Kansas City streets and highways are filthy. Here’s how we can clean up the litter

Filthy streets

I wholeheartedly agree with the author of a May 4 letter to the editor urging leaders to prioritize cleaning up Kansas City streets. (12A) I also want to thank the hundreds of volunteers from all around the area for their unending efforts to pick up litter on our local streets and highways.

I call upon the leadership of Kansas City, surrounding communities and the state of Missouri to step up their efforts.

MoDOT and Kansas City should at least clean Interstate 435 within a mile and a half of either side of Interstate 70. These areas are atrocious and off-limits to everyday people because of the amount of traffic and proximity of the never-ending piles of litter. Residents are not allowed to clean the medians.

Why not hold area waste management companies accountable by fines or other means for litter within a mile of the interchanges they use to exit the highways nearest their trash collection sites? These areas are also a mess.

- Bill Ellis, Kansas City

Bigger picture

As a cradle Catholic and graduate of Notre Dame, I was once “pro-life.” But I broke out of my bubble and learned that I cannot understand the desperate circumstances that can lead people to abortion. I am privileged, not virtuous, not to understand this desperation. My unearned advantages in life make it easier to follow the rules.

Those in the pro-life movement embrace the rules because their many blessings enable them to do so. You don’t need to seek abortion for unintended pregnancy if you can financially support any kid that comes along.

Some Catholics must have listened in Mass only when they talked about abortion, or maybe also for the spiritual works of mercy — “Admonish the sinner.” What about the corporal works of mercy — “Feed the hungry”?

Why do they feel called to admonish but not to address the conditions that contribute to abortion in the first place? If you work within government to ban it, you can work within government to improve education and material conditions for families.

Reducing the expression of your faith to a single issue and trying to save souls with a stick instead of a carrot are the worst flavors of cafeteria Catholicism.

- Joanna Sullivan, Overland Park

No sure bets

The back-and-forth death of legislation this session to legalize sports betting in Missouri displays just how much state politics have been corrupted by competing lobbying efforts.

Some legislators want to legalize gambling on professional and college sporting events, which would presumably occur in casinos and increase their revenues. Other legislators are trying to use this issue as a chance to legalize video lottery terminals, or VLTs, which are computerized games mimicking slot machines and other games of chance in places such as convenience stores.

Casinos don’t want to legalize VLTs because they would siphon money from casinos. Those supporting VLTs want a piece of the legal gambling action now monopolized by casinos. Both sides are engaging in “rent-seeking,” a term coined by 19th-century British economist David Ricardo. In short, each side is seeking to use legislation to maximize its own economic gain at the expense of the other.

As for me, I think widespread sports betting would prove to be a cesspool of corruption, but Missouri legislators are bogged down in a cesspool of their own as they seek to define winners and losers in this debate.

- Bruce Lindgren, Independence

Why it’s red

Democrats used to be the party of the blue-collar worker. It is now perceived to be the opposite.

Not cracking down on employers who give jobs to people who break immigration laws drives down the wages of the worker but bolsters the profits of corporations. Young workers who labor as plumbers, electricians and carpenters believe it is unfair to forgive the student loans taken out by their contemporaries who chose to go to college. Missourians prefer social order over chaos and hard work over welfare.

The issues on which Democratic leaders are so focused are seen to be irrelevant or, even worse, pretentious and silly. At the national level, the Democratic Party has simply abandoned its base. Borders should be enforced. Criminals should be punished. Debts should be paid. Law enforcement should be respected. Those who work should be valued. It really is just that simple.

- Thomas E. Hankins, Village of Oakwood, Missouri

This story was originally published May 12, 2022 at 5:00 AM.