Readers react to Gov. Sam Brownback, presidential powers and political cartoons
Brownback shuffle
So our Republican-controlled Legislature passes and Gov. Sam Brownback signs the largest tax increase in state history and he has the moxie to tell us it isn’t a tax increase (6-17, A4, “Budget plan still rankles”). That’s not a question. It’s a statement. He did it.
What’s the encore from these tax-the-middle-class-and-transfer-to-the-rich Republicans? Gov. Brownback, at least have the courage of your convictions to be honest about wanting to destroy the true economic engine of Kansas: great public schools and the middle class.
Please, Republicans and Gov. Brownback, stop spitting on us and telling us it is raining. Honesty about your destructive policies doesn’t cost a dime, but Republicans lying about their policies is going to cost us this republic.
Joseph Megerman
Overland Park
Presidential powers
When I was in school in the 1940s, the history books taught us our presidents were saints.
President George Washington couldn’t tell a lie. President Abraham Lincoln was Honest Abe.
Presidents Washington and Lincoln were great men and great presidents but not saints.
We found out later what President Ulysses Grant did to Native Americans. Listening to President Richard Nixon’s tapes, he did a lot of underhanded things.
I have said some things about President George W. Bush that I probably shouldn’t have said, and I apologize. When a person becomes president, he is the most powerful person in the world, and I think sometimes it goes to his head.
I believe most people think Jimmy Carter was a bad president, but I think he was a good man and to me that is more important. After all, Jesus had more power available to him than anyone on Earth, and he chose not to use it.
We as a nation need to learn how to stay out of wars.
Tyron Carlson
Lenexa
Biased cartoons
The June 20 Off the Easel cartoon showed Rachel Dolezal saying, “I identify with being black.” It showed Caitlyn Jenner saying, “I identify with being a woman.”
And it ridiculed President Barack Obama, saying, “I identify with being a leader.”
The cartoon should have had a fourth panel. It should have portrayed the cartoonist saying, “I identify with being a bigot.”
Ruth Withey
Loch Lloyd, Mo.
Drug lobby’s power
Watching “60 Minutes” on June 21, I was reminded of the power of the drugmakers to raise prices, sometimes doubling them long after the drugs have been on the market.
By law, Medicare is forbidden to bargain for better prices, to shop for a better deal, generics, etc.
On the other hand, the Department of Veterans Affairs is mandated by law to shop for the best deal it can find for its clients. I am one of those veterans who benefit from this arrangement.
But the question remains, Why doesn’t Congress allow the free market to benefit our Medicare clients? The VA must shop, and Medicare cannot shop.
“60 Minutes” reports that Congress will not act to change this dichotomy. Meanwhile, the drug companies are adding on increases, and the patients, in many cases, either pay up or perish.
Do you think maybe the drug lobby has our congressmen in both parties in its pocket? Remember that the next time you hear a candidate tell you he is “fighting for you.”
People who are in a position to change things for the better are often happy having things just they way they are. Our Congress is showing us just how powerless we really are.
Dave Hendricks
Prairie Village
Anti-gun chorus
Unfortunately, there has been another mass shooting and the gun-control chorus is out in full voice (6-19, A1, “Murders in house of God”).
And as usual, none of their proposals would have prevented the tragedy in Charleston, S.C.
There is a logic to violence. A set of circumstances exists where the perpetrator perceives that violence is the best way for him to get what he wants, whether it is food, drugs, safety, shelter, power or whatever. The gun is only a tool.
Until we stop focusing on the tool and start to address the underlying situations where violence is an acceptable solution, we will never get a handle on this issue.
Carl Smart
Independence
Confederate flag
If we’re going to have a productive conversation on racism in America, let’s get clear about symbolism.
The flag of the Confederacy has 13 stars in a circle and three horizontal stripes. What you see flying over the capitals of South Carolina and other Southern states, with the familiar blue crossbars, is actually the battle flag of the Army of Northern Virginia under Gen. Robert E. Lee.
So no, that’s not a Confederate flag on your porch, in your shop, over your capitol. It’s a banner of war, and it was used to fight for slave owners’ rights.
It was forgotten for a hundred years until the civil rights movement, when Southern states began flying it over their capitols to protest desegregation and voting rights.
Can we stop calling it a symbol of Southern pride? Take it down.
Nick Roberts
Gravois Mills, Mo.
Republican silence
In light of the slayings in Charleston, S.C., Republicans have been largely silent (6-22, A1, “Confederate flag debate renewed after massacre”).
Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry said it was an accident. Not many accidents are planned months in advance.
I see nobody in the GOP showing any courage on the issue of the multiple killings.
I continue to read how the press tries to silence the dissent of conservatives. That is not true.
We all want to hear about the candidate who doesn’t care about 47 percent of the electorate and the opinion of a want-to-be-senator on “legitimate rape.”
Please, GOP, talk more.
Dan Blevins
Sedalia, Mo.
Dear KC metro
My commute takes me over the U.S. 169 bridge every morning and evening. My job is downtown on Broadway.
I implore you to do something about the road work past Ninth and Broadway. It’s just a few feet blocked off that causes me such heartache on the way home.
I cannot negotiate my way to the far left of Interstate 35 or find a lane gap to sneak in. No one is in the mood to deal with my need at that time, and I have nothing to offer but a smile of thanks.
Some people won’t let you into their lane for any price. Stop, start, stop, start.
Summer is upon us, with more construction and more road work. No matter how many new roads are built or are added to existing highways, there will always be one person to slow everything down — unsure, inexperienced, incredibly naive and impatient.
Those drivers sit with their tails out in traffic, blocking intersections, taking chances they think are smart and holding their hands out driver’s side windows when they realize their errors.
Stop, start, stop, start. I just want to go home.
Megan Travelstead
Riverside
Wyandotte win
As a long time Kansas City, Kan., resident, I am irked to see the return off our investment in the Village West development repeatedly referred to as a “windfall,” an unearned benefit (6-23, A1, “Wyandotte County ponders windfall”). The term belittles the hard work and the sacrifices so many residents made for the dream of development in western Wyandotte County to become a reality.
Now, rather than spending the money like a drunken sailor who’s the beneficiary of a “windfall,” our future is dependent on spending the funds in a way that perpetuates the hard work and sacrifices that made this opportunity available.
Charles D. Kugler
Kansas City, Kan.
Dandelion delicacy
Why is the dandelion singled out for destruction when it is such a nutritious plant? My grandmother picked them every spring.
I like to mix them with turnip greens and mustard greens. Pharmacist Suzy Cohen (www.suzycohen.com) calls it the incredible edible dandelion.
Clarence Edmondson
Kansas City
This story was originally published June 24, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Gov. Sam Brownback, presidential powers and political cartoons."