Missouri politics, self-respect, cellphone threats

I am embarrassed for the state lawmakers who voted last week for a lifetime ban to prevent Tim Dollar from serving on the Missouri Conservation Commission.

Gov. Jay Nixon made an excellent choice in nominating a Blue Springs man who loves Missouri and the great outdoors. Those who disagree with the governor are free to say so and even to vote no. But it abuses the public trust for legislators to use their franchise for petty personal attacks against a good man.

And what offense had Dollar committed to deserve a lifetime ban? He is a trial lawyer.

A few years ago, he prosecuted the murderer of little Precious Doe in Jackson County. He has fought successfully for countless victims of injury. He would have fought to conserve one of God’s gifts to Missouri, her natural beauty.

As a Republican, I am grateful for leaders like Will Kraus, who sponsored Tim in the Senate. As a lawyer, I am proud to know Tim Dollar as a colleague and friend. I am sorry he was so mistreated, but he’ll do fine.

This was Missouri’s loss.

Has no one in our day thought to tell young girls that their beauty and the portions in it should be saved and revealed only in marriage? Has no one thought to tell young men they must respect all young women and never ask anyone out whom they do not respect?

Has anyone thought to tell adult women that modesty is the most precious and most beautiful thing in existence? Has no one thought to tell all men that braggadocio and loudness makes no male a man, that a true man is composed of gentleness, kindness, strength and a hand that never causes fraught or harm?

Has no one in our day thought of any of these things, things that could make us all a true and magnificent human race? Remember your words, and remember you must at times buckle them up and throw them in the garbage bin.

What can people do when they constantly get threatening text messages on their cellphones? They can call the police.

But the police will say they can’t do anything unless the person sending the threats harms the recipient. The person can threaten to shoot up your car and go after your son.

He will not leave you alone. He lives in Missouri, and you live in Kansas.

Isn’t it a crime to keep threatening someone and stalking the person? I thought the police were supposed to protect people.

There ought to be a law against using a cellphone to threaten someone’s life.

As a lifelong lover and owner of fox terriers, I know they are indeed top dogs as was Sky at the Westminster Kennel Club (2-12, A2, “Terrier is judged top dog”).

Perhaps the greatest of all wire fox terriers was King Edward VII’s Caesar, a dedicated and destructive chewer that no one could reprimand. When Edward died in 1910, Caesar walked ahead of Europe’s royalty in his master’s funeral procession.

In watching the interviews with Michael Sam, I realized three things:

Sam is obviously a well-loved and well-spoken young man. He also is well respected by his teammates and coaches. Finally, he is a very talented football player.

Isn’t it sad that in all of our self-serving, self-aggrandizing posturing, we feel the need to make front-page headlines and news broadcast-opening stories about the fact he is gay?

When did we stop evolving to the point we could not simply love? Love Michael Sam and his accomplishments, love one another and the bigger, global issues?

This should not be front-page news. This is a situation for Mr. Sam and his family and friends, and obviously they considered it a non-issue enough to simply support him.

Shouldn’t we all follow their lead?

Jackie Robinson’s number 42 is enshrined in baseball history. Let us hope that Michael Sam’s number 52 will be remembered in a similar way.

I find it hard to understand how Gov. Sam Brownback can justify cutting Medicaid to more than 77,920 Kansans. The figure comes from the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation.

Yes, I say cut because Brownback’s political mentors, the Koch Brothers, know that Washington has authorized the money. So, in effect, the Koch brothers have the ability to withhold medical services to 77,920 Kansans through their control over Kansas Republicans like Brownback.

Democrat Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau recently made public this fact.

Does Brownback always do what he is told? Surely all Kansas Republicans do not want to be associated with this withholding of medical care. What type of American supports this wholesale potential for loss of life?

Gov. Brownback, what a pitiful legacy you will leave if you don’t stand up for all Kansans, not just those who write you checks.

Do conservatives like the powerful Koch brothers realize that their mania to punish the poor will result in deaths and/or more expensive treatment costs in emergency rooms in Kansas?

I’m disappointed in The Kansas City Star for selecting the leader of a large lobbying organization (the Missouri Farm Bureau) to serve as a Midwest Voices writer.

The Feb. 8 column by Blake Hurst, “Farming deserves more respect,” is an example of free coverage to promote his organization’s agenda against “the growing consensus that the way we farm is nothing less than a crime against nature, nutrition and all that is good and true.”

Essentially, the author takes opposition to those who have scientific data that various methods used by his constituents may not actually be “good and true” as he portrays. The Star has not provided the same opportunity to other interests that may oppose the Missouri Farm Bureau’s agenda, namely the environmental community that Hurst’s organization opposes.

What Mr. Hurst also does not disclose is the massive amount of taxpayer dollars subsidizing the agricultural community. Taxpayers can do their own research on these subsidies by going to farm.ewg.org/search.

The recently revealed mass telecommunication surveillance done by the National Security Agency is the inevitable result of the national security state posture of the United States for more than 50 years. Perfect security is not only impossible, but attempts to achieve it can only result in the end of democracy.

Democracy can flourish only in the absence of government secrecy and where the people are secure in their privacy and personal affairs.

Three or four times to the Y I go.

Every week, even through the snow.

Treadmill walking and iron pumping,

Bending, stretching, I sure am something.

An 80-year-old man fighting the aches,

Also, fighting ice cream and all of the cakes.

At my college weight I chug along.

Wishing my body was as young as a song.

Do I put off the end? To faded youth do I cling?

With slim belly at least, that makes me to sing!

The achievements of R. Crosby Kemper II and his family extend far beyond Kansas City.

In the 1990s, an industrial development was proposed across from the entrance of Monticello, Thomas Jefferson’s home in Virginia. Crosby spearheaded the purchase of this property, 89 acres of scenic terrain.

Our country owes him a debt of gratitude for preserving and protecting the beauty of this historic site.

This story was originally published February 14, 2014 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Missouri politics, self-respect, cellphone threats."