Honoring J.C. Nichols, post office politics and unemployment

Wonderful police

All the police officers in Kansas City are special, capable and thoughtful.

I have had the privilege of working for and advising the Kansas City Police Department Police Benefit Association for more than 40 years. It is always there to help police officers and their families in need, whether it be because of the loss of an officer’s life, short-term financial needs or a death or illness in the family.

I have considered it an honor to know many officers. I have never met one I didn’t like or respect. My thanks to the members of the Police Benefit Association.

- Joseph J. Weinrich Sr., Overland Park

Beyond the anthem

Those who object to athletes and others protesting police brutality as supposed attacks on the national anthem and the American flag still don’t get it.

The Pledge of Allegiance stands for “liberty and justice for all.” Now for the history lesson: Before the flag, Crispus Attucks, a Black man, is widely regarded as the first American to die in the Revolutionary War.

After the flag, the Black community of Greenwood in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was the site of a 1921 race massacre perpetrated by white people, whom Black Amercans had fought for during World War I.

Black sailor Doris “Dorie” Miller earned the Navy Cross for his heroic actions during the Pearl Harbor attack, when he manned an antiaircraft gun for which he had no training and carried wounded men to safety.

The Tuskegee Airmen fought and died under that flag for my liberty, yet as a young man, I could not attend the state college of my choice. My children have had to have “the talk.”

When the people who show respect to the flag and the anthem prove that they believe in the principles these symbols represent, then we will be in a more perfect union.

- Edward Arter, Kansas City

Honor Nichols

Obliterating history means removing a thing’s existence. This shouldn’t be done to the Nichols family by removing J.C. Nichols’ name from the fountain on the Country Club Plaza.

J.C. and Miller Nichols made it their lives’ work to build the Plaza, putting Kansas City on the map.

Did you know the Plaza, which opened in 1923, was the first shopping center in the world designed for people arriving by automobile?

I was Miller Nichols’ secretary when he was president of the J. C. Nichols Company in the 1970s. I know personally the time he and his dad spent making Kansas City a wonderful place. J. C. was involved in the creation of Liberty Memorial and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and the development of the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Miller took the Plaza area into new territory by adding hotels and apartments. He brought works of art from Europe to beautify the Plaza. After the flood in 1977, he made sure the annual Plaza Art Fair opened only days later. The event is still popular today.

Don’t rub out the Nichols name. Give credit where credit is due. This family gave us something lasting 97 years. What would our town be without our famed Country Club Plaza?

- Carolyn A. Hanson, Overland Park

Mail is needed

Our adult son with autism has temporarily moved back from his group home because of COVID-19. He’s enjoyed sending and receiving letters while we have been unable to visit friends and family members. He eagerly awaits the mail each day, and we are grateful for every postal delivery.

I assure you, the U.S. Post Office is not, as President Donald Trump claims, “a joke.” It is our lifeline.

Let’s get politics out of our post office. We need our postal service, and not just for voting.

- Sara Prince, Leawood

No respect

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer are not helping the American people with their political nonsense. They have gone too long trying to be leaders and have lost focus on the people.

When politics are the main focus, they need to go. The American people deserve more respect.

- Anthony Sirna, Basehor, Kansas

Paying forward

Since Republicans consider the economy to be more important than human life, why aren’t they willing to extend help to Americans so the economy can rebound?

And so far as an extra $600 a week in unemployment insurance being “too much” and maybe even more than some people receive in their regular wages, so what? This would allow people to spend more, thereby helping to bolster the precious economy even more.

Why are they so blind?

- Diane Capp, Kansas City