Letters: KC readers discuss minimum wage, Liberty Confederate monuments and vaccines
Sliding scale
So the $15-per-hour federal minimum wage did not make into the latest COVID-19 relief bill, but the benefits of raising it are extremely important to our nation’s well-being.
Critics tend to dismiss the $15 number, saying jobs would be lost. They complain that there are parts of the country where $15 is too high.
Instead of setting a fixed national number, why doesn’t Congress establish a minimum-wage formula based on the cost of living in each county or region? Minimum wages would adjust annually based on local cost-of-living changes.
Done properly, we would never have this debate again.
- Ed Tranin, Leawood
Also in need
Although Congress’ new coronavirus relief bill is great, a segment of the population seems to be left out. As Americans get older, more and more parents are now under the care of their children. I am one of those children.
I am a single woman making $24,000 a year and taking care of my mother. As her health falters, I am having to miss more work. Since the first of February, she has had to go to the hospital twice.
There is nothing in the bill to help caregivers, and we need help.
- Teresa Gallegos, Independence
Students’ good
I am a junior at Liberty North High School, and I am extremely concerned about the sudden decision to return to school four days a week in April (and I know I am not alone in this concern). In discussions with classmates, almost everyone agrees this is not the right plan.
Why, my peers and I wonder, can’t we wait until next school year when the vaccine will have been distributed and the number of cases reduced? At Liberty North in particular, there is absolutely no way that 6 feet can be maintained between students if all 2,000-plus of us are there at once. Many of my classes are already pushing these limits.
Obviously, being online for days is not easy. I have experienced firsthand the toll it can take on mental health. However, I don’t think that a rushed return to a four-day school week will improve this in the least. Rather, it will pile additional stress onto students’ plates.
To me, this decision seems like a way to appease angry parents who want their kids to return to school at any cost, and it completely disregards the opinions and health of us students.
- Vivian C. Anderson, Liberty
Tell this story
The Star’s March 1 front-page picture of Teresa Byrd — showing her, in perspective, just as tall as the 20-foot Confederate soldier monument at her back — tells a compelling story of thinly disguised racism in the Fairview Cemetery. (“‘An abomination’: Group offers $10,000 to remove Confederate statue”)
What if the $10,000 could be spent on a 20-foot monument continuing to tell the story Teresa Byrd stands for — only this time, turned around to face down the Confederate?
Where’s the statue to Black people originally segregated in Fairview Cemetery? What’s “fair” about how that segregated “view” is remembered there now?
These segregated graves are the historical place, the context I think David Sallee is looking for, as described in the article. Theirs is the more complete story we shouldn’t forget.
So don’t let the story of the Confederacy be removed and allowed to lapse into even more covertly disguised but just as damaging forms of racism, buried, segregated, in cemeteries.
Tell the whole of story of racism. Continue to say its name. Continue to call it out.
- James Heiman, Independence
I’m left out
How can Kansas move to the next phase of vaccinations, including Type 2 diabetes, but not prioritize Type 1 (juvenile) diabetes? Type 1 is far more dangerous, and there is a much smaller population to vaccinate (1/80th). People like myself — 51, travels for work, a diabetic taking insulin for 48 years — cannot get a vaccine, even in the next phase. That is just plain crazy.
- Steven Halgren, Overland Park
This story was originally published March 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss minimum wage, Liberty Confederate monuments and vaccines."