Roger Marshall says Kansans aren’t talking about Jan. 6. Here’s how to tell him you are

Share your care

I see The Kansas City Star quoted Sen. Roger Marshall saying about Jan. 6, 2021: “No one back home is talking about this event.” (June 10, 1A, “Jan. 6 hearings already being downplayed in Kan., Mo.”)

Senator, I just want you to know that my family, friends and I are very focused on Jan. 6 and the attempted overthrow of our democratically defined government and your participation in the attempted coup. And we’re talking about it with our fellow Kansans.

I was stunned on Jan. 6 to see my just-elected senator participating in the effort to overturn the presidential election based on nothing but lies and skullduggery. He brought shame to this state.

I encourage my fellow constituents of Sen. Marshall to let him know we’re talking about it: 913-879-7070, 202-224-4774 or marshall.senate.gov/contact

- Judi A. Sharp, Overland Park

We’re watching

Jan. 6, 2021, was a frightening and deeply unsettling day. Our family watched the hearings, and I was crying after Monday’s installment.

With three members of law enforcement in my family, the violence toward our U.S. Capitol Police officers was horrifying. The images of Americans beating American law enforcement officials on the grounds of our U.S. Capitol, a noose to lynch our vice president, the threats against our elected representatives and senators — Rep. Sharice Davids and Sens. Jerry Moran and Roger Marshall included — and the hateful, angry faces of the rioters: All of this should take everyone’s breath away.

And the trigger? False, manufactured claims of a stolen election.

Jan. 6 was a coup d’etat, an attempt to overthrow our government. Preserving our democracy is not a partisan issue, and many Kansans care. I urge my elected officials not to disregard our level of concern.

- Kay Heley, Overland Park

Then, now

In 1990, Sen. J. Bennett Johnston, a Louisiana Democrat, was in a tough race as he ran for reelection. His opponent was a far-right Republican, Klu Klux Klan leader David Duke.

Eight of Johnston’s Republican colleges in the U.S. Senate, including Jack Danforth of Missouri and Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas, took the unusual step of publicly supporting the Democrat. Duke was too far out for them. Too far out for them to be silent. Their honesty, their integrity, the America they stood for were on the line, and they stood tall for all of us.

That was then. Not now. Now, no one is too far out. Nothing is too bizarre.

Now we have Sen. Josh Hawley from Missouri, in the seat once held by Danforth and earlier by Harry Truman. We have Sen. Roger Marshall where Kansas once had Kassebaum. And here in Texas, we have Sen. Ted Cruz.

Rep. David Price, a North Carolina Democract retiring after 30 years in Congress, was interviewed recently in The New York Times. “I want to see a healthy, right-of-center Republican Party,” he said. But for now, “We just have to beat them.”

- John Keohane, Austin, Texas

Inconsistency

St. Louis-area U.S. Rep. Cori Bush has spent more than $300,000 of taxpayer money the past few years on a private security detail but had the audacity to vote against providing security for Supreme Court justices and their families, even after the recent assignation threat to Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She has seemingly lost all sense of right and wrong and replaced it with hatred and arrogance. Missouri deserves better.

- Frank Green, Kansas City

Lighten up

At a time when big, hot cities such as Phoenix are starting to think of ways to lessen the dangerous heat dome that builds up in summer, Kansas City is laying down miles and miles of beautiful blacktop roads. Of course, our streets need fixing, but on a 100-degree day, blacktop can reach 160 degrees. That’s because black absorbs much more of the sun’s energy and emits much more heat than lighter colors. There are alternatives to blacktop.

We all know the impact of prolonged summer heat on health and industry, that it is deadly, that it’s getting worse and that there are ways of mitigating it. Our city leaders need to sign up in the fight against global warming, and start with some fresh thinking here at home.

- John Peterson, Kansas City

This story was originally published June 16, 2022 at 5:00 AM.