Horses aren’t food. Our Missouri and Kansas representatives need to back the SAFE Act
No to horsemeat
Two hundred fifteen members of the U.S. House of Representatives have officially added their names as co-sponsors of the Save America’s Forgotten Equines, or SAFE, Act, a federal ban on the cruel practice of horse slaughter and the transport of unwanted horses out of the United States for slaughter as a food source. We are just three co-sponsors away from reaching a simple majority (218 of 435) support for the SAFE Act in the House. This would mean the SAFE Act would pass, if and when it comes up for a vote.
To reach this major milestone, we need a show of support from all animal welfare advocates. If your U.S. representative has not yet co-sponsored the SAFE Act, please email or call today to asking that he or she sign on to H.R. 3355, the bill to end the slaughter of American horses for human consumption.
Look up the current House of Representatives co-sponsors for the SAFE Act at bit.ly/3JFdN99
- Robert White, Lone Jack, Missouri
All marked up
As a part-time resident of Kansas City, I just returned from a recent visit. I was appalled at the amount of graffiti on display throughout the downtown area. Most shocking was the bridge on Main Street over the railroad tracks adjacent to Union Station.
Our beloved Union Station is a destination for both visitors and locals. Come on, Kansas City: Do better. Be better.
- Donna Winward, Kansas City
Fight tuberculosis
Reported COVID-19 cases are decreasing, but the world’s struggle with tuberculosis should show us that highly infectious diseases continue to be problems after they are considered endemic. TB is the second-leading infectious disease killer worldwide with 1.5 million individuals dying annually.
The coronavirus pandemic worsened the TB situation in the U.S. and around the world when staff and resources were diverted to focus almost exclusively on the COVID-19 response. Experts predict this will result in increased TB numbers and an increase in the mortality rate due to delayed diagnosis.
To put the U.S. back on the path to TB elimination, and to make significant progress toward ending TB globally, Congress should fund the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s domestic TB program at $225 million and the U.S. Agency for International Development’s TB program at $1 billion in the 2023 budget.
Missouri U.S. Rep. Ann Wagner has co-authored a letter to House leadership in support of these TB funding levels. I urge Reps. Sam Graves and Emanuel Cleaver to join her in this bipartisan action for global health.
- Cynthia Changyit Levin, Town and Country, Missouri
Team poaching
Someone or something on the Kansas side of the metropolitan area is after one of the crown jewels of Kansas City: the Chiefs. Kansas City and Jackson County have risen to the challenge for many years, giving members of the Hunt family everything they’ve asked for.
The only reason for this ploy I can deduce is that Kansas will need a team to replace the Jayhawks after the NCAA drops the hammer. Try these names on for pizzazz: the Johnson County Corporate Transfers or the JoCo I-35ers.
- Paul Comerford, Blue Springs
Parents matter
The Star’s April 10 editorial “Most education bills in Jeff City would limit how history is taught” (19A) about Republican Missouri lawmakers wanting to censor school information about racism, Jim Crow laws and more took me back 50 years or so.
Our (white) family was watching a documentary that featured Jesse Owens at the 1936 Berlin Olympics. I still remember to this day my father looking at Adolf Hitler’s scowling face when he was informed of Owens’ four gold medals, pointing gleefully at the TV and saying, “Look how mad he is!”
That simple gesture of my father reminds me to this day of the impact we as parents (plus other adults) can have on young people, for good or ill.
- Jo Heinzman, Kansas City, Kansas