Readers share thoughts on guns, Kemper Arena and Gov. Sam Brownback
Guns and teachers
“Teacher accidentally shoots self in school.” Is this a headline that will be appearing in newspapers in Missouri?
It could be, and the tragedy could be much worse. Such an incident is more likely now that designated teachers can bring guns to school.
This happened recently at Westbrook Elementary School in Taylorsville, Utah. A teacher accidentally shot herself in the leg in the bathroom.
Thankfully, no children were hurt, but the teacher was taken to a hospital. By the way, the teacher has a concealed-weapons permit.
Missouri’s Republican-led legislature used its infinite wisdom to pass and then override Gov. Jay Nixon’s veto of a bill that allows “specially trained school employees” — including classroom teachers — to carry concealed guns in their schools. This was done despite many warnings from teachers and school administrators throughout Missouri, as well as educational professional groups.
I hope the Missouri legislators who supported this bill and the veto override will assume some responsibility if tragic accidents such as the one in Utah happen in Missouri schools.
Robert Reys
Columbia, Mo.
Stadium dreaming
Members of the West Bottoms, American Royal and Kemper planning committee should vote to raze the whole general area and build the much-coveted downtown baseball stadium in that location.
Boosters will never be satisfied with anything less than a brand new, modern, easily accessible, downtown stadium, and this would be ideal for a Royals stadium.
A downtown location was proposed in 1948 when plans for development of the blighted Signboard Hill area included a Municipal Stadium, directly opposite Union Station. Mr. Donald Hall, however, developed the site as Crown Center, and the stadium plans were set aside.
The Truman Sports Complex never developed as the profit center promoters said it would, and it is a drain on Jackson County taxpayers. The Kansas City Chiefs should take over the entire Truman Sports Complex and build the football training center they would like to have, hopefully at their own expense.
Kenneth Lee
Raytown
Re-elect Brownback
Fellow Kansans, after doing much research on the gubernatorial race, I have concluded that for the good of Kansas we need to keep Gov. Sam Brownback.
Gov. Brownback is doing a really great job of digging us out of the huge hole left by former Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
We simply cannot afford to go backward with a regressive-minded, immoral candidate such as Democrat Paul Davis. We need more people working and paying taxes.
Brownback is putting more people to work in private-sector jobs, not government jobs. We need more people producing, generating income rather than doing nothing and relying on the rest of us workers/taxpayers.
Income is up. Income taxes are down. Kansas’ new small-business starts are up.
Employment is up and will continue to increase. More Kansans are working today than any other time in history.
Private-sector unemployment is among the lowest is the region. With more people working, we have a larger tax base and therefore greater revenue production to fund Kansas.
If we want true successful growth, more private-sector jobs, more income, more take-home pay, lower taxes, better education, a greater business climate for Kansas, then we must vote for Brownback for governor.
Morgan Sharp
Newton, Kan.
Capital punishment
Concerning police use of deadly force in Ferguson, Mo., young and dumb should not be a capital offense.
Elwin McKenzie Jr.
Peculiar
Failures of violence
Our dedication to violence as a means to ensure peace has failed miserably.
We armed Syrian rebels to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad and got the Islamic State.
We aided “freedom fighters” to free Afghanistan and got Taliban and al-Qaida.
We bombed Libya, and the intervention brought chaos.
We trained soldiers at what was then called the School of the Americas and sent the officers back to regimes of terror that leave us with fleeing women and children struggling to cross our borders.
Obviously, exporting violence is not bringing peace.
There is one place where aggression would be useful. That is in the ongoing Ebola crisis, where failing to contain the outbreak is an international health threat.
Aggressive science and public health have provided solutions, while violent political solutions have overwhelmingly failed.
It is time to shift our financial priorities from military aggression to scientific aggression to provide social support and use diplomatic means with people and a no-holds-barred strategy with public health.
You can talk with people. You can’t talk with a virus.
Amrita Burdick
Kansas City
No on Amendment 3
One of the latest ideas put forth by our state representatives is that teacher pay and raises should be based on the performance of that teacher’s class, regardless of whether the students have mental problems, speak English, have parents who care or are economically disadvantaged.
I don’t know of any other profession in which a person’s pay scale would be based on the performance of other people instead of one’s self.
There are so many student-related factors that a teacher has no control of, including sleep, nourishment, study habits, valuing education in the first place, illegal drug use and involvement in crime or gang activities.
One would never lower a doctor’s pay because one of his patients died or reduce the pay of police officers every time the crime rate goes up in the city.
Basing the raises or lack thereof on other people’s performance or behavior makes about as much sense as lowering a firefighter’s pay every time an arson is committed in the city.
Those who can, teach. Those who can’t are happy to make laws about teaching.
Lynn Pierce
Independence
Steve Rose column
As an independent voter and political moderate, I find Steve Rose’s support of Sen. Pat Roberts’ re-election indefensible (10-5, Commentary, “Given Orman’s uncertainty, I’m for Roberts”).
This country’s middle class was destroyed between 2000 and 2006 when Republicans controlled everything in Washington, D.C. Their wanton deregulation, casino capitalism, gross lack of support for domestic manufacturing and massive tax cuts for the rich produced the recession in 2007 and the crash in 2008, and they want to pretend it never happened.
Roberts was right in the middle of all of it, and the GOP to this day is still selling the miserable failure that is trickle-down, supply-side economic policy — see Gov. Sam Brownback’s tax cuts.
Now comes a sensible centrist independent like Greg Orman, who actually wants to fix things that matter to the average American, and Mr. Rose says GOP Senate control is more important.
No it is not.
Orman being elected would show that Kansans are more sophisticated than the Republicans and their media water carriers give them credit for and could start a national trend of electing non-ideologue problem solvers.
Jeff Gerner
Gladstone
Nightmare parking
On a recent visit to the Kansas City area, I decided to go shopping at Legends Outlets in Kansas City, Kan. As I drove west on State Avenue, it was apparent by the traffic that an event was taking place.
I soon realized most motorists were headed to a Sporting Kansas City soccer game. I finally made it to the shopping mall, only to drive endlessly in order to find a parking spot.
I observed countless fans parking and heading to the stadium.
I am not sure who decided to put that monstrous building in that location without ample parking, but it was poor planning.
Needless to say, I left. Maybe in the future, Legends management can designate an area for the fans and reserve ample parking for their customers.
What a nightmare.
Kathy Hatchett
Omaha, Neb.
This story was originally published October 11, 2014 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on guns, Kemper Arena and Gov. Sam Brownback."