Topeka politicians will ban all abortion with no exceptions if Kansans don’t vote

They’re your rights

If you can get pregnant, or know someone who can, or if you can get someone pregnant, or know someone who can, keep reading:

On Aug. 2, Kansans will vote whether to amend our state Constitution to take away the right to access abortion care in all cases, including rape, incest or to save the life of a pregnant woman.

In Kansas, abortions are already highly regulated. But if this proposed amendment passes, Topeka politicians can — and will — pass laws totally banning abortions in Kansas, with no exceptions. A no vote is a vote against excessive government interference and overreach.

The proposed amendment is — by design — confusing. But those reading closely can discern that it would give politicians in Topeka the power to ban abortion in all cases.

Everyone who is eligible to vote in Kansas should vote no on Aug. 2. And if you’re unaffiliated, you can (and should) still vote on this amendment. But you do need to register to vote, if you haven’t already, by July 12.

Vote, and vote no. Let’s keep the government from further interfering in our lives.

- Amii Castle, Lawrence

Signs of peace

I like the heart signs I see all around the Kansas City area. It got me thinking that maybe we could do something like that for peace, too.

I plan to put out a flag or sign in my yard that says “peace.” Maybe you could, too. Then, when someone sees them, we might feel just a little better with everything going on in the world.

- Marilyn Ousley, Kansas City

Birds need us

Now is a great time to help birds. Missouri sits on the Mississippi Flyway, the route used by more than 300 species of migrating birds.

Most bird migration is at night, guided by the stars, sun and Earth’s magnetic field. City sky glow — the fog of light created by artificial light at night — draws migrating birds off course, toward dangerous urban areas where they become exhausted and confused, often hitting reflective glass windows and buildings. Hundreds of millions of birds die every year from flying into buildings, with artificial lights playing a major role.

Kansas City is one of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s Top 10 U.S. cities most dangerous for migrating birds. Artificial light at night is often used without an understanding of the impacts on the urban ecological system. This light is especially harmful to birds, beneficial nocturnal wildlife and insects, including fireflies.

Be part of the solution. Lights Out Heartland is a project to encourage businesses and the public to turn off lights at night during the peak migration periods of May and September. Commercial buildings can enroll at lightsoutheartland.org

- DeAnn Gregory, Kansas City

Let numbers rule

Isn’t it amazing how many Americans fail to agree upon commonsense perceptions of reality (hint: it’s not just black or white), or what constitutes a fact, or that there are more existential threats to our survival than each other?

Perhaps that is because we seem hard-wired to be easily and obliviously manipulated and suggestible. Critical thinking, including challenging one’s own beliefs, takes more time and effort than pulling a trigger, or following a mob, or social media anonymity, or yelling at a school board member. Disagreement doesn’t require incivility.

I suggest that diversity does not require divisiveness or mean that coexistence is a zero-sum game of just winners and losers. If you can agree that every human has a right to exist and be treated equally and fairly, and that humanity itself should survive, then most of us must believe we are in this together.

It has been my experience that you can’t argue with stupid. Stupid always doubles down on you. For our country, simple arithmetic may be our only hope. If more rational than irrational people vote, then the craziness can stop. Otherwise, our country’s democracy, unlike a dead fish, will rot from the bottom up.

- Mark L. Willens, Overland Park

Junk pays, too

The author of an April 10 letter to the editor stated that purveyors of so-called “junk mail” should pay for their own deliveries, thus allowing letter carriers to deliver only first-class mail. (19A)

Does he think the U.S. Postal Service delivers this junk mail for these purveyors for free? I’m a retired letter carrier. It’s called job security, sir.

- Diane Capps, Kansas City

Medicaid sense

As a volunteer who collected 505 signatures in support of Medicaid expansion in Missouri, I would like Republican legislators, specifically state Sen. Bill Eigel, to name the so-called “out-of-state special interest” groups they claim were behind the campaign to expand health care for the working poor in Missouri. Surely, they can identify these groups if, in fact, they actually exist.

If Republicans’ continued opposition to Medicaid expansion is so well grounded, why do they need to keep making false arguments? Before the referendum, anti-expansion ads warned of an “army” of illegal immigrants coming to Missouri to benefit from Medicaid expansion. Any legislator should know darn well that undocumented immigrants are not even eligible for Medicaid.

During past decades, it has become clear that Republicans in Jefferson City repeatedly reject help for the working poor because they harbor contempt for these people, even though many are among their constituents. As for outside interest groups influencing policy, the only ones I have seen positively identified include the Charles Koch-backed dark-money nonprofit American Legislative Exchange Council, which provides cookie-cutter bills for Republican lawmakers to move forward.

Claims that Medicaid payments are unaffordable, even with the federal government covering the lion’s share, keep shifting. Expansion is not only affordable — it’s the right thing to do.

- Jonathan Rand, Kansas City

Try the JROTC

A recent story in The Star noted that Kansas lawmakers are considering National Rifle Association training in public schools. (March 20, 4A, “KS lawmakers consider NRA gun training in public schools”) Advocates have urged a Kansas Senate committee to pursue legislation requiring the NRA “Eddie Eagle” and “Hunter Education” programs be the only options for schools seeking to provide firearms safety training to students.

This seems very self-serving for the NRA. Lobbyists must be pressing hard for this. But I wonder why, if children need training on firearms, the Marine Corps’ junior ROTC is not being touted. The JROTC not only prepares children to handle guns safely, but also provides possible career paths.

By my limited research, JROTC programs appear to be available in most if not all states. Locally, Kansas City’s Ruskin High School is one. Has Kansas explored this option or discussed the benefits and results of expanding it beyond the two Kansas schools that already have the program?

- Judith Maude, Lee’s Summit