Letters: KC readers discuss kids in need, disgust with MLB and suppressing the vote
Kids are hurting
Long-standing systemic health and social inequities have put people from racial and ethnic minority groups at increased risk of being hospitalized and dying from COVID-19. Inequities in the social determinants of health, including poverty and health care access, are amplified during this public health emergency. The pandemic has highlighted these racial and ethnic disparities with growing awareness of systemic racism within U.S. health care.
The disparate effects of adult COVID-19 among racial minorities will widen inequalities among pediatric populations. Black and Hispanic children will experience the death of a primary caregiver or close family member more frequently than white children because of the disproportionate mortality in communities of color. This childhood trauma can lead immediately to emotional disturbance along with continued economic hardship with food and financial insecurity.
This accumulation over time results in the persistent deterioration of health for Black and Hispanic children. We must affirm our commitment to pediatric health equity in preventing further widening of existing health care and societal disparities. To achieve health equity, barriers must be removed so that everyone has fair opportunity to be as healthy as possible.
- Zuri Hudson, Kansas City
So long, baseball
I have been an avid baseball fan for more than 60 years, an obsession passed down from my dad. He even taped the World Series games the year I spent in Iraq during my Army careerso we could watch them together when I redeployed back to the USA. But I will not watch or listen to another game, or even check a box score, until the 2021 All-Star Game is returned to Atlanta.
MLB is a part of my life, but it is not more important to me than my country or the integrity of our elections. The “national pastime” should be just that — an entertaining diversion that unites fans regardless of their political beliefs, not a forum for promoting a partisan agenda.
I am sure that MLB will survive without my patronage, and I am equally sure that I will find another use for all the extra time that I now have. Goodbye, MLB, and thanks for the memories.
- Bill Watkins, Lansing
No All-Star states
There was speculation before Major League Baseball announced that Denver would replace Atlanta as host city of the 2021 All-Star Game that Kansas City could attempt to parlay its Negro Leagues roots to get MLB to bring the game here, but the same voter suppression that caused MLB to quit Georgia is also happening in Kansas and Missouri.
The Kansas GOP is making it a felony to return mail-in ballots for others and wants to gerrymander Democratic U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids out of her district. Missouri is suppressing the 53% citizen vote to expand Medicaid and losing the 90% federal funding that would come with it. Its U.S. Sen Josh Hawley led the charge to reject the Electoral College votes cast for President Joe Biden and has since been asking at hearings whether his phone calls from the mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 could be traced. Did he do more than raise his fist against democracy?
Why would MLB bring the All-Star Game to a state foisting voter suppression on its people? You want the game? Play fair.
- Carolynn Fischel, Prairie Village
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: KC readers discuss kids in need, disgust with MLB and suppressing the vote."