Roger Marshall thinks today’s entertainment for kids is scary? It used to be Grimm

In Neverland

Sen. Roger Marshall seems worried that our children will be corrupted by seeing LGBTQ characters on screens. (May 6, 4A, “Marshall wants TV rating to shield kids from LGBTQ themes”) Senator, you are way too late. Children have been exposed to corruption and horrors for centuries, and most of us grow up whole and happy.

Consider the fairy tales we read as kids. “Rumpelstiltskin”: A woman sells her infant to a creepy old guy for the weed she is addicted to. Or “Sleeping Beauty” and “Snow White”: Women are poisoned by relatives or neighbors and then “saved” when a stalker kisses them while they sleep. Hansel and Gretel go for a walk in the woods, are lured into captivity with candy and barely escape being roasted and eaten.

Sorry, Sen. Marshall. We have been exposed to plenty of horrors, both real and imagined, and we haven’t all become stalkers or serial killers. If you want your happily ever after in a non-diverse world, you will need to relocate. Neverland sounds good. The boys there are already lost.

- Fran Abram, Overland Park

Her choice made?

Rep. Vicky Hartzler, as a self-described Christian and a Republican, perhaps you can help me, as a non-Christan, understand something that could result from the possible anti-abortion Supreme Court ruling you and your colleagues are hoping to see. (May 4, 7A, “What overturning Roe v. Wade would mean for KS, MO”)

As parents and grandparents, we can’t imagine the horror of our daughter or granddaughters being raped. We also cannot imagine the horror of telling them that because of a Christian-backed religious law, they will have to stay pregnant and deliver the child — a product of an unwanted assault. Additionally, under some proposals, the rapist or family members of the rapist may even have parental rights for preventing an abortion.

So how would you explain to a preteen that she will be forced to become a mother?

And please don’t promise support for the infant and parent. You Republicans have lied to us about better health care for more than 10 years. You Republicans continue to lie about the 2020 election being stolen. I could go on, but the point is why should anyone trust you or your Republican colleagues for anything but bad for our country?

Forced pregnancy? Your answer?

- Bob Riddle, Lee’s Summit

Grow smarter

Corporate growth is needed, but not in the way we see right now. The 2017 trickle-down tax cut scam is the problem: It requires corporations to do almost no write-offs and ends many tax breaks for everyday Americans.

During Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency, the corporate tax rate was 90% or so (it’s about 21% now). This was to rebuild the United States after World War II, a worldwide catastrophe. It required us to expand, build, pay employees, keep profits lower — or else corporations would have to pay more in taxes. Now corporations, during another type of worldwide catastrophe, pay little in taxes and hoard money in the form of posted profits. This is why a barrel of oil is a price we haven’t seen before, and gas is astronomical.

There is no corporate check today like those Eisenhower oversaw. There is no tax plan in place to rein in corporations. This check on corporate hoarding should be the next goal if we can keep both the House and Senate in good hands. If we can get corporate tax rates up higher, we will see higher wages and benefits, and less hoarding and price gouging.

All of these things are pro-American. This is a Republican idea that works for every American.

- Rodger M. Nugent, North Newton, Kansas

Economic woes

The press seems confused why people feel like the economy is terrible. Journalists recognize that inflation is a concern, but point to good job numbers, consumer demand and rising wages to argue the underlying economy is strong. However, I have seen nothing about the effect of declining wealth because of horrible market conditions is having on perceptions about the economy.

Baby boomers are retiring. Their savings are being devastated. Inflation is compounding the problem. Even though there is technically no recession, the current conditions are as devastating on retired people as an actual recession. And many are predicting this will also happen.

Unless the current presidential administration is seen to be business friendly, it will be blamed.

- Stephen Kunz, Overland Park