Letters: Readers discuss business’ COVID policies, KC pot laws and Children’s Mercy
Protecting others
A Sunday letter writer decried Jackson County’s extension of the mask mandate as basically anti-business. (19A) The author hopes that governments will realize they are not responsible for the health of the people: “Or maybe they’ll establish rules concerning citizens smoking” and so forth.
Well, actually, that’s a good example. When was the last time you lit up a cigarette in a restaurant, government or office building, or other indoor venue? The law protects nonsmokers from your second-hand smoke, much as masks protect others from COVID-19.
Every state makes laws to protect the health and well-being of its residents and has departments that carry out and enforce those laws. From health departments inspecting restaurants for violations that would expose customers to food-borne pathogens to the highway patrol protecting people from drunken drivers and speeders, there are government-imposed laws and rules that protect us from the bad choices of our fellow citizens.
And although the government can’t make rules about “eating too much or eating junk food,” laws require chain restaurants to put calorie counts of their items on the menu. That helps people make informed decisions. One can only hope they make the right decisions.
Mask, anyone?
- Lynn Anderson, Richmond, Kansas
It’s about choice
The Sept. 3 story, “Ire of ‘vexcluded’ grows as companies crack down on unvaxxed,” (5A) looked at workers who are annoyed at criticism from colleagues because they refuse to be vaccinated. Alas, the potential COVID-19 spreaders are vexed by consequences for their choices.
- Margaret E. Caswell, Prairie Village
Crime fighters?
It is highly ironic that Clay and Platte counties’ prosecutors claim they are fighting violent crime by enforcing marijuana prohibition. (Sept. 1, 16A, “It’s marijuana madness in Kansas City prosecutions”) They are, in fact, doing precisely the opposite.
History shows that the prohibition of alcohol resulted in dramatically more violence associated with commerce in that drug. The same is true with marijuana.
When criminal prohibition ends, people can settle their disputes in a civilized manner, without resorting to violence.
- Dan Viets, Missouri NORML Coordinator, Columbia
Injustice prolonged
What kind of heart does the Missouri attorney general have when he again delayed the release of an innocent man, depriving him of attending his mother’s funeral? (Sept. 5, 22A, “Strickland’s mother laid to rest as he remains in Missouri prison”)
I’d say he must have a heart so hard it is unable to feel anything, to care about another person. It’s like dangling a fish just out of reach of a starving person. This is not justice. This is inhumane treatment, which is forbidden by our Constitution.
Kevin Strickland has been waiting more than 40 years in prison, a lifetime, for a crime the prosecutors involved agree he did not commit. What was the purpose of keeping him incarcerated a few more days?
This has gone on far too long. The man deserves compensation and an apology for this miscarriage of justice.
- Barbara Mayer, Atchison, Kansas
Skilled care
My daughter is 25 years old and has started her first year of full-time teaching in the Shawnee Mission School District. When she was 10, we got the news that all parents fear the most. She was diagnosed with rhabdomyosarcoma — an aggressive tumor was growing behind her right ear.
If it weren’t for the doctors and staff at 4 Henson in Children’s Mercy Hospital, I would not have had the subsequent years of joy watching her mature into the wonderful young woman I am so proud of today.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. As your kids return to school, remember those children fighting for their lives in children’s hospitals across our land, say a quick prayer for them and give thanks we have such a gem of a children’s hospital right here in Kansas City.
Thank you to all the doctors, nurses and staff at Children’s Mercy.
- Clay C. Dublin, Olathe
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss business’ COVID policies, KC pot laws and Children’s Mercy."