Legal help for people being evicted is great — but it won’t fix what got them there

Left behind

Lawyers can provide temporary relief for some who are being evicted from their homes, but many of these people are confronted with economic problems that will not go away. They are in a situation where they will never make enough money to get ahead. Our credit philosophy encourages people to purchase way above the level they should.

Many financial decisions are premised on the person seeking credit having expectations of future earnings. Those being evicted often do not have jobs that offer much possible future advancement. Therefore, their incomes are likely to remain flat. The situation they find themselves in today was merely animated by the pandemic, not created by it.

Providing these people with legal assistance is appropriate. However, it will not resolve the problem, which is systemic to our economic reality. We must help those who are in distress, and that help must be far-reaching. Functioning in this economy is becoming more complex every day. We need a safety net for those who cannot keep up — and that number is increasing rapidly.

- Michael H. Jones, Leavenworth

Action, not party

Do you want women to have the reproductive rights they deserve? Do you want real gun control, including a ban on assault weapons? Do you want climate change addressed vigorously? If any of these is important to you, please vote for candidates who support addressing them with positive action.

Party is not nearly as important as getting action taken on these vital issues. They are critical for our future and our children’s and grandchildren’s future.

- Frances Wenner, Leawood

All for Schmitt

Eric Schmitt supports freedom and liberty. He successfully pushed back against COVID-19 tyrants. He has fought to force the government to do its job on border security. And he is now fighting back against President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan that forces taxpayers to cover the costs of others’ college degrees.

Trudy Busch Valentine supports the Biden agenda that is giving us higher food, energy and housing prices.

The message is clear in this race. Missourians living paycheck to paycheck cannot afford Trudy Busch Valentine. We must send Eric Schmitt to the U.S. Senate.

- Carolyn Caton, Blue Springs

Political insight

Over the past few weeks, we’ve all found the flyers in our mailboxes — slander against incumbents, screeching against liberals, statistics taken out of context, baseless rhetoric against the wind. Millions of dollars have been spent on these smear campaigns, not a penny of which has put food into a single starving child’s mouth.

Is this the best the conservatives can do? They can’t promote themselves with any meaningful platform, so it’s back to mud-slinging against the opposition, taking advantage of the fears and disappointments of people in economic turmoil. So our lives are interrupted by their juvenile temper tantrums in our mailboxes.

Ironically, we can thank them for this: Thousands across the state who aren’t sure how to vote now know better. Any party or candidate who thinks people are ignorant or spineless enough to buy into what is, essentially, high school peer pressure bullying isn’t worth the time of day. So we drop their flyers into our recycling bins (at least the people in that industry have jobs, right?), and we move on.

Thank you, conservatives, for wasting money, resources, time — and insulting us into voting against you. You’ve done the state a great favor.

- James Vaughn, Shawnee

Adams’ aggression

I completely agree with The Star’s editorial about the Las Vegas Raiders’ Davante Adams shoving a member of the on-field photography crew after his team’s Oct. 10 loss to the Chiefs. (Oct. 13, 8A, “NFL must act on Davante Adams’ assault”) Adams should not have hurt that cameraman. Even if he pushed him unintentionally — which was probably not the case — he still should not have gotten that aggressive.

He could have seriously injured the cameraman with all the padding Adams had on combined with all the gear the photographer was carrying. It was unnecessary of Adams. Luckily, the crew member was not severely injured.

Thanks for writing the editorial and telling about what really happened.

- Shishir Parnaik, Overland Park