Readers react to the Missouri General Assembly, Caitlyn Jenner and TV weather
Shameful session
As expected, the Republican Party and its members in the Missouri legislature wasted another session by not expanding Medicaid.
They’ve wasted millions in federal funding, job creation, but most important, they’ve deprived countless men, women and children of access to health-care coverage. The Missouri legislators are responsible for any health problems people suffer because of lawmakers’ inaction and their partisan politics.
Shame on the legislators.
The legislators and their staffs are also cowards for never responding to me. Whom are they representing? It’s not Missouri’s citizens.
Richard G. Green
Ozark, Mo.
Caitlyn Jenner
On Caitlyn Jenner, whatever happened to humility and propriety?
Never mind. I know.
Steve Sherry
Kansas City
Anxious TV weather
Anyone who came home from work recently, expecting to relax in an easy chair with a favorite beverage to watch world developments such as the Islamic State taking over the Middle East, had a rude awakening.
If you were interested in the wall cloud forming over farmer Zeke’s corn field in northern Nodaway County, Mo., then KCTV, KMBC and KSHB were ready to inform you over and over and over again.
It kind of reminds one of the Katie Horner weather-forecasting days when she interrupted the Tony Awards for two hours of continuous coverage of farmer Zeke’s corn fields. Kudos to WDAF for at least allowing us to watch the local news. It seems a little strange to me that all three stations would interrupt coverage for the same period of time. Collusion?
Michael Sugnet
Kansas City
Housing court judge
Please add me to the critics of Judge Todd Wilcher of the Kansas City Municipal Court (6-14, A1, “Housing Court judge faces a challenge”).
I have appeared in his court and have sat and listened to others make their pleas. At no time did I witness any compassion from Judge Wilcher. Every time, he upheld the ticket and ordered a fine and court costs.
If these were not paid, then a warrant was issued.
Is there any difference between Judge Wilcher’s court and being jailed in Ferguson, Mo., for minor traffic violations?
There is no appealing Wilcher’s decisions unless you go to trial. Vote against Judge Wilcher and maybe we can get a compassionate judge in his place.
Newell Mitchell
Overland Park
Electric vehicles
The recent Kansas City Power & Light Co. announcement of construction of more than 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations in the Kansas City area is wonderful news for our environment. The existing 100 or so charging stations in the area were a good start, but more widespread availability of charging facilities will not only aid electric vehicle drivers in their travels but also increase the general awareness of electric vehicles.
Having a wider charging network will improve the utility of smaller, less-expensive electric vehicles and plug-in hybrids, which have limited range batteries and are ideal for use in the city. We all benefit from increased electric vehicle use through improvement in the air quality of Kansas City, with the cars creating zero emissions and the increasingly clean power plants that fuel them being outside the city center.
I own two electric vehicles and have been an advocate for many years, and a Sierra Club member, so I appreciate very much this improvement to the infrastructure of our area.
Stephen Werts
Prairie Village
Historical omission
First National Bank of Omaha, Neb., has a beautiful and elaborate multiblock display titled “Pioneer Courage” depicting “the tenacity and the innovativeness of the pioneer spirit that opened the West,” as described by Bruce Lauritzen, chairman of First National Bank. It totally ignores the crucial assistance provided by Native Americans.
First National Bank has a subsidiary in Kansas.
“Pioneer Courage” tells the endeavors of the men and women who headed west. It ignores the vital contributions of the many Native Americans who not only befriended the pioneers but enabled their westward march.
I first contacted First National Bank about this display in the summer of 2014, at which point it was acknowledged that the oversight had occurred and that it would be corrected. However, those I talked to were extremely non-committal about when this would be done.
Does this demonstrate another facet of indifference toward invisible people of color?
If you agree that First National Bank is obligated, by virtue of being a public business, to provide an accurate display and in the interim should correct its website and place a public display advising of its oversight, please sign the petition at petitions.moveon.
org/sign/bruce-lauritzen-
correct?source=c.em&r_by
=211181.
Edward Acosta
Olathe
Modern-day jungle
In describing how those who gathered the sap from rubber trees in the 1880s to 1890s were forced over and over to repay the rubber barons for food and shelter, historian Euclides da Cunha described each laborer as “actually coming to embody a gigantic contradiction: he is a man working to enslave himself!”
With uncontrolled payday loans and low wages, we are not far today from the Brazilian jungles of the demands of B.F. Goodrich.
John Nelles
Shawnee
Brownback’s legacy
The GOP legislators in Kansas are a bunch of greedy “yes” men who let the governor get his way. But what about most of the Kansas people?
They’ve got to pay for Gov. Sam Brownback’s mistakes. Brownback held off bad economic news until after the 2014 election, which may have affected votes for him. I can’t see how Brownback could have received enough votes even to be elected as dogcatcher, and that insults the standing of our dogcatchers.
I respect civil servants and don’t want them to feel slighted. I would enjoy seeing Brownback run out of the state on a rail.
The sales-tax increase won’t affect him or his “yes” men, nor his supporters in the limited-liability companies he is protecting.
I moved to Kansas for its schools, safe neighborhoods and well-maintained infrastructure, roads and water services. Brownback is downgrading it all so he can shine in the eyes of the likes of Grover Norquist.
The last I heard, the government was to be by the people and for the people.
Brownback must not have taken his civics class, or maybe he failed there, too, along with Economics 101.
Tim Barron
Prairie Village
Freedom threatened
Americans are proud to live in a democracy, where all are equal and all have a voice. Today, however, things are changing.
The voice we had has been diminished. Only those who have power have any say.
For example, the Bureau of Land Management recently completely ignored 24,000 American taxpayers who petitioned the agency to free some aged wild stallions who lived their entire lives free on the range but were rounded up as senior citizens with little chance for adoption. The Bureau put these old fellows on an Internet auction — freedom lost forever.
Today, 50,000 wild horses languish in permanent captivity while 1 million head of privately owned cattle take over their range. Even though our wild horses are supposed to be protected by law and national polls indicate that 72 percent of the people want wild horses left on their ranges while fewer than half that want public land used for livestock, the will of welfare ranchers prevails.
These ranchers lease our public land for tiny fees and have cost us, the taxpayers, $1 billion over the past 10 years. Last year, ranchers’ complaints resulted in 2.7 million predators being destroyed.
The government is not listening to the voice of the people. Please speak louder.
Jeanne Brummet
Joplin, Mo.
College strategy
Where is it written that you have to finish college in four years? If your parents can’t afford to send you, work part time and go to school part time.
Go to a community college, and then a university. You don’t have to incur thousands in debt if you are patient.
Margaret Kensinger
Raytown
This story was originally published June 16, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to the Missouri General Assembly, Caitlyn Jenner and TV weather."