Readers react to capital punishment, Missouri lawmakers and climate change

Merciful system

Want free room and board as well as free medical and dental care? Act crazy and kill people (8-16, Editorial, “Brace yourselves for this wretched legal drama”).

Boy, are we easy on killers. No wonder there is so much killing going around.

Robert Stompoly

Lexington, Mo.

Missouri legislators

Unlimited lobbyist gifts; deciding for a woman her “thinking” time period before terminating an unwanted pregnancy; systemic unprofessional to unethical to possibly illegal behavior toward female colleagues and subordinates; not raising taxes on cigarettes for years while not being able to find money for health care, education, care for mental health and veterans; and what seemed to be the immediate action by these elected officials for the millions of Missouri citizens is a dress code for interns (8-19, A1, “Intern dress code idea is panned”).

Is anyone asking what these men have been wearing to create such mental deficiency? Might there be a suit of intelligence that could be a uniform for these good ol’ boys?

I read that one former House speaker suggested knee pads to a young woman in order to get a bill passed.

If we were to put enough chimps in suits and ties, the taxpayers might save a great deal and get pretty much the same outcome.

Unlimited bananas from lobbyists might be the only issue to deal with.

Beth Ciperson

Kansas City, Kan.

Climate change tripe

Global cooling in the 1970s, global warming in the 2000s and now climate change.

Al Gore predicted the rise of the oceans at the same time he closed on a mansion in Malibu, Calif.

Fortunately, many people have rejected the claims of the global warming experts. I mean climate change hucksters.

Kevin Peterson

Blue Springs

Hardware blues

A couple days ago, I went to a big-box hardware store in south Kansas City, and to my surprise I saw two young female employees lifting 40-pound bags of concrete mix from the second shelf onto a cart.

When I questioned them, asking where their help was, they told me there weren’t any other employees to assist them.

I told them that at least they could have lowered the pallet for easy access instead of climbing up and down the ladder. Finally, a male employee came over to help them.

After I left the area, I went to do my shopping. I needed to purchase some wire to prevent my two dogs from digging up a lilac plant my wife and I had purchased a couple weeks earlier.

As I bent down, I got hit in the face by a piece of wire, causing a short cut. I told the manager about it and also explained that some of the employees do not even know how to put stock away.

This wire was sticking out about 2 feet. I declined medical attention because it wasn’t too big of a deal.

But the big-box hardware store needs to get better organized or it will lose a valuable shopper.

Tony Lordi

Kansas City

Nuclear destruction

PeaceWorks-KC and Physicians for Social Responsibility are holding a two-month exhibit, “Hiroshima & Nagasaki: 70 Years Beyond the Bombings,” at the Miller Nichols Library at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

The world is more impoverished and more insecure from continued improvements to weapons of mass destruction since 1945.

We are addicted to the end game of mutual assured destruction while 1 billion persons are on the verge of starvation.

Albert Einstein said, “The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of thinking. … The solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind.”

Nero fiddled while Rome burned. Can we find our right mind, character, humanity and courage to save ourselves from ourselves by eliminating all nuclear weapons?

Henry M. Stoever

Board Chair

PeaceWorks-KC

Overland Park

Steve Rose column

In response to Steve Rose’s Aug. 2 commentary, “Sheriff stands his ground — and rightly so,” there were several misleading comments, and the column didn’t tell the full story.

According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Johnson County is one of only about 275 jurisdictions in the U.S. that has taken a position of not cooperating with immigration detainers. The detainer requests that a local jurisdiction retain an illegal immigrant already in custody for 48 hours so that ICE can assume custody and conduct any federal action that may be applicable.

Sheriff Frank Denning released his revised policy on detainers last summer, soon after the American Civil Liberties Union sent letters to various jurisdictions (including Johnson County) threatening lawsuits if they did not change policy on detainers to meet their agenda for non-cooperation.

The sheriff uses this potential lawsuit liability as his basis for changing policy. ICE has reported that this non-cooperation requires additional resources to apprehend criminal undocumented people who have been released.

I’m not sure Johnson Countians would call Denning’s policy “enlightened,” especially if a county resident becomes the target of a criminal illegal immigrant released because of this policy. I’d think the sheriff would be more concerned about that liability.

Reed Plate

Overland Park

Missouri overreach

Instead of focusing on real problems, our state legislature has decided to devote energy to what can only be described as ludicrous concerns. HB 722 would prevent municipalities in Missouri from passing ordinances banning plastic bags in grocery stores.

The irony is palpable. How dare local communities make decisions for themselves. Thank God enlightened politicians in Jefferson City are willing to stop the attack on plastic bags.

Do our state representatives really think Missourians are so inept that we can’t manage our own neighborhoods, our own cities? It is ironic that the Missouri legislature has been deeply concerned about federal overreach while mirroring this overreach in state government intrusion on local communities.

This hypocrisy must not continue.

Thankfully, Gov. Jay Nixon vetoed HB 722. We should all demand our state representatives do not vote to override it.

This bill should stay dead. Anyone concerned with individual liberty knows that.

Jan Brill

Grain Valley

Royals fans

Team senior vice president Kevin Uhlich said the Royals care about 20-game season ticket holders, but attitudes say more (8-19, B5, “Playoff plan ticks off some Royals fans”).

No longer do 20-game package buyers even get actual tickets. They are told to print their own copies on home printers. When told some people’s printers don’t work and/or people prefer the actual tickets (good souvenirs), their response was, “We’ll print tickets for you, but it’ll cost you a hundred bucks more.”

That is a callous, uncaring, rude attitude, especially when fans with more games in their packages do get real tickets. And please don’t say it takes too much time for the Royals staff to do it. One hundred dollars’ worth of time?

A reminder to Kevin: Times are great now, but you’ll need fans again someday. Treat them right when you have them. Just ask the Kansas City Chiefs about a few years ago.

John Nickels

Lenexa

Story underplayed

The Star does recognize the significance of the new anonymous gift to the Kansas City Art Institute, announced Aug. 18. News coverage included the Aug. 19 editorial, “A $25 million game changer for the KC Art Institute.”

I wonder why you also did not begin this report as a major article on A1 rather than as a small note to look at A4. It is a major gift for any school and affects Kansas City in a most positive way.

Your readers’ advocate writes that one emphasis of The Star is to focus on local events. This is more significant than the female Ranger School graduates who have been covered (8-19, A1, “Military inching closer to allowing women access to more combat roles”).

Irene Bettinger