Letters: KC readers discuss Japanese beetles, KCPD’s chief, COVID-19 and nursing homes
Bugging me
The battles we wage, inside and out — no, I’m not talking about within ourselves or with others. I’m talking about home and garden pests: Japanese beetles outside, cockroaches inside.
We’ve tried just about everything. We bombed the roaches, only to have even more show up, and I swear one of them flipped me off.
We tried the roach dust, and I gave them time to walk through it. When I checked on them, the young ones were building sandcastles and the older ones were playing volleyball.
So far, the only thing that has worked is sticky paper. They run onto it, and bam — gotcha!
The Japanese beetles are something else. They eat the leaves off a tree in a single day. I tried spraying them with liquid bug killer that states, “Kills on contact.” The beetles, instead of dying, broke out their shower kits and washed up. The product also states, “Money back guarantee.” Guess what?
- Tomas Ferraro, Sugar Creek
Federal boots
As a 65-year-old man watching the evening news, I am appalled at the response of the federal government to the protests around the nation.
I was taught in elementary school that America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Later, I was taught the importance of the Constitution and its First Amendment freedom of speech and Second Amendment right to bear arms.
I have seen people in Portland, Oregon, being grabbed off the street while peacefully protesting by unnamed and unmarked forces. These troops are now being deployed to Chicago and Albuquerque. We have federal law enforcement agents in our area.
In Missouri, I am allowed to carry weapons without a permit or training (which I don’t agree with), but I fear that carrying a sign or peacefully protesting could be a path to jail.
I think our president is treading on us.
- Joe Deveney, Independence
The past again
Oh, for a return to the days of Clarence M. Kelley — the best police chief this city has ever experienced.
- Charles Ballew, Kansas City
Be in the know
Depending on where you live, your Aug. 4 ballot could have a dozen or more races and ballot questions. And since this is a primary, some races have up to six candidates. It will be a lot to work through, whether you fill out a mail-in ballot or go to the polls on Election Day.
That’s why visiting www.vote411.org/ballot, the League of Women Voters’ non-partisan, online voter guide, can be a big help. You can access your personalized sample ballot and find details candidates have shared about their backgrounds, qualifications and priorities. You can also review information about Amendment 2, the Medicaid Expansion question, and what its passage or defeat will mean to Missourians.
Vote411.org lets you compare candidates side by side, then print or save your completed sample ballot before going to the polls. Although local election authorities are taking precautions to keep voters safe from coronavirus transmission, getting in and out of a polling location quickly reduces the risk of coming in contact with an infected person.
Using vote411.org now to prepare to vote on Aug. 4 just makes good sense.
- Pat Goodwin, Voter guide committee co-chair, League of Women Voters of Kansas City, Jackson, Clay and Platte Counties, Kansas City
COVID-19 peril
COVID-19 is spreading like wildfire through our nation’s nursing homes. With only a few weeks until the Congressional recess in August, lawmakers must take meaningful action to protect nursing home residents now.
The first U.S. outbreak of coronavirus occurred more than four months ago — in a nursing home — but the death toll continues to mount without sufficient action from Congress and the administration. Hundreds of nursing home residents and staff are dying each day.
It is past time for our elected officials in Washington to enact a bipartisan, five-point plan to protect nursing home residents and staff: providing adequate personal protective equipment and regular testing, creating more transparency, requiring access to virtual visitation, improving staffing and oversight, and stopping attempts to provide blanket immunity to long-term care facilities.
More than 56,000 nursing home and other long-term care-facility residents and staff members have already died from COVID-19, more than 400 here in Missouri. Congress cannot afford to wait any longer to stem the loss of life.
- Jay Hardenbrook, AARP Missouri, Jefferson City