrey said Cummins’ work merited “deeper, more substantive discussion” after she chose it for her book club read. So I read the novel, which the author researched yet elaborated on as her own work of fiction.

It is good, not great. I found her overuse of Spanish terms distracting. She inserted disclaimers stating that her work is simply her interpretation of the hardships within Mexican culture. Nowhere did she claim to be an authority or a member of the culture on which she based her story.

To be threatened by people — who possibly haven’t read the novel — is nothing less than a threat to an artist’s right of expression.

Boo, hiss on halting Cummins’ book tour. Kudos to Pitts for pulling no punches and standing up for authors’ rights to write outside their cultures.

- Sandra Welly, Knob Noster, Missouri

Basic duties

What the heck is going on in Washington? Last time I looked, we were a nation of laws. Last time I looked, we had three branches of government that were separate but equal.

What right does President Donald Trump have putting his thumb on the scale of justice — and the attorney general is helping him? Pardons and reduced sentences for the bottom-feeders who made up his staff?

The liar-in-chief wants to prosecute Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman for doing his job — answering a subpoena and testifying under oath to what he heard. Prosecute former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe? This man is unhinged.

I hope Republicans understand what they have unleashed. It is the duty of Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley to bring back law and order to our system of government. Uphold our system of laws. Uphold our Constitution.

- Marilyn Lynch, Kansas City

If you build it ...

If the Royals relocate to a new downtown stadium, I have the following suggestion: Allow the Chiefs to construct a new summer training camp complex on the current site of Kauffman Stadium, complete with hotel, restaurants and retail spaces.

If this were a covered facility seating 25,000-30,000 people, it could host major sporting events and larger conventions. Connect this location to downtown at Union Station via new train or streetcar lines.

Pie in the sky, or doable?

- Frank E. Lewis II, Kansas City