Letters: Readers discuss MO sports betting, mask wearing and not-conservative Ivanka

Left on the table

The Missouri legislature really dropped the ball when it didn’t approve sports betting. Can you imagine how much would have been bet on the Chiefs alone this past season?

Other states receive millions in tax revenue from sports betting. Since Missouri already has casinos and lotteries, I don’t see why sports gaming couldn’t be added.

- Don Merker, Raytown

No sure bets

As businesses reopen, they should seek to do whatever is necessary to eliminate customers’ fears. In the case of casinos, meaningful changes are required for them to survive.

First, smoking must be prohibited. There is a fear that the coronavirus can be spread through smoke in the air.

Second, all employees and customers must wear masks. Responsible businesses such as Costco require it for the safety of staff as well as guests.

Third, casinos should eliminate all-you-can-eat buffets. People often go to buffets without washing their hands and touch the serving tools.

Fourth, casinos need to rip out all the old, dirty carpets that are hard to keep clean and replace them with non-slip vinyl flooring. This would allow for better deep cleaning and sanitizing.

Finally, install windows to get fresh air on the gaming floors. Health experts say the virus is not as dangerous outside compared with a confined indoor space without fresh air.

We need the gaming industry because of jobs and tax revenue, plus the entertainment value it provides. I doubt that all casinos will survive. They might become relics like the Woodlands racetrack.

- Ron Adams, Independence

Sorry insensitivity

Recently, I went to a store. When I got out of my car, wearing a mask, the sound of someone coughing caught my attention. It was a girl in a group of three young people following close behind me.

I attempted to keep my distance while she continued to cough. Upon entering the store, I could not refrain from informing her, “Coughing is a symptom of COVID-19.”

Her male friend told me, “Mind your own business.” I was stunned to hear that. I told him it is my business, and we all went our separate ways.

Coughing and not wearing a mask are certainly huge red flags. People coughing during this pandemic should realize they are at a minimum possibly causing alarm to others.

I feel sorry for the others this young woman might have alarmed. I feel sorry for the cavalier attitude the three young people had for me. I feel sorry for the people in their lives who didn’t teach them how to be sensitive to other people and extend courtesy and respect in a time of fear during a pandemic.

- George Layton, Platte City

Better examples

Kansas City is right to move forward in removing monuments to J.C. Nichols, whose racist real estate practices have divided our hometown. Nearby, another monument stands that Kansas City should also remove: the Winston Churchill statue at Wornall Road and Ward Parkway.

Churchill advocated white supremacy and continued British imperialism. His actions resulted in the deaths of millions in South Asia. Among other things, he called India’s population “a beastly people with a beastly religion” and refused to intervene adequately in the Bengal famine, which took more than 2 million lives. He is believed to be a principal architect of India’s partition, which killed a million people in 1947.

Some might say Churchill deserves a statue for his heroism during World War II. The Tuskegee Airmen exhibited far more courage. Why aren’t we honoring them?

We do not need to glorify Churchill when so many in our city, nation and world set better examples and lived braver lives.

How fitting it would be to replace Churchill’s statue with one of Leon Jordan, Harriet Tubman or Mahatma Gandhi. We should glorify those we want our children to emulate.

- E.E. Keenan, Kansas City

Conservative?

I wonder if columnist Michael Ryan really believes that WSU Tech disinvited Ivanka Trump because of prejudice against conservative ideas. (June 12, 11A, “WSU Tech insult of Ivanka Trump lights fire on right”)

Although some may see her as “a lovely person and eminent role model,” as he does, she certainly doesn’t represent any kind of principled conservatism. Rather, she represents a corrupt, nepotistic, divisive and incompetent administration that perverts conservative ideals to serve its anti-democratic aims.

Perhaps that’s not the kind of inspiration the college wanted for its graduates.

- Michael Harty, Prairie Village