Letters: KC readers discuss Jesus’ counsel, Overland Park police and political extremism
Heed wise words
My country is breaking my heart. However, on Monday we honored Martin Luther King Jr., and Wednesday we inaugurated Joe Biden as our 46th president. My prayers are that now our country can put aside the vindictiveness and hatred of the past four or five years and learn to work together.
Here are three wonderful rules to live by for all of us:
Rev. King: Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. God: You must forgive in order to be forgiven. Jesus: Love your neighbor as yourself.
- Robert Spence, Lee’s Summit
A shallow look
The Johnson County Multi-Jurisdictional Officer Involved Shooting Investigation Team is a facade. Its manual of protocols and procedures reads more like a “How to Clear a Fellow Officer Manual.” At no point does it address when an officer should be treated as a suspect, much less arrested. The document was designed and implemented on the pretense that the police are never in the wrong.
Former Overland Park police officer Clayton Jenison fired his weapon 13 times as my son backed a minivan out of our garage, fatally wounding him. John had committed no crime and was not in the process of committing a crime. In the investigation team’s report, was my son referred to as a victim or suspect? Overland Park refuses to release that information, and our family was never contacted by the Kansas Office of Victims Services.
The multi-jurisdictional team was formed in 2005 and has investigated more than 25 incidents without a single officer being charged. This so-called “investigation” unit is nothing more than a sleight of hand by municipalities to give the appearance of transparency.
Johnson County is the most populous county in Kansas. We can and should do better.
- Steve Albers, Overland Park
What’s inside
The mail-in ballot for the Shawnee Mission School District bond currently before voters necessarily has language that only applies to construction and maintenance of buildings, because it concerns a capital expenditure. It is unfortunate that it cannot explain that passage of the bond issue would “free up enough operational funds to hire 61 new teachers to reduce secondary teachers’ workload,” as stated in The Star’s Jan. 18 editorial, “Shawnee Mission $264 million bond a tough sell.” (11A)
This would help answer the question, “So what does it do for the teachers?”
- Mary J. Hodges, Mission
Extreme myopia
In his objection to the certification of the Electoral College vote on Jan. 6, Sen. Josh Hawley made a fool of himself and anyone who has supported him and his candidacies during his nascent political career. It is clear that Hawley and his advisers made a strategic move as a potential 2024 presidential candidate, attempting to curry favor with the 75 million voters who supported Donald Trump in the 2020 election. It is curious, though, that they chose to pursue an avenue of claims that even traditional conservative news outlets deemed unfounded.
Unsurprisingly, this turn of events exploded in a manner Hawley did not expect, potentially ending his presidential ambitions before President Joe Biden was even sworn in. It is we voters, though, who are most hurt by this foolish sequence of political decisions. Had Hawley chosen a moderate avenue of governance, his political ambitions would have been achievable.
It is shocking that more politicians do not understand that the extreme wings of political discourse are the loudest, yet also small pieces of the electorate. Extreme partisanship is extraordinarily damaging, and it is a shame that politicians to not recognize there is an enormous group of moderate voters wishing for accurate representation.
- John C. Reardon Jr., Kansas City
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss Jesus’ counsel, Overland Park police and political extremism."