See how nice the new KCI terminal is? Wait till we get a new downtown Royals ballpark | Opinion

Wait and see

Recently, I was in Baltimore and attended a baseball game at Camden Yards. It was vibrant, the surrounding businesses were thriving, and it is obvious the ballpark has bolstered the area economically. And it was fun.

I love the Royals, whether they are competitive or not. I love the inside of The K, but it’s isolated and there is nothing to do, see or eat in the area, and there’s nowhere to hang out.

The traffic departing the downtown Baltimore stadium moves as well as getting in and out of Truman Sports Complex. I took a Bird scooter to where I was staying instead of a 20-plus-minute car ride.

The public complaints about a proposed new downtown ballpark and entertainment village remind me of the fussing about upgrading Kansas City International Airport. Now that the new terminal is complete, we can see why it was needed. I believe the same would be true for a new downtown baseball development.

Go Royals!

- John Murphy, Loch Lloyd

Hoofing it at KCI

I’ll be 83 next week and, with God’s grace, am in decent condition. I traveled out of Kansas City International Airport to Sweden (for my granddaughter’s wedding) on June 19 and returned June 26. The walk on departure after being dropped at the terminal door was longer than any I experienced at the 1972 KCI terminal complex when I walked from my car in garage or circle parking. It was longer than walks in much larger terminals — Chicago’s Midway, for example.

I can’t say how long it was, but I can absolutely document the distance on the return trip. I went from Stockholm Arlanda Airport through O’Hare International to Kansas City. When the driver picked me up, my pedometer had registered 6 miles, give or take. Granted, KCI contributed just about a half-mile, and Arlanda had a concourse under renovation, which added a lot of steps there.

It would have been refreshing to come home to Kansas City to a walk from plane to baggage claim to curb in less than a football field.

- Jim Washington, Basehor

Not just De Soto

The Star’s recent editorial “Roger Marshall gets it wrong on climate twice,” (June 26, 7A) which was reprinted in the June 29 Bangor (Maine) Daily News, states that workers at the Panasonic battery plant in Kansas’ De Soto would benefit from California’s strict clean-air standards standards that are under attack from Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall.

But it’s not only Panasonic workers who would benefit from California’s standards. We would all benefit, everyone, everywhere, including Sen. Marshall. Those benefits would include less severe weather and more predictable rainfall, and less pollution-related illness, especially for children, who are experiencing alarming rates of asthma.

- Lawrence Reichard, Belfast, Maine

Can you choose?

Is being gay a choice? I have read many opinion pieces from people stating they are proud to say they choose no to gay and condemn those who chose differently. Here they reveal more about themselves than they realize.

Is being gay born or is it learned? Here is my answer: Gay is an impossibility for me. As a heterosexual man, the concept of being sexually intimate with another man is inconceivable. Just ask me to choose to be a frog.

Because you are loudly proud of your “correct” choice tells me you considered making the opposite choice.

You cannot teach someone to be gay, just as you cannot teach someone to be straight. It’s how we were born. Where choice comes into the discussion is how I respond. I choose not to judge.

I have a thousand moral objections to the current culture. The pervasiveness of crude sexuality is shocking. It must be combated. Our children must be taught what is right and wrong. It is our community obligation.

However, hatred of LGBTQ people is immoral. They are us. It wasn’t their choice.

- Bruce A. Ramsey, Lenexa