Letters: KC readers discuss Big Tech whining, Plaza protests and a woman’s Big 12 first
Beyond politics
Most people I see in my neighborhood of East Brookside are not wearing masks, even though Jackson County still rates at very high risk for contracting COVID-19.
Whatever their political views, they are not being responsible citizens. They are worthy of being shamed.
- Donald Hoffmann, Kansas City
Not their duties
If you need Google, Twitter or Facebook to protect you from “harmful” or “hateful” information, you are not an adult. You are a child.
If you look to these Big Tech giants to make you feel safe, you should move back to your parents’ basement (if you ever left).
Stop trying to be a victim.
- David Salavitch, Lee’s Summit
Protests’ point
I agreed with a Sunday letter to the editor about protests that become counterproductive until the writer says reasonable people “avoid protest groups like the plague.”
Born in 1938, I have been in many protests. Protesting nuclear testing in the atmosphere at the White House in 1961, protesting segregation at a movie theater in rural Tennessee in 1963, protesting segregation in a bowling alley in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, in 1965, and most recently, joining in Black Lives Matter protests at the Country Club Plaza. In all cases, protesters were non-violent, even when attacked — by a white mob in Tennessee and by police in Kansas City.
The earlier protests resulted in meaningful change. The latest has begun meaningful discussion, but much remains to be done.
- Roena Haynie, Kansas City
A proud first
Kudos to the Big 12 Conference for hiring the first woman to officiate men’s basketball in the Big 12. Hometown Kansas City girl, my daughter Amy Bonner, has had a great year officiating men’s college basketball despite challenges from the pandemic. The staff and all the Big 12 referees helped make this an easy transition from women’s to men’s college ball. I’m a very proud mother.
- Karen Bonner, Kansas City
Kids come last
Missouri fails again. Missouri has never been willing to license and regulate, even at a minimal level, boarding schools that claim religious exemptions from state licensure despite years of credible child abuse complaints. After an exhaustive investigation by The Kansas City Star, legislators finally took notice and introduced legislation to register Missouri’s faith-exempt homes.
A much deeper issue than the existence of unregistered schools is that criminal abuse allegations at these faith-based boarding schools have been ignored. Since October 2017, the Cedar County prosecutor, Attorney General Eric Schmitt, Gov. Mike Parson and others in law enforcement failed to act on such allegations, even from the daughter of Circle of Hope’s owners.
Again, physical and sexual abuse allegations fell on deaf ears in Missouri. Not until a secret video documenting abuse at Circle of Hope gained more than 34 million views on TikTok, did Parson direct Schmitt to take a look.
Can we please elect leaders who safeguard Missouri’s people, especially children? Why does it take overwhelming public outcry or front-page investigative reporting to get their attention? Instead, our legislature is busy writing and passing voter suppression laws.
Don’t forget our most vulnerable children as Eric Schmitt and others begin their campaigns for the U.S. Senate.
- Kathy Whited, Raymore
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss Big Tech whining, Plaza protests and a woman’s Big 12 first."