Letters: KC readers discuss The Star’s apology, police officers’ rights and remote working
Honest account
Thank you to The Star’s staff for the recognition of the paper’s racism that began long ago. (Dec. 20, 1A, “The Truth in Black and White.”) I just finished “Race, Real Estate, and Uneven Development: The Kansas City Experience, 1900-2010” by Kevin Fox Gotham. The book is exceedingly well documented, and it lays out the details and shows how other cities copied these behaviors.
What did they get? Money. Power. More money. Others, including many churches, have been complicit by their silence.
Perhaps Kansas City’s real estate agents and financial institutions should follow The Star’s lead. May Kansas City’s WeDevelopment Federal Credit Union be one of the next steps of support.
Thank you for the chutzpah to acknowledge, ask forgiveness and move forward together.
- Dan Karlin, Gilbert, Minnesota
What we accepted
My first job teaching was at Central High School in the 1970s. I loved being part of the excellent staff and the students, who were totally different from this kid who graduated high school in northwest Missouri. My fellow teachers were very accepting of this white rookie, as were the students.
The troubling part for me to accept was the very used and marked-up textbooks we got while Southwest High School got the new textbooks. The faculty and students just accepted this as part of their education.
I cherish my great memories of fellow teachers and students who took me in and helped me learn about current events in Kansas City.
- Nancy Krause, Leawood
It’s their right
The Dec. 18 front-page story “Police union contract up for debate,” about the contract between the Kansas City Board of Police Commissioners and the police union, implies that the provision allowing an officer 48 hours after a shooting before making a statement evades justice. This 48-hour period is standard in police contracts.
Memory experts and the police consultant company Force Science Institute have found that mild stress improves memory. Extreme stress, such as a gunfight, degrades memory. Adrenaline impedes recall and will not leave the system for three days. Under stress, blood retreats from the frontal lobes of the brain to the primitive part. This works against recall.
Every citizen has the right to remain silent. Including police.
- Kevin L. Jamison, Gladstone
The playbook
Surely others besides me have noticed President Donald Trump’s identical playbooks for losing elections. In both 2016 and 2020, Trump was convinced he would lose, so in the days leading up to the elections, he claimed they were rigged, fixed, a fraud. Yet when he won the 2016 election, that story disappeared as if by magic. And Hillary Clinton graciously conceded in the early-morning hours after the election, unlike Trump this year.
I fear his actions in 2020 have dealt a blow to democracy that can never be fixed. Many other sore losers will see how easy it is to use the Trump playbook. I hope their parties and followers will not support such efforts, but I fear many will. Before this election, I would have said such a tactic wouldn’t work in the United States, but it does — if not in the courts, then in many voters’ opinions, including many of our elected representatives.
How sad for our country.
- Bob Ferguson, Kansas City, Kansas
Happily trapped
The Dec. 18 letter with the headline “Back to school” made me chuckle. (8A) The writer “can’t understand why we need to trap children behind a laptop.”
Why, to prepare them for adulthood, of course. I feel fortunate to have a job, and that it has allowed me to work from home on a laptop since March. And the view is much better from here.
- Kirsten Frogley, Shawnee
This story was originally published December 22, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss The Star’s apology, police officers’ rights and remote working."