Hawley’s disappearing act: His refusal to debate, email cover-up, and Jan. 6 silence | Opinion
Missing in action
Sen. Josh Hawley is a master at disappearing, starting in 2016-18 with the disappeared emails from his time as attorney general of Missouri, (Nov. 15, 2022, KansasCity.com, “Missouri Attorney General’s Office under Josh Hawley illegally withheld emails, judge rules”), continuing with his disappearance at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, after helping incite the mob to insurrection, and continuing today with his refusal to debate Senate opponent Lucas Kunce on TV.
Where are you, Senator?
- Gordon Risk, Kansas City
WWI memories
“A Soldier’s Journey” is the spirit and story of a 38-figure sculpture at the National World War I Memorial in Pershing Park in Washington, D.C. It will be unveiled Sept. 13, the 164th birthday of Missouri native Gen. John J. Pershing.
Designed and created by classical sculptor Sabin Howard, the 56-foot-long bronze sculpture shows a soldier leaving his daughter and wife, then fighting along with fellow soldiers in combat.
Roots of the remembrance have traces to Missouri beyond Pershing, who was born in Laclede, about 110 miles northeast of Kansas City, and led the American Expeditionary Forces in Europe from 1917 to 1920. More than 156,000 Missourians served in all branches of the armed forces. More than 10,000 were wounded or killed in action.
The last living American veteran of World War I was Frank Buckles, who was born in Bethany, Missouri, and served in the war as an ambulance driver. He died in 2011 at 110.
When people visit the national memorial in Pershing Park, they will see and feel “A Soldier’s Journey” of men of all backgrounds, the daughters and sons, the mothers and nurses, who in their country’s desperate time, were there when they were needed and did what had to be done.
- Mark Swearengen, Chesterfield, Virginia
Value added
Whether it’s the Academy Awards for best picture, Major League Baseball’s MVP award or the Gold Glove for defense, we need a better way to recognize a truly exceptional competitor who finishes as the runner-up.
MVP or not, some individual seasons are far too exceptional to be forgotten. George Brett won the 1980 American League MVP, batting .390. Few remember that the Yankees’ Reggie Jackson finished second with a monster offensive season, or that Brett’s Royals teammate Willie Wilson finished fourth after leading all of baseball in a few offensive categories.
Here we go again with Aaron Judge and Bobby Witt Jr. in 2024. There can only be one. I wish there were some way to recognize these unique duos.
- Adam Silbert, New York City
Not justice
I read with disappointment but not surprise that Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach wants to put the machinery of death in hyperdrive by speeding up judicial review of death-penalty cases in the state. (Aug. 30, 7A, “Kansas attorney general: Death penalty takes too long”) Kobach brushes aside objections that the death penalty allows for innocent people to be executed and has no deterrent effect on murders. His primary concern is to ensure victims’ families get justice.
I do not mean to devalue the grief, loss and anger felt by families of murder victims. But Kobach appears to believe that only the killing of another human being can bring closure to survivors. Would the families of murder victims be so ill served if those qualifying for the death penalty received life sentences without the possibility of parole? Would the moral balance of the universe be upset if the state got out of the state-sanctioned execution business?
Kobach’s view that the only problem with Kansas’ death penalty is its slowness to put prisoners on the gurney is one that Kansans concerned with the criminal justice system should reject as representing a rush to vengeance.
- Karl Menninger II, Mission
Women’s care
Does Missouri’s abortion ban affect women who have miscarriages? Yes. As a registered nurse, I know that if a woman is pregnant with a baby she wants but suffers a miscarriage, fetal tissue can remain in her womb. If a doctor doesn’t remove this remaining tissue, it can become infected, endangering the woman’s health.
Since the abortion ban in 2022, doctors in Missouri are afraid to provide treatment for miscarriages because it is the same procedure as an abortion. They risk being charged with a class B felony — with a penalty of five to 15 years in prison — and losing their medical license. The woman must travel out of state for treatment or wait until the infection in her womb becomes life-threatening, at which time, a Missouri doctor can do the procedure without fear of jail. By then, the risk to the woman is severe, and her ability to have babies in the future is also at risk.
Please vote yes on Amendment 3 Nov. 5, so that women can get the care we need.
- Jackie G. Schirn, Webster Groves, Missouri
Veep power
John Adams once described the job of U.S. vice president as “the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.” Yet, Donald Trump’s election committee would have us believe that VP Kamala Harris had unlimited power that enabled her to overwhelm the Republican-dominated legislative and judicial branches of government, as well as the presidency.
Republicans blame her for the invasion of and departure from Afghanistan, the Israel-Hamas war, inflation, so-called “open borders” and other sins too numerous to mention. If only she had known such power was hers, she could claim credit for the soaring stock market and IRAs, our low unemployment rate and stores bulging with inventory. Because of, in spite of or indifferent to VP Harris, she has a lot to brag about.
- Kenneth Lee, Raytown