Letters: Readers discuss an NCAA bracket omission, pandemic elections and profiteers
A pick with bounce
I must object to the Star’s NCAA bracket projections. (March 16, 1B, “We unveil our own March Madness bracket”) Blair Kerkhoff and the sports staff picked New Mexico State to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament.
Was The Star not following our city’s team, the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos? Is The Star not aware that the Kangaroos were on a hot streak? Did The Star forget the leadership of UMKC’s seniors and the overall prowess of the team?
This would have been the year of the Roos!
- Jim Walsh, Overland Park
Stay the course
An open letter to U.S. governors, secretaries of state and other election officials:
Many states have taken action during this pandemic. There have been quarantines and closed businesses, and in many states primary elections are being postponed. I am concerned about the precedent of the delay of these elections.
The United States has overcome many things — war, drought, recessions and depressions — all while maintaining a thriving republican democracy with the elections required of it. The country held elections while the nation was split in two during the Civil War. The threat of COVID-19 does not reach the same level as the Civil War.
This is not the first time the nation has dealt with a pandemic in a major election year. The United States held midterm elections during the 1918 Spanish flu outbreak.
I implore you to take precautions, but do not cancel or postpone elections, because that could lead to the degradation of all our nation’s elections.
- Killian Becker, Kansas City
Keep feeding them
Lunches could be distributed from school buses during the school shutdown for the coronavirus pandemic. Continuing to produce lunches and delivering them from buses (or other vehicles) would provide work for school kitchen workers and for the bus drivers.
This would be one way to get meals to children who depend on school lunches for good health.
- Doyle E. Yeater, Raymore
Taking advantage
Sunday’s story “Online sellers find accounts suspended after cleaning out store shelves” should have been on the front page instead of 12A. It should be a felony to profiteer in these situations. People like this make Sen. Bernie Sanders look better all the time.
What happened to the excess profits tax we had back in the 1950s? The last one expired just after President Dwight Eisenhower was elected, I believe.
- George Hook, Lee’s Summit
Future attitude
Here’s a silver lining among this chaos: Every notice, alert, announcement and advisory that we have received from businesses and governments begins with the claim that our health and safety (along with their team members’, of course) are their first priorities.
I recall previous instances when I didn’t get a sense that was the case.
After this has passed, we’re going to need each other like never before. Maybe that approach will remain.
- David Burger, Lenexa
If we pay out ...
Before our government gives $1,000 or $2,000 to each person or family as has been proposed, we should consider that not everyone wants or needs money to live during the COVID-19 emergency, while lots of other people may need more than is proposed.
Here are my suggestions:
▪ As Italy has done, suspend rent, mortgage and other bill payments for people without income until the crisis passes.
▪ Exclude Social Security beneficiaries and people receiving government pensions who do not work or are not seeking work.
▪ Exclude people who are working at home or elsewhere for pay and whose incomes have not been cut.
▪ Exclude payments to, and raise taxes on, singles or couples whose net income for 2019 was at or above $300,000.
▪ Exclude people with net incomes in 2019 at or above $100,000. Hardship applications could be considered for those who do not have current income or have extraordinary medical expenses.
▪ Ask citizens if they want a distribution before sending one. The money not needed could be used to increase payments to those who do need it.
▪ Distribute any money in more than one payment.
- Jennifer Randle, Overland Park