Letters: KC readers discuss war memories, Evergy’s goals and Peale’s positive thinking
She did her part
As a registered nurse, I was privileged to be able to care for my mother at her farm home several months before her death. She talked much about her early life in Phoenix and her job as a night-shift long-distance phone operator.
On Dec. 7, 1941, after coming home from work, she was awakened by her mother to take a phone call from work: “Return immediately.” For the next two days, taking short naps in the break room, she transferred hundreds of phone calls from all over the world to the Army and Air Force bases in Arizona.
It was a memory she would never forget. I am so sorry I did not hear it sooner. She was a real hero.
- Sandra Short, North Kansas City
Share your voice
In August, Evergy announced its Sustainability Transformation Plan, with a potential 85% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This is improvement over the existing goal of an 80% reduction by 2050. But, the plan falls short of Kansas City’s target of 100% clean electricity community-wide by 2030 and could greatly hinder the success of the city’s Climate Protection and Resiliency Plan.
Evergy says it wants to hear from customers. You can make your voice heard by submitting public comment in support of Kansas City’s goal of 100% clean electricity by 2030. There is a pending case concerning the plan before Missouri’s Public Service Commission: EO-2021-0032. Public comment is welcome through the “submit comments” link on the commission’s website: psc.mo.gov.
Serious climate action is needed to slow worsening flood and drought cycles already affecting agriculture and communities. Retiring coal-fired power plants in favor of renewable resources, such as wind power, creates jobs and boosts the economy.
If Evergy is serious about its Sustainability Transformation Plan, it needs to accelerate the retirement of its coal-burning power plants while investing in clean, safe and affordable renewable energy now.
- DeAnn Gregory, Kansas City
Lessons missed
Maybe our current president wasn’t in church when his pastor preached sermons about God’s love for him, always, even when he might have come up short and been the loser. Maybe he also missed sermons admonishing him to worship only God — certainly not money nor power. And does he ever show that he heard sermons about loving his neighbor as himself?
Maybe he misinterpreted Norman Vincent Peale’s treatise on “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
- Judy Lockett, Prairie Village
Need their help
Sunday’s story, “As vaccine nears, metro adds over 1,000 new coronavirus cases for third straight day” (2A) reminds us we have many struggles ahead before the end of the pandemic. People here and around the world have been waiting for months for Congress to pass a new emergency COVID-19 response bill. They need help now for the long winter and spring to come.
Staying at home and limiting activities are still excellent ways to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Yet people in poverty worry about making rent to have a home to keep them safe.
Meanwhile, global health problems rise as a side effect of the pandemic. The World Health Organization, UNICEF and Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, estimate 80 million children are at risk of vaccine-preventable disease for lack of access to health services. AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria cases and deaths are projected to rise to levels we haven’t seen in years.
Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley should prioritize passing an emergency COVID-19 package that includes at least $100 billion in rental assistance for Americans and $20 billion in funding for global health and nutrition to help lower-income countries.
- Cynthia Changyit Levin, Town and Country, Missouri
This story was originally published December 8, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss war memories, Evergy’s goals and Peale’s positive thinking."