Letters: Readers discuss Josh Hawley’s Trump gambit, a dance great and Black KC news
Eyes abroad
Sen. Josh Hawley’s contesting the presidential election is an assault on American electoral democracy that is being watched by the free world with cynicism. (Dec. 30, KansasCity.com, “Josh Hawley becomes first senator to say he’ll try to block certification of Biden’s win”) He appears to be trying to secure President Donald Trump’s supporters to aid his own political ambitions.
This is disgraceful conduct for a person who swore to uphold the Constitution.
- Bill Phelps, Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada
Hawley’s stunt
Sen. Josh Hawley is pulling a political stunt with his plan to challenge the Electoral College results. What an embarrassment it is to Missouri for him to engage in this charade.
This action is not going to change the outcome; it is only going to prolong the process when Congress has so many other important issues to address. It also is going to further embolden those who have threatened violence to overturn the election results.
If Hawley has evidence of fraud, then let’s see it. If he thinks certain states didn’t follow their election rules, he and his cohorts should have challenged those procedures before the election.
My question to him: If there was fraud or illegalities in the election process, why did it affect only the presidential election and not the down-ballot races in which Republicans did quite well, even in the contested states?
Hawley has aspirations for higher office. His record of dishonesty needs to be cataloged and displayed during future elections, and Missourians need to find a replacement for him when his term expires in 2024.
- Mark Fitzpatrick, Kansas City
Votes must count
Joe Biden is our president-elect and will be inaugurated Jan. 20. Any attempt to subvert the will of the people, including Sen. Josh Hawley's planned challenge, should be met with fierce resistance.
Hawley has zero evidence of any fraudulent act during the election that would reverse the results. The cases President Donald Trump’s legal team have brought before the courts have been denied and dismissed, many with prejudice. The crony attorney Rudy Giuliani has admitted to having zero evidence of fraud to provide the courts. The few cases of election fraud that have been uncovered were committed mostly by Republicans.
Former Attorney General Bill Barr stated before his resignation, “To date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Our votes should count once, as they were cast. Our votes should be certified and submitted, as they were cast. Our votes should be accepted. Period.
If Hawley pursues this action to tangle up the congressional certification, then he should be removed from all Senate committees and be subject to investigations and removal from office.
- Richard Nixon, Kansas City
A dance great
Kansas City lost a giant of the local dance world Sunday with the passing of Elizabeth Hard-Simms.
Elizabeth took a small school of ballet, combined with a passion for dance, and turned it into a transformative dance power. Under her direction, the company brought in young, new audiences, fostered emerging choreographers and developing dancers and opened up a stodgy Kansas City dance scene to new ideas.
The Westport Ballet Theater that she created blazed trails with its outdoor Summer Series at the old Prospect of Westport restaurant’s courtyard, and with its regular Studio Concert Series for new and experimental works.
The company also was the first to perform in the renovated historic Folly Theater, broke new ground with performances in the Grace and Holy Trinity Cathedral and brought ballet lovers to the Uptown Theater.
Elizabeth’s welcoming style, eclectic tastes and many friends in the dance world brought luminaries such as Horacio Cifuentes, Cynthia Gregory, Vicki Allen Reid and Michael Simms to her Westport studios and to Kansas City audiences.
Throughout her long, productive life, Elizabeth Hard-Simms brought — and invited — joy, laughter and love. We will miss her like no other.
- Randy Barron, Tecolote, New Mexico
Now make it matter
The apology by The Star for its historical failures in covering Black people in Kansas City is good start, because you can never correct what you don’t acknowledge. (Dec. 20, 1A, “The truth in black and white”) But it can’t stop there. And it is not limited to The Star.
The omissions, negative slants and disregard of the Black community are true of most media. Locally, radio and TV stations also ignore the lives, accomplishments, successes and projects of Black people. The Black press and Black radio stations have historically filled that void.
As a person who regularly alerts media outlets about such things, I rarely see responses to these notices, especially if it is good news (and it usually is). We know the response is quick if there is a problem — in other words, a shooting anywhere near the Black community. A press release is never needed then.
So if we are really going to report on the entire community, then let’s have all media take a look at their practices and vow to do better. And then, they must actually do better.
- Suzetta Parks Pennington, Kansas City
Realistic needs
It’s not that I don’t appreciate assistance from Congress in the form of $600 of stimulus. But realistically, as much as so many are suffering, that amount should be $6,000.
Before those who don’t need the money label me as “greedy,” let’s keep in mind that many of these same accusers were conspicuously silent as they accepted President Donald Trump’s huge windfall in the form of his tax cuts that grossly benefited the wealthiest Americans’ best interests.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 will add $1.9 trillion to U.S. budget deficits over 10 years. The vast majority of the benefits went to the rich. Just imagine how much every man, woman and child in the United States would receive if that money were fairly distributed in the form of stimulus checks. If we do the math, we will find that it’s a lot more than $600.
- Eddie L. Clay, Grandview
This story was originally published December 31, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Josh Hawley’s Trump gambit, a dance great and Black KC news."