Readers sound off on minimum wage, voting, telephones
GOP, minimum wage
I think the Republican Congress could assure its party the White House in 2016 by passing a $15-per-hour minimum-wage bill.
The economy now seems sound enough to absorb this, and it would remove the main weapon Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has to use next year.
Namely that Republicans don’t give a hoot about working-class folks.
Can you imagine a debate in which Jeb Bush could state, “Well, Barack Obama had the presidency for six years and never got this done, but we Republicans did.”
A Bush-Marco Rubio ticket would glide into office. Sen. Marco Rubio could then have his eight years once Jeb Bush was done (as long as Jeb keeps Dick Cheney out of Washington, D.C.).
And incidentally, this would truly help a lot of folks and goose the economy, for which the GOP could then justifiably claim credit.
Republicans, the holy grail is in your grasp. Are you bold enough to take it?
Gregory Cenac
Weatherby Lake
Voting concerns
The zest demonstrated by the local loyal fan base of the Kansas City Royals with the All-Star Game balloting process has propelled several of the Royals players (many deserving) to the forefront of the first Internet balloting campaign in Major League Baseball (6-16, B1, “Even with an All-Star, KC could still seek an upgrade at position”).
Both the Kansas City Board of Election commissioners and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach are sure to be more than mildly interested. The election commission will want to figure out a way to gather some of that voter enthusiasm for its own election process, and Kobach just knows for sure there are ballot irregularities being committed.
Fans across the nation are waking up to the prospect that they have been caught flat-footed voting their own players into the lineup. And like American Pharoah we may win wire to wire. Leading all the way. This is Kansas City’s Triple Crown.
They are smiling in Chicago, recalling the call to the duty from the party power brokers: “Vote early! Vote often!”
Thomas Nicks
Lenexa
Telephone appeals
We are retired seniors who still have a telephone land line. We are registered “no-call” and recently updated.
However, we still receive endless calls from charities. A call center representing the Fraternal Order of Police, the Sheriffs Association, highway patrol and other related law-enforcement agencies calls almost daily.
We have donated to the United Way for more than 40 years and now would like to be left alone. Other than requesting help from the attorney general, what does it take to get them to quit?
At first we asked nicely, then I started getting rude, and finally I have been hanging up without answering.
Is anyone looking forward to the political barrage that’s about to start?
Is giving up our phone the only option? And does this organization really help law enforcement? Who knows?
Carol Clopton
Kansas City
Repeating mistakes
Sometimes there is comfort in being in the minority. At least as a Kansas voter I don’t have to hide my head in shame at having joined in the colossal stupidity of the majority of the state’s electorate last November.
That majority returned to office Gov. Sam Brownback, who already had destroyed Kansas’ finances by accepting free-lunch nonsense that tax cuts increase revenue. The majority of voters returned to office U.S. Rep. Kevin Yoder, who betrayed the people by sneaking protection for reckless bankers into law.
Perhaps worst of all, it returned to office U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, who last month joined with most of his Republican colleagues in urging Iran’s mullahs to ignore the president of the United States and not accept arms control. It isn’t necessary to go as far as many conservatives have and call this treason, but at best it certainly does make America look silly to the rest of the world.
Max J. Skidmore
Overland Park
Kobach’s intent
Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach in his June 16 As I See It column, “I beg to differ on new law,” writes: “Every time an alien votes, it effectively cancels out the vote of a U.S. citizen.”
In Kansas currently, most state legislators and officials are Republicans, so Mr. Kobach must be thinking of those U.S. citizens who voted Republican. (In truth, not all U.S. citizens vote the same way.)
If alien votes are canceling out those votes, Mr. Kobach must be assuming the aliens vote Democrat.
Thank you, Mr. Kobach, for clarifying exactly what you are trying to do.
Pat Schroeder
Shawnee
Obama’s caution
I appreciate President Barack Obama’s reluctance to push this country into another full-scale war. The current unrest in the Middle East is the result of our past involvement there.
President George H.W. Bush had a problem there. In Kuwait, his administration quickly handled the situation and left. Yes, he left many countries headed by dictators, but they were stable.
Then came President George W. Bush, who was pressed by his vice president, Dick Cheney.
It wasn’t enough to bomb and destroy the terrorist training camps responsible for 9/11. Using an unfounded charge of weapons of mass destruction, the younger Bush charged ahead and into a full-scale war, killing hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and thousands of our soldiers.
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured, put on trial and executed. That war left that country a haven for terrorists with an unlimited supply of recruits.
As sad as this situation is, the U.S. is not threatened and shouldn’t be pushed into war by the money-hungry military industrial complex, which President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about.
Obama is reacting to the situation as carefully as possible, and I agree with this approach.
Wayne Wagner
Independence
Experts on schools
Schools in Kansas are woefully underfunded. Therefore we need to spend the little money we have for professional development wisely. So we hire educational consultants.
How infinitely weary I am of them coming from God knows where to tell me what the best practices are in a roomful of kids they’ve never met in a school they’ve never been to. So here are some tips so we can at least employ some mutual respect.
▪ Teachers are tired of “experts” telling us what to do before they get to know our students and us. Listen to us as much as you preach to us.
▪ Know how to work your equipment. If you can’t get your computer to work, that doesn’t bode well and shows a lack of planning.
▪ Keep an open mind. You expect us to do that when we listen to you, so we should have that courtesy extended to us. Maybe we could learn from each other.
Annette S. Bright
Overland Park
Spelling bee winner
Congratulations to Kansas City’s new national spelling bee winner.
What President Barack Obama’s message might be:
1) You didn’t build those spelling skills.
2) You just won the spelling bee lottery.
3) Because of your ethnicity you need another government program to help you succeed.
4) You need my help because of this horrible racist country.
What Vanya Shivashankar’s response might be:
1) I set a goal and that was my priority.
2) I put in the hard work to achieve my goal.
3) Just keep your government program.
4) I overcame and I took home the prize.
My message: America the land of opportunity.
Joyce Kallenberger
Kansas City
GOP’s clown bus
Well, the long-awaited driver of the Republican presidential candidates clown bus has finally arrived in the form of Donald Trump (6-17, A2, “Trump begins his bid”). As if Rick Santorum, Mike Huckabee and Ben Carson aren’t outrageous enough, along comes this character to drive the bus into a ditch.
Thanks, Trump, for making every comedian’s dreams come true.
Jim Lullie
Kansas City
This story was originally published June 22, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers sound off on minimum wage, voting, telephones."