Letters to the editor: This Irishman asks how many in KC think Biden’s illegitimate

We don’t get it

Dear Kansas City,

I am an Irishman (in Ireland). I have a great friend of 40 years in Missouri who lives a small town near Kansas City. He is a Republican, not excessively religious, just “normal” (by my lights anyway).

I asked him recently this question: “Do you believe that Joseph R. Biden is the legitimate and duly, properly elected president of the United States?” The answer was no, he does not. He thinks the election was stolen from Donald Trump.

Can you tell me, is this a widely held view among your readership? After your Supreme Court, federal courts, Department of Justice and Department of Homeland Security pronounced it to be a clean election, where does this come from?

My friends here in Ireland and I would like to better understand the situation.

- Rod Large, Bray, Ireland

Let them work

There are “now hiring” signs everywhere and a discussion about a labor shortage. Well, all over the country is a labor force that is readily available and actively seeking employment but being denied: those who have been incarcerated with felony records. If it really is that bad, why not hire these people? It shouldn’t take a pandemic to get these able-bodied individuals back into the work force.

The 501(c)(3) nonprofit Prison Policy Initiative says that unemployment is a major cause of recidivism. It reports: “Our analysis shows that formerly incarcerated people are unemployed at a rate of over 27% — higher than the total U.S. unemployment rate during any historical period, including the Great Depression. … For those who are Black or Hispanic — especially women — status as ‘formerly incarcerated’ reduces their employment chances even more.”

This ongoing punishment of those who have served their prison terms actually contributes to more crime. Industry is creating criminals with these archaic hiring processes.

Hire these people now and open up apprenticeships to them so they can get back to some degree of normalcy and contribute to society.

- Kyle S. Thibodo, North Kansas City

Awful choices

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one-fourth of U.S. COVID-19 deaths occurred in nursing homes. (June 2, 2A, “US nursing homes still dealing with small outbreaks”) Why would anyone choose to stay unvaccinated, then work with this extremely vulnerable population? Why would owners and operators of nursing homes allow workers into these facilities without providing proof of full vaccination? How is this possible?

A recent outbreak in a Kentucky nursing home was traced to one unvaccinated employee, resulting in 46 COVID-19 cases and three COVID-19 deaths. This suffering could have and should have been avoided. Is this outcome any different than one individual spraying a crowd of innocents with a lethal weapon resulting in 46 injured and three deaths? Unconscionable.

Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont described nursing homes’ COVID-19 situations as “leaky boats.” Perhaps criminal prosecutions would be more appropriate.

Stupid humans making stupid decisions, with innocents paying a steep price. Stupid, stupid humans.

- Angela Schieferecke, Prairie Village

How far to go?

Since some people are getting very worked up, again, about the name of our local NFL team, how about this: We will change the name of our team when the people of Indiana remove the offensive “Indian” from the name of their state. The pro baseball team in Cleveland is removing its equally offensive name, so why not the state, too?

- Dick Davenport, Lee’s Summit

This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters to the editor: This Irishman asks how many in KC think Biden’s illegitimate."