Letters: Readers discuss Chiefs-Raiders vaccines, stopping immigration, mask rights
Raiders are right
I hate to credit the Las Vegas Raiders, but they have an easy program to try to ensure the safety of fans, which I believe the Chiefs should adopt. Beginning Sept. 13, all ticketed fans age 12 and over must provide proof of vaccination for COVID-19. (Aug. 20, 8A, “Should Kansas City Chiefs fans need COVID-19 vaccine to attend home games?”) These attendees will not be required to wear face masks inside Allegiant Stadium.
The Raiders have partnered with CLEAR Health Pass to provide easy proof of vaccination for faster entry. Ticketed fans are asked to download CLEAR’s mobile app and enter their vaccination information before arriving at Allegiant Stadium. The Health Pass needs to be created only once for the entire season. I have completed this procedure and am ready to attend the Nov. 14 Chiefs-Raiders game in Las Vegas.
- Jerry Joyner, Overland Park
Cut immigration
In her Aug. 18 guest commentary, “Kansas would lose if DACA program falls” (10A) Rekha Sharma-Crawford presents the same fallacy that so many other commentators have been almost hysterical about this year: the prospect of an aging population that is no longer growing.
The problem is that this is a finite country with finite resources. The population cannot grow forever. We must stabilize our population to have any hope of an ecologically healthy future.
Since immigration drives U.S. population growth, we must reduce immigration. Reducing immigration means seriously enforcing immigration laws, and that means ending DACA.
An aging population is not something to fear. It is a sign of hope in an overpopulated nation.
- James Lee Smith Bowen, Lawrence
All about me
During World War II, Americans united, sacrificing to defeat a common enemy: the Axis. Some lost their lives fighting, but even at home, people united behind rationing, Victory Gardens, even paper drives and such, to help the big fight however they could. There is a reason our forebears are called the “greatest generation.” They put the common good above all.
Once again, we have a common enemy: COVID-19. Many people are stepping up with vaccinations and masks. But this fight is hardly the unanimous effort of WWII.
We have those screaming it’s their “right” not to wear masks. They seem to forget that businesses and governments have rights, too. And other people have the right to not inhale the anti-maskers’ germs.
And the anti-vaccine folks believe the absolutely most insane arguments against getting a tiny shot. They seem to forget that they’ve been getting vaccines since infancy and haven’t died yet. And, of course, it’s their “right” not to get shots.
Now it’s the individual’s “rights” over all. To hell with everyone else.
We’ve gone from the greatest generation to the me-me-me generation. How far we’ve fallen.
- Suzanne Conaway, Kansas City
This isn’t us
On Aug. 12, I attended the Kansas redistricting town hall in Overland Park. During the meeting, lawmakers were repeatedly told that Johnson and Wyandotte counties are diverse and that lawmakers will be cheating if they fulfill former Kansas Senate President Susan Wagle’s proposal to gerrymander the districts so representatives choose their constituents instead of the constituents electing their representatives.
One thing still bothering me shows just how tone-deaf to diversity these lawmakers are. They opened the meeting with a prayer. That in itself is fine, but it was a blatantly Christian prayer imploring Jesus Christ for guidance. Calling more attention to this was that during the meeting, a Rabbi spoke — obviously not a Christian. I’m sure there were other audience members who weren’t Christians.
How disappointing — yet expected. The speakers were well prepared and made several valid points. I hope our leaders took note and realize that some of the initial redrawn maps are absolutely unacceptable for our diverse area.
Please let constituents choose their representatives, not the other way around.
- Susan Stricker, Olathe
The war’s winners
The narrative that the pullout of American troops from Afghanistan is a slap in the faces of those who fought and died there is predictable. The unprecedented rate of suicide among veterans and active-duty service members of this politically protracted war is the real insult to those who fought and died.
The insult is that they gave their lives only to have their comrades whom they died to protect fall to the moral injuries inflicted upon them by a Congress that repeatedly funded the war and by four presidents who mismanaged the war.
We citizens have paid little attention to how this war was waged and asked few questions about an ending. The Afghan forces are being vilified for their failure to fight, even though for years they did most of the fighting and suffered the most casualties by far. Now, they do not have the support they relied on to wage the war.
Our failure to get many of our collaborators out was inevitable because of an agreement with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government. The only winners here were the war profiteers.
- Jeffery C. Humfeld, Kansas City
Personal pain
My very own parents walked across the border of Pakistan and India after Mahatma Gandhi brought down British sovereignty in 1946-47. Again in 1971-72, they walked from their small town to new villages by the Bay of Bengal during the separation of East and West Pakistan.
As I watch the scenarios today in Afghanistan, my heart cries.
- Razia Khatoon, Lenexa
This story was originally published August 22, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss Chiefs-Raiders vaccines, stopping immigration, mask rights."