Nothing Christian about abusing kids: Beware Missouri schools hiding behind religion | Opinion
Religious shield
It is so discouraging, and so dangerous, that so many people have stopped reading newspapers. In a state where you can get away with almost anything by wrapping yourself in the flag or the Bible, where would those poor kids in these “Christian” schools have been without the outstanding reporting by Judy L. Thomas and Laura Bauer? (Jan. 13, 1A, “Former students, others react to Agape school closing”)
The old lessons tend to be the best ones, as they have stood the test of time. “Patriotism” is the last refuge of a scoundrel. And when people come toward you proclaiming how much they love the Lord: Hang on to your wallet.
- Randall Cain, Lake Winnebago
Behind the cry
I want to thank The Kansas City Star for its excellent editorial about so-called “critical race theory” in public schools. (Jan. 19, 8A, “Missouri students deserve the real patriotic truth”)
I am in a somewhat rare position, as I not only studied actual critical race theory in law school, but I also had the opportunity to meet and converse with one of its founders, Derrick Bell Jr. It was one of the most enlightening courses I took.
It’s important for people to realize that the anti-”CRT” hysteria is more than a grift by right-wing politicians and organizations seeking votes and funding by blatantly appealing to white supremacy. It has two primary strategies. The first is to make sure the concept is so nebulously defined that any and all discussions about race, no matter how educational or innocuous, can be censored by hollering “critical race theory!” The second is to understand that the true goal of some of the politicians and organizations attacking the supposed doctrine is to sow distrust in public education, so they can then profit through the operation of private charter schools.
- David R. Hoffman, South Bend, Indiana
Silver screen
Where is our modern-day Stanley Kramer, the director who took a real-life story about the inanity of outlawing the teaching of evolution, featuring real characters such as Clarence Darrow, H.L. Mencken and William Jennings Bryan, and turned it into an award-winning film?
I have a cast list. I would cast Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker as Darrow. The Wichita Eagle’s Dion Lefler has stepped up very nicely in the Mencken role, and the list of candidates for the Bryan character is enormous — but Sen. Josh Hawley is easily my first choice. I can come up with many others right here in Kansas and Missouri, should he not be available.
What I need now is a script for a remake of “Inherit the Wind,” but instead of a movie about outlawing the teaching of evolution, “critical race theory” will be the offending target.
- Bob Cocetti, Raymore
Check ’em out
When you check out a book at many public libraries, what happens? A software system registers you as the recipient and provides a deadline for the book’s return. There are even electronic monitors to ensure no one walks out of the library with a book that hasn’t been checked out. Pretty simple and effective, right?
Now, let’s look at what’s been dominating the airwaves the last few months: Classified documents have been taken to unsecured locations, and, years later, someone notices they are missing. So, using the simple library analogy, why isn’t there a system of recording who checked out the documents and where, with a tracking device attached to determine their location?
We have federal department upon federal department creating classified documents in a system that is way too paper-based. Yes, this would cost many billions of dollars to fix. But we’re spending billions now to save one country from being taken over by a foreign tyrant.
Top-secret classified documents falling into the wrong hands could put many countries at risk, including our own. Fixing this must become a priority.
- Kris Kramer, Kansas City
Credit hostage
I highly question the tactic of holding the debt ceiling hostage to extract spending concessions, especially cuts to Social Security and Medicare. History shows the congressional debt ceiling “hostage takers” almost always pay a price at the polls for their recklessness.
I consider this move equivalent to me telling my creditors that I will no longer pay any of my debts until my family promises to stop spending so much. I’m sure my creditors would be OK with this: If it’s good enough for members of Congress, it should be good enough for their constituents.
- Mike Cunningham, Kansas City
Better choices
A Jan. 11 letter to the editor (12A) rightly called out the need to eradicate the influence of gerrymandering and dark money on our electoral processes. But the author overlooked a key corollary to Murphy’s Law in assessing the impact of instituting ranked choice voting: “Before you do anything, you have to do something else first.”
If we want to rid ourselves of gerrymandering and the influence of dark money, then we first have to put ranked choice voting in place. It would heighten the probability of electing people who would do that ridding. Keeping the ballot we use now means that gerrymandering and dark money power will continue.
We must join the efforts already completed in three states and many local governments — and under way in many more locales — to make ranked choice voting the modern way elections are done.
- Victoria Godfrey-Zeller, Kansas City