Letters: KC readers discuss happy Plaza memories, Ukraine unease, Kansas KPERS debt

Pleasant Plaza

In seventh grade, my friends and I would take the Kansas City Metro bus from Red Bridge to the Country Club Plaza. Babysitting, mowing lawns and allowance gave the opportunity to shop stores and eat lunch on a Saturday.

I felt so grown up and never caused trouble. Last bus to Red Bridge was at 4 p.m. We stuck close together in case there was some “scary guy.”

We went to all the stores and restaurants. Our parents told us to tip well when served a meal, since we were young and giggly.

Some distinct memories:

▪ House of Toy Chinese restaurant (Wing and Sammy)

▪ Halls department store

▪ Harzfeld’s department store

▪ Jack Henry

▪ Annie’s Santa Fe (more of the 1980s time frame)

▪ Harry Starker’s restaurant

▪ Putsch’s Cafeteria

▪ Cy Rudnick’s Fine Fabrics

▪ McDonald’s at Seville Square

▪ The conversion of the Sears building to Seville Square

▪ Window shopping at Christmastime

So disappointing are:

▪ The chain stores and restaurants

▪ Shootings

▪ Teens gathering, milling and not shopping

▪ Vandalism, whether random or part of a protest

I am still a lover of the Plaza’s lights, Easter bunnies, fountains, the Classic Cup, Topsy’s Popcorn and other independent establishments.

Also, I can still enjoy the memories.

- Elizabeth K. Allen, Nevada, Missouri

How we improve

In the history of our planet, there has never been a nation that has developed without blemishes, without shameful chapters. This of course includes the United States. This is why public education plays such a strong role in maintaining and strengthening our democracy — through freedom of speech and honesty about our history.

In the words of Chris Patten, chancellor of the University of Oxford: “A decent, open society should never flinch from attempting to discover how yesterday helped to make today, and how we could use the experience to create a better tomorrow.”

- Frank Strada, Overland Park

No deterrent

In 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine retained numerous nuclear weapons. The country was pressured to give up those weapons in return for a nonaggression guarantee from Russia, backed by the United States, Great Britain and others.

In the resulting 1994 Budapest Memorandum, the U.S., Russia, Great Britain and Ukraine agreed “to respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.“

Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons in return for a commitment that its sovereignty and borders would be respected.

So, what’s the lesson smaller countries such as Israel, Iran, North Korea and others are learning today? Never give up your nuclear weapons because you can’t rely on any agreement, any country or the United Nations to protect you from aggression.

We should not be surprised to learn that Taiwan, Indonesia, the Philippines and others will now seek nuclear weapons because they know they can’t rely on anyone to protect them from outside aggression.

Nuclear proliferation is now back on the table.

May God help us.

- Joseph Taylor, Overland Park

Be responsible

I wrote a letter to the editor two years ago about Kansas’ gross negligent debt undermining its simple financial oath to its hardworking, dedicated state employees in 1955: Give us a career for poverty wages, and we will pay you a pension.

Recently, state Rep. Steven Johnson, the House Insurance and Pensions committee’s chairman, and Attorney General Derek Schmidt are trying to move a bill through to Gov. Laura Kelly’s desk to pay off part of that debt.

After underfunding its obligations for decades, then skipping its payments to KPERS two years straight, state legislators cost taxpayers another $254 million of completely avoidable IOUs — trying to balance a broken budget “tax experiment” in part off the backs of its state employees.

Johnson’s bill is in stark contrast to poisonous and unsustainable proposals from legislators and Kelly in 2020 to “refinance” KPERS debt.

Thank you for recognizing that paying off debts comes before writing surplus checks to voters, Rep. Johnson. If the Legislature and the governor can act honorably to pass this bill and right a long-standing wrong, all state employees can hope Kansas will finally make efforts to keep its simple promise.

- Deborah Snyder, Lawrence