Letters: KC Readers discuss disorganized Democrats, Trump versus Twitter and Plaza III
Low confidence
I am a longtime Republican turned anti-Trumper. I get seven emails a day for contributions to Democratic campaigns, not to mention several phone calls. I can’t afford to donate to each one. So I say no to all of them.
If the Democrats can’t do a better job of coordinating, how are they going to put together a competent government?
- Blair Hyde, Overland Park
It’s their business
Companies such as Facebook and Twitter are private entities and receive the same constitutional protections that citizens do. Moreover, they receive protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act because they are platforms and not publishers.
Simply providing a fact check on a post or tweet is not violating anyone’s rights, nor interfering in an election. Rather, fact checks help citizens make informed decisions, especially in the upcoming election.
President Donald Trump’s executive order is simply a baseless, childish abuse of power. (May 29, KansasCity.com, “Twitter obscures, warns on Trump tweet ‘glorifying violence’”) Still, if the executive order proves ineffective or unconstitutional, it provides the groundwork for Congress to repeal Section 230. This would fundamentally transform our freedom of speech and other First Amendment rights.
This issue has already been raised. If businesses can make religious decisions, then platforms should also be allowed to regulate and fact-check, especially when posts are misleading or false.
The president must decide where he stands: for or against the Constitution — even when it may not benefit him.
- Raye Shane, Kansas City
RIP Plaza III
I was saddened to read about the closing of Plaza III Steakhouse (May 28, 6A, “Restaurant group closes Plaza III, Winstead’s in JoCo”) I moved here in March 1988 from Bartlesville, Oklahoma, after being laid off from Phillips Petroleum Company. Phillips was getting rid of hundreds of Bartlesville employees, and I was fortunate to sell my house.
I was lucky to find a job in Kansas City and was already here when my wife closed on the house in Bartlesville and joined me in Overland Park.
I had never been to the Country Club Plaza, and when my wife arrived, we went there and ate dinner at Plaza III. It was a special occasion. We felt lucky to have a new home and were excited about starting our lives here.
We will always remember Plaza III as the beginning of that new life.
Over the next 32 years, we celebrated all our special occasions at Plaza III, including the final night in March 2018, when the restaurant closed and left the Country Club Plaza.
The restaurant, its past and our history with it will be missed. There were a lot of great memories.
- Neal Moster, Overland Park
Shows of force
Michael Ryan is right that the scenes from Lake of the Ozarks of people partying without masks and no social distancing border on the insane. (May 27, 11A, “Ozark crowds amid coronavirus spread fear”)
I’m struck, however, by this passage: “This kind of breakout during an outbreak should be the last thing any anti-shutdown conservative wants.”
This implies that anti-shutdown conservatives are not nearly as alarmed by armed men protecting a Texas bar that has opened in violation of the state’s guidelines, by hanging an effigy of Kentucky’s governor on the capitol grounds, or by armed men entering the Michigan capitol and halting official business.
The implication is clear: Threatening force to get states and businesses to open is not nearly as awful as large groups partying.
Protests threatening force should be the last thing that everyone — anti-shutdown and pro-shutdown — wants to see. Democracy dies when people of good intentions don’t condemn in the strongest possible language anti-democratic protests.
- Bob Yates, Kansas City
Some more tips
A Friday letter offered tips to avoid being shot by police. (10A) I’d like to add a couple more:
▪ Don’t be a minority, especially African American.
▪ If you are a minority, avoid driving, walking, jogging, open carrying, asking why you are under arrest, talking, playing your music, standing, playing with a toy gun, walking away, having your hands up, not having your hands up, resembling the description of a suspect, entering your own home, being in your own home, leaving your own home, owning a gun, using a gun the same way white people do, acting “uppity,” not acting “uppity” and anything else that brings the notice of privileged white folk.
If you’ll just follow these simple hints, your likelihood of being shot in America will be exactly the same.
- Chris Johnston, Ottawa, Kansas