Starlight’s Van Gogh, 2024 GOP convention, KC roadside trash

Artistic wonders

I had the pleasure of attending the “Van Gogh Alive” exhibit presented at Starlight in partnership with the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Van Gogh’s works are displayed larger than life, and the “sunflower room” is stunning.

I asked a young girl there who was probably about 10 years old what she thought. Her answer was, “Amazing!”

It really is incredible. “Gogh” if you can — you will not be disappointed.

- Barbie O’Toole, Prairie Village

For the heroes

Nurses are quitting hospitals at a hemorrhagic rate. In the heart of the pandemic, first-line providers worked insufferable hours caring for our sick and dying. We rightly applauded their heroic service. They worked at risk to themselves and endured quarantine at home after caring for COVID-19-infected patients.

Hero fatigue has arrived. They spent their reserves to get us through the worst wave of the pandemic. But now, they must again care for waves of COVID patients who haven’t cared enough for themselves to get vaccinated.

During World War II, our entire country pulled together and endured hardships, blackout curtains and rationing. No one liked the inconveniences, but no one questioned the necessity of working together to defeat a common enemy.

To escape the pandemic, we need to achieve herd immunity levels by vaccination or face a prolonged period of masking, avoidable sickness and death. The pandemic will not lift until we immunize our human herd.

Front-line professionals sacrificed to get us through the first waves. Now the rest of us must give back our own small sacrifice by rolling up our sleeves and taking a shot in the arm.

- Andrew Moyes, Parkville

It just is

A meme currently circulating on Facebook discusses history. Its contents are appropriate for our times. They are unattributed.

“History is not there for you to like or dislike. It is there for you to learn from. And if it offends you, even better, because you are less likely to repeat it. History is not yours to change or destroy.”

- Karen I. Johnson, Westwood

We kept going

After reading the Oct. 22 “KCQ” story about the Clay County Winnwood resort and its beach, some readers may have gotten the impression that its demise occurred shortly after the Depression. Not entirely. Most of the attractions may have been gone, but my high school friends and I were going to the lake to swim in the late 1940s.

- Jan Cohen, Kansas City

Place of peace

The Sanctuary of Hope in Kansas City, Kansas, recently closed after 25 years as a prayer and retreat center. It has made a dramatic difference in people’s viewpoints about different religions. It was run by a Catholic priest who was an open, ecumenical spirit. His staff, volunteers and many associates made all the difference in people’s perceptions of the church, fighting prejudice and uniting everyone in a spirit of love and understanding. This place came to be known as an anomaly regarding our definitions of denominational retreat centers.

Buddhists, Hindus, Protestant Christians, Jews and nearly every flavor of faith used this place for their retreats. It is estimated that between 10,000 to 20,000 people stayed there. It was not a private, little location that did not concern the overall population of Kansas City.

Sanctuary of Hope has made a difference, particularly in regard to these time of great turmoil, disagreement and strife. We need more places like it to help us become civil again.

- Paul Helmer, Kansas City

Editor’s note: Catholic Charities of Kansas City-St. Joseph is currently maintaining the Sanctuary of Hope property and will rehabilitate it to address homelessness in the Kansas City area.

Future views

Kansas City’s future relies, in large part, on our ability to attract young, technology-savvy “solopreneurs,” and by filling the workforce pipelines of local companies with the talent required to compete in the burgeoning green technology economy. Fortunately, Kansas City’s civic, government and corporate leaders have been largely prescient on this mandate and have made significant investments to position our community to be a meaningful participant in this new, tech-driven economy.

A key part of these investments has included creditable efforts to refashion the Kansas City brand from an old-economy, agricultural-driven, bastion-of-conservatism image to a new, contemporary spirit aligned with the values this new millennial and Gen Z workforce cares about: truth, science, the environment, health care access, voting rights, and combating discrimination and inequality.

Becoming host to the 2024 Republican National Convention would be branding kryptonite to this nascent, contemporized image by aligning Kansas City with what we can expect to be on full display during the convention: the most extreme right-wing elements of the Republican Party, who will surely exclaim and embrace the “Big Lie,” foment intolerance, disregard climate science, celebrate income inequality and deride investments in social safety nets.

Kansas City can be on the right side of the future. Or it can host the GOP convention.

- Brad Lang, Kansas City

A trashy look

As a former resident and frequent visitor to Kansas City, I am horrified and saddened by the immense amount of trash on its roadways. The unsightly debris is pretty much everywhere.

Kansas City is a beautiful city and there is no excuse for this rubbish, ranging from mattresses to full bags of trash and everything in between. If there is no money from the city to do a communitywide cleanup, then there need to be efforts on the part of the residents to organize and pick up. The garbage is not only unsightly — it is often unsanitary.

I can’t imagine the poor impression visitors who haven’t been to the jewel of Kansas City before would get. The debris situation is truly disgusting.

- Paula Koch, Eureka Springs, Arkansas