Readers react to Royals, Brandon Ellingson, Amendment 3
Better-paid Royals
This lifelong Royals fan is thrilled and incredibly proud of our guys. Even more exciting is the opportunity to permanently return our team to its former glory.
An entire generation has grown up without seeing us in the playoffs. We can now make sure that never happens again — if Royals management uses the opportunity.
The Royals’ payroll ranks 18th among MLB teams, according to USA Today. To have a competitive team, we need to pay competitive salaries.
We’ll have at least six free agents this winter, including star pitcher James Shields, and management shouldn’t again do nothing while our great players get poached by other teams. There’s also a ton of other talent that we should be ready to grab.
We lucked into the playoffs this year because of the heart of this team, but we’ll lose players if we continue to pay less than what other teams can offer.
We have the chance to keep this momentum alive with the massive amount of additional revenue from tickets and merchandise that the playoffs are generating.
Owner David Glass, former CEO of Wal-Mart, has enough money. The revenue our guys have earned should go to recruiting and retaining top-quality players, not into David Glass’ pockets.
Kristie Blunt Welder
Olathe
Religious freedom
It’s not the freedom to exercise one’s religion that’s the problem.
It’s an excess of such exercise at the expense of everyone else’s rights. The country needs more exorcising of religion from public life and less exercising.
Jessica Deamer
Lawrence
Royals broadcasts
Congratulations to the Royals and the excellent broadcast of the wild-card game by TBS. Fox executives should have tuned in to see what professional announcers actually sound like.
I am looking forward to the Royals going a long way in these playoffs and being able to watch with the volume on.
Alan Holmgren
Overland Park
Truth still missing
Someone with a conscience knows the truth. The tragic death of Brandon Ellingson was an avoidable nightmare that hasn’t ended (9-28, A1, “Questions swirl around patrol in drowning inquiry”).
The Moreaus, the first witnesses, said the trooper showed no urgency in helping Ellingson as he initially treaded water.
Sgt. Randy Henry said arresting Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Anthony Piercy had differences between what he said after the incident and what he said later.
People on the water taxi saw Piercy “struggle mightily.” These same witnesses have since said that Piercy “could and should have done more.”
Have others in Missouri had situations where Piercy was aggressive in his interactions or negligent in his performance? Piercy, himself, said, “I probably did a bunch of things wrong there.”
The unfiltered truth needs to be presented. If you witnessed the tragedy or your testimony was misrepresented, contact the attorney in Brandon’s case, Matt Boles, at mboles@parrishlaw.com.
You know who you are. It is time to step forward.
Ruth Meyer
West Des Moines, Iowa
Sue Franklin
Urbandale, Iowa
No on Amendment 3
If you think the politicians in Jefferson City have the ability to educate the children of Missouri, you’ll vote in November for Amendment 3.
If you think that parents and the community should be in control of education, then you’ll vote no on Amendment 3.
This amendment is on the ballot because a number of people with good intentions got this amendment validated, not realizing the disaster that’s about to happen if it passes.
Amendment 3 would threaten local control of our schools, force taxpayers to pay for costly government-mandated standardized tests even though school funding is already a problem and force teachers to teach to a test rather than focusing on actual instruction.
H. Lon Swearingen
Kansas City
Minimum wage pay
The fast-food workers choose to strike the only job they have, seeking a raise to $15 per hour. I can’t say I blame them for wanting more pay.
I’m just not sure they are going about it in a logical manner.
Let’s be real. This is being stoked by the president and the Democratic Party.
They are using these people in a political stunt for votes.
If raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour were such a great idea, why did it not happen when we had a Democrat as president, a Senate controlled by Democrats and a Democratic House majority?
Why? Because it isn’t sound economics. If it would improve the economy, you would expect California to have a $25 minimum wage.
Sorry, it just doesn’t work. Forgetting the economics of such an increase, even if the minimum wage were raised, the workers currently in those jobs probably would not get the benefit.
I would expect to see a flood of applications for those jobs from people making less in much more demanding jobs to be in the mail the day of the change.
Remember, there are thousands of employees (both full and part time) working for the Internal Revenue Service who make less than $15 per hour.
Tom Turner
Lee’s Summit
Cheering for U.S.
Watching the filled-to-capacity crowd at Arrowhead Stadium for Monday Night Football, and then again, on Tuesday, the massive crowd at Kauffman Stadium, I was struck at how much fun and enjoyment people of every color, race, political party, religion and gender were having with each other as part of the cheering section for the home teams.
They were all united in their support for their favorite teams.
It was awesome to see so much unity in one place and how energizing it must have felt for the players.
But it saddens me to see that we can all as human beings be together at a sporting event and not see those colors, religions, genders and race and work together for that win. We laugh and cheer and scream and are all doing our share to make sure our team wins.
Why can we not do the same for our country?
Why can’t we cheer and work together for the good of America, but only for sports teams? If we had this kind of unity in our government, America would sure be better place.
America cannot win a Super Bowl or World Series the way we are going.
Karen Zentz
Raymore
Kudos to The Star
I was up at 12:05 a.m. on Oct. 1 to see the celebrations for the Kansas City Royals’ win (10-1, A1, “Unbelievable”). I went to bed and then got up at 6:30 a.m., and there was my Kansas City Star in the driveway with all the newsy details and commentary.
Thanks for quick writing, editing, printing and delivery.
Ray Schiefelbein
Blue Springs
This story was originally published October 2, 2014 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Royals, Brandon Ellingson, Amendment 3."