Letters: KC readers discuss stolen signs, Robert E. Lee and renaming the Plaza fountain
Modest proposal
We should ban English as the language of the United States. After all, it is the language of the oppressors. It is the language of racists and fascists in our damaged country. It contains the words that are used in bigotry and hate.
By banning specific words, we are only meeting the problem partway. If we ban the language, we remove all those words and any others that can be used to put down, insult, deprive or otherwise harm those unable to defend themselves.
- Ron Lentz, Kansas City
Start local
I placed a political sign in my yard and have now had the experience of someone removing it from my private property.
First, I felt violated that a person would enter my property and remove the sign.
Second, and most important, whoever did this violated my First Amendment rights, in total disrespect to a fellow citizen of the United States who is a veteran of the Vietnam War.
I realize that people have different opinions and that they may, within the law, give notice of those opinions. People do not have the right by law to disallow others from expressing their ideas.
Not until everyone respects and has the discipline to accept others’ rights under the Constitution can we make progress with understanding and compromise to find solutions to allow all people to express their ideas and opinions.
This can start by respecting our neighbors even though we may not agree with them. We can question their ideas to get a better understanding of their viewpoints and answer their questions. It starts with each of our neighborhoods.
- William Service, Overland Park
Empathy, please
It is wiser “not to keep open the sores of war but to follow the example of those nations who endeavor to obliterate the marks of civil strife.” These words were said by Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee when he declined an offer of a statue honoring him at Gettysburg after the Civil War. He also pledged his loyalty to the Union.
Many disregarded their general’s admonition and erected statues during and after Reconstruction — long after the Civil War — to demonstrate their continuing dominance of African Americans. Their ancestors now among us should consider why those statues mean so much to them.
One does not really know how to be a fisherman until he or she has walked in the shoes of a fisherman. Wear the shoes of an African American, even for a day, and you will know.
- Rick Marien, Overland Park
That’s horrendous
I also shudder at what Johnson County Commissioner Mike Brown called the “horrendous decision” of Gov. Laura Kelly mandating facial coverings in public places. (July 1, 1A, “GOP, local officials blast Kelly plan for mask order”)
Where does the state government get off telling me what I can wear? For too long, we have endured this tyranny, and it has gone too far: There is not a supermarket, restaurant or place of worship in this state that I can walk into without being oppressed by the state mandate forcing us to wear pants and underwear.
Sure, the liberal public health officials stress that even simple cloth coverings reduce transmission of fecal matter in some eating establishments (if one can believe the lying fake news media), but I agree with Republicans who maintain that the government is overstepping its authority with this one-size-fits-all approach.
As they might note: Although reported cases of outrage at my nakedness are high in densely populated areas such as the Oak Park Mall, reported cases of outrage remain very low in sparsely populated rural counties.
U.S. Rep. Roger Marshall put it best when he said: “I shudder at the thought that the state government can tell us what to wear.”
- Dakota Wallace, Overland Park
In the spirit
Although I can see why some would want to name the fountain on the east edge of the Country Club Plaza after its developer, I always thought the name didn’t fit with the classic image of the commercial development.
The fountain name should have a more Spanish sound to fit in — perhaps named after some Spanish city or fountain.
My suggestion, because of the fountain horses, is “Fountain de Caballos.” That means “Fountain of Horses.”
After all, Alhambra, Spain, has its Fountain of the Lions. Maybe we can start our own tradition.
- Edson Parker, Overland Park