Letters: How will Missouri and Kansas leaders prevent January 6 from happening again?

Biden must act

Kansas is so red that the last time that the Democrats controlled the state Senate was 1916 and the last time a Democrat was elected as U.S. senator was 1932.

This may explain why Donald Trump’s Big Lie resonates so well here as well as in many other Republican-controlled states, and it is frustrating and discouraging to see this happening.

President Lyndon B. Johnson established the Warren Commission after John F. Kennedy’s assassination. The U.S. House is conducting its own bipartisan investigation into Jan. 6 and who may be culpable. This is comforting, but it does not allay my fears for the survival of our democracy.

I believe that the president needs to act by establishing a presidential Jan. 6 commission along the lines of the Warren Commission to determine who was behind the attack, why security initially failed and — most important — how this can be prevented from happening again.

The more that can be done to counter Trump’s Big Lie the better. I know that if the president does act on this suggestion, I will, at least, sleep better, and so will a majority of the rest of the country.

- Michal Betz, Wichita

The ringleaders

At this point, some 700 participants in the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6 have been charged and are being brought to justice. This seems reasonable considering the rules, regulations and laws of our nation.

What troubles me is that there are those who seized on such opportunities of naivety, innocence, vulnerability, hope and the volatility of crowd behavior to serve, what I deem to be self-interest.

I witnessed the stirring, the incitement of mistrust, confusion, frustration and hatred, all couched in the spirit of patriotism and the preservation of liberty. I find it extremely difficult to digest that those doing the stirring and incitement did not know what they had at their disposal — what, I suggest, they had created.

So, I wonder, why are we struggling so to hold those people accountable for the events of that day? Why are the minions repeatedly the fall guys? In my mind, such perpetrators have no mind for patriotism or liberty except in how it will serve their own interests for power and control.

I think of all the many millions of human beings across the ages who have been taken in by such devious and heinous ambitions.

- Martin Dressman, Prairie Village

A warning

A new Washington Post-University of Maryland poll revealed that 34% of Americans say violent action against the government is sometimes justified.

The picture of a scaffold and a noose placed at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, accompanied by the mob’s screaming demands to hang House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, hang ex-Vice President Mike Pence, hang someone — it all still leaves me very upset.

To commemorate the anniversary of the attack on our Capitol and our democracy, the government should erect a full-sized and operational scaffold and noose and position a hangman on the Capital steps, with a warning: “A repeat of the 2021 attack should bring immediate retaliation.”

And for Donald Trump and his toadies, I hope real American patriots will seek justice and remove them from our public discourse for good. Never again.

- Bill Mason, Lansing

It’s not over

Listening to the Sunday news programs this week, it seems a number of men and women in Congress are saying that Donald Trump bears undeniable and unforgivable responsibility for the riot that took place one year ago.

It remains to be seen, however, whether 30 million or so American citizens will abandon their loyalty to him or the lower-level politicians who have shown they still revere him.

The ones who have been given access to the airwaves are saying what they know is right, and it will be gobbled up by those watching and listening. But, the message and clear unfitness of Trump to be anywhere near elective office again is paramount.

And if those who have seen the light do not understand and act, their conversion will not matter. It is those millions of voters who will elect and return radical conservatives to school boards, city posts and other offices who now really matter. The foundations of democracy in this country are at risk.

- Steve Sherry, Kansas City