It wasn’t all Chiefs fans booing — and there’s an easy way to avoid it in the future

Just a few

The next time Chiefs players lock arms to show racial unity, do not have a moment of silence. That allowed a tiny group of idiots to boo racial unity. Who does that? And then you in the press make a huge deal of it.

Let those who want to cheer drown out that small minority of apparent racists, and then write about how the large majority of Kansas Citians support racial equality. Those boo-birds certainly cheer when a black athlete makes a play for the Chiefs.

- Michael J. Young, Overland Park

A better normal

Amid the pandemic, fires and protests, we hear it everywhere: “Let’s get back to normal.”

But the events of this year were not made this year. They are outcomes of normal.

What was this normal to which we ache to return? Normal was profoundly unequal in starting points and outcomes, with daunting social tensions. Real annual wages for an average American had not increased since 1979. Sixty million of us had a net wealth of zero. The average white family held 10 times the net wealth ($170,000) of the average black family ($17,000). Normal was a $20 trillion economy with 1 in 6 of our children — our future — and 1 in 9 of us overall, or 37 million, lacking sufficient food.

Normal was deadly. Nearly half of us were obese. Suicides were at all-time highs and rising, and drug overdoses were surging. It was a normal in which our life expectancy had actually been declining: A baby born in the United States in 2019 was expected to live a shorter life than one born in 2014.

Let’s not get back to normal. We can build more meaningful lives, together. The time is now, while normal is on pause.

- Matthew R. Sanderson, Manhattan, Kansas

Mix them up?

If we rename multiple streets for Martin Luther King Jr. and give them all the same name, would that confuse emergency responders because of the possibility of two buildings having the same address? (Sept. 14, 1A, “KC invites public comment on plan for MLK Boulevard”)

My vote is still 63rd Street from Raytown to the state line.

- Timothy D. Carter, Kansas City

Not left or right

I want to commend Eric Adler’s “A lesson for schools? How KC mishandled the 1918 pandemic” on the front page of Monday’s Star. Aside from the fact that we seem to have learned very few lessons from the 1918 flu pandemic, I was saddened by the role politics played in how Kansas City responded in 1918. We are seeing a replay today of how politics can make a bad situation worse.

Politics should not be a determining factor in addressing a natural disaster or a medical emergency. But I fear politics are playing an even bigger role in the current disasters — public health and natural — ravaging our country.

As imperfect as our nation is, we must never lose sight of the fact that all deaths from COVID-19 or in our Western states are not Republican or Democratic lives, but American lives.

- Catherine Clauder, Kansas City, Kansas

Love not returned

Thanks, Chiefs fans, for embarrassing us in front of the entire country. Kansas City’s players and coaches love you so much and give everything they have, and then some of you go and disrespect them like that.

- Amy Apitz, Topeka, Kansas

Leader needed

I’m a Kansas State alum. I watched the football game against Arkansas State, and I am very disappointed with K-State’s president. I am proud that K-State is an institution of higher learning. Its president should be the example of leadership.

Despite the photo of socially distanced fans The Star showed on Page 2B Monday, the student section of the stadium was jam-packed.

Some conferences recognize the seriousness of COVID-19 and have forgone this football season entirely. Most professional sports teams have no fans in the stands because it’s too dangerous. Why can’t the K-State president have a spine and show some leadership? I think he should be replaced with someone with common sense and leadership abilities whom alumni and students can respect.

- Bruce Dagley, Kansas City

Two kinds of panic

So let me get this straight:

President Donald Trump didn’t want us to “panic,” so he lied about the coronavirus pandemic, which is killing hundreds of thousands of us. (Sept. 13, 19A, “Trump’s many lies have lost the ability to shock us”)

But he did want us to panic, so he lied about Black Lives Matter protests bringing anarchy and the end of our suburban lifestyle dream.

Hmm.

- Joseph Gill, Overland Park