Afghanistan lies, beef’s true cost and radical Joe Biden

Always been at war

Want to see the story of George Orwell’s “1984” in real life? Look no further than Afghanistan.

- Bruce Lee, Lenexa

Beef’s real price

A letter writer Wednesday praised the place of beef in her diet. (14A) Yes, beef has a place — a very small place. I love a good prime rib, but I eat it rarely and in moderation because:

According to the 501(c)(3) nonprofit Grace Communications Foundation Inc., it takes about 1,800 gallons of water to produce a pound of beef. That includes irrigation of feed crops and pastures.

Agricultural land is becoming scarcer because of climate change, drought, fire and flooding. Today, more than 60% of that land is used to produce beef, while beef supplies less than 2% of calories consumed worldwide.

Beef production emits extraordinary amounts of greenhouse gasses, both carbon dioxide and methane. It puts about 20 times more gasses per gram of protein into the atmosphere than vegetable proteins such as beans and rice.

At my local supermarket, the cost of beef is high — $7 to $25 per pound, compared with rice or beans at $1.50, because of the higher cost of production.

Beef is just not a sustainable foodstuff in a warming world. And as the population grows, resources required for beef production will continue to climb, unless we eat a lot less of it.

- Una Creditor, Kansas City

Not the same guy

I am looking for the so-called moderate candidate the Democrats ran in the last presidential election, but I can’t find him. What I see is a Bernie Sanders wannabe who is looking for an FDR legacy.

If someone finds the moderate, please tell him he won and have him replace the impostor now sitting in the Oval Office.

- Robert Hurd, Warrensburg, Missouri

They’re our future

The fundamental philosophy of public policy is this: If you want more of something, you subsidize it. If you want less of something, you tax it.

We subsidize farmers, because we eat their food and we want more of it. We provide public land at low rents to ranchers who raise cattle on it. We subsidize oil producers.

We don’t subsidize child care providers, but we should. We should want more children — they’re our future taxpayers. Who is going to pay the national debt? Who is going to pay the taxes that support Medicare and Social Security?

This is why we need immigrants and a revised immigration policy. Young women are simply not having enough babies. It takes about 2.1 babies for each woman of childbearing age to “replace” their parents. In 2019, the U.S. rate was only 1.9 live births per woman. In Canada, it’s only 1.56. In the UK, 1.87. In Italy, 1.51. In China, it’s 1.64, and in Japan it’s only 1.5 per woman.

The answers? Subsidize child care and liberalize our immigration policy. It’s as simple as that.

- Michael L. Pandzik, Shawnee

How it adds up

Thursday’s front-page story, “Park Hill South students have experienced racism for years,” about several racial incidents at area schools describes these actions as “microaggressions” — a popular sugar-coating term that really means “death by a thousand cuts.” There is nothing micro about these hurtful and ignorant taunts.

In her guest commentary “My Black middle-schooler was taunted over slavery in class” that same day, LaKeisha Veal wrote about the hurt her young son experienced when taunted — a cut that will stay with him all his life, while the student who uttered these awful words suffered little consequence. (9A)

Obviously, much more education is needed for students and adults to even begin to try to understand the implications of their aggressions. A few more lessons in Black history other than slavery might be a starting point, but that idea is already meeting resistance from adults who are afraid of delving too deeply into a subject that might make their white children “feel bad about themselves.” Never mind what their ignorance is doing to the children of color.

- Cynthia Kunz, Overland Park

Out of the picture

WalletHub choosing Overland Park as the best city in the nation for disabled people in its “2021’s Best & Worst Cities for People with Disabilities” report is just confusing and bizarre. (Sept. 30, 6A, “Overland Park named top city for people with disabilities”)

You can’t even get to a grocery store with public transportation in Overland Park. How could a mentally disabled person, who for example could work only four to eight hours per week at a low-wage job and couldn’t possibly afford a car, be able to live in Overland Park?

I can only guess that WalletHub considered physically disabled people who can hold gainful employment and purchase cars. Why did it ignore mentally disabled people who can’t do those things? It is reprehensible that the Kansas City community would shun these people.

- Kyle Turner, Kansas City

In the way

If the only purpose of government is to make policy and solve problems, why is it that so many of our elected officials take such pride in doing nothing and actually impeding progress?

- Richard Clyde Lumpkin, Prairie Village

Save the horses

Horses are vital companion and working animals in the United States, and they deserve our gratitude and protection. The Save America’s Forgotten Equines or SAFE Act currently in Congress would permanently ban horse slaughter in the U.S. and stop the export of American horses for slaughter.  

Tens of thousands of American horses — racing horses, show ponies, and gentle companion animals — are shipped each year over our borders in terrible conditions to be ineffectually stunned and slaughtered.  Not only is their treatment and transportation cruel, but they suffer grisly deaths at the hands of poorly trained employees and equipment intended to stun them that is not suited to their anatomy.  

While slaughter for meat is undoubtedly a terrible end for these animals, this industry also poses serious health risks to consumers. Horses are given in their lifetimes many medications and drugs that are toxic to humans when consumed, and the USDA has no system of tracking which horse has had what poisonous substance.   

I urge Missouri U.S. Sens. Roy Blunt and Josh Hawley and U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver to support the SAFE Act to end this cruel industry and help protect horses and consumers.

- Robert White, Lone Jack