Letters: Readers discuss trashy KC streets, Kansas overregulation and angry parents

Clean it up

I moved to Kansas City 31 years ago. We raised our children here and have participated in numerous cultural and philanthropic activities. In addition to its friendly people, the physical attributes of our beautiful city have always been special to me.

However, I have grown increasingly concerned about how dirty our city has become. Kansas City is frankly filthy if you notice all the trash along the highways, medians and bridges. It is easy to be blind to this debris, but if you pay attention, you will see that Kansas City is so filled with trash that it pains me as a resident and causes embarrassment when guests visit.

I am asking the Kansas City legislature to make city maintenance and cleanup a priority this year. In addition to serving our community as a physician, I have also served on the city council in my community for 20 years. The manpower should be available by employing those who are physically capable but unemployed, expecting entitlement payments, and prisoners who are also using taxpayer funds

I hope others feel the same and would support this.

- Steven M. Silverstein, Lake Winnebago

Support business

As CEO of a Kansas-based solar installation company that’s seen remarkable growth the past couple of years, I know state and local government policies that foster renewable energy development are critical. Johnson and Douglas counties’ support of utility-scale solar is a pro-business action that benefits us all.

My company boasts 40 employees working across the region on residential and large-scale solar projects. A great deal of planning is involved in each. Renewable energy investments are significant undertakings that provide a lower cost energy source, maximized by today’s much improved battery-storage options.

We urge policymakers in Johnson and Douglas counties, as well as across Kansas, to continue providing zoning guidelines that enable renewable energy projects to benefit our local communities. Aggressive, burdensome regulations threaten our state’s ability to capitalize on renewable resources, and frankly, damage our small business’s own growth and development.

Let’s move forward with zoning guidelines that continue the development of solar resources and ensure the market is offering the type of energy consumers are eager to purchase.

- Malcolm Proudfit, CEO, Good Energy Solutions, Lawrence

Not pro-kids

I was shocked and saddened when I opened my Wednesday paper to see a bully disguised as an angry parent on the front page. (“Angry parents; After two years of pandemic restrictions, parents are mad as hell”) Is this how to address what you see as a problem — by putting a picture of a man pointing a gun, supporting him as a “domestic terrorist” on your shirt?

The only thing I see that Christine Kraft did right was to take her kids out of public school. What a relief for teachers, school board members and other parents who would like to attend the school board meetings without a threat of being harassed or even shot.

She doesn’t want her kids taught so-called “critical race theory,” even though it isn’t taught at elementary and high school levels. She said she hasn’t read deeply on the subject. Maybe she should do so before opening her mouth. I doubt she knows anything about Christopher Rufo, a conservative activist who invented the critical race theory conflict, recognized a political opportunity, then spread misinformation about it supposedly being taught in schools.

The way I see it, Kraft is just a busybody bully who goes just the opposite way on anything that is proven good for kids – masks, books and diversity, just to name a few.

- Teri Weiter, Raytown

Money bags

So the battle between the billionaires and millionaires rages on with no regard for the fans as the Major League Baseball lockout goes on. Remember the golden rule: He who has the most gold rules.

- Tom Fournier, Lee’s Summit

Cut it down

Here is a short list of dread diseases for which vaccines are required before admittance to public schools:

▪ polio

▪ chicken pox

▪ diphtheria

▪ measles

▪ mumps

▪ tetanus

▪ whooping cough

▪ smallpox

Are there actually people who don’t want COVID-19 added to this list?

- Leonard Glass, Overland Park

This story was originally published February 18, 2022 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters: Readers discuss trashy KC streets, Kansas overregulation and angry parents."