Michael Sam, Kansas embarrassment, ‘Monuments Men’

After reading The Star’s Feb. 10 column, “Poised to be the first openly gay NFL player,” on Michael Sam’s coming out, I was happy to see another athlete taking a great risk in allowing the public to know about his complete self.

Our country still has a long way to go in overcoming homophobia. When Americans realize being gay is not a choice, this fear will decrease.

We must ask ourselves, Who would choose to be taunted, ridiculed and even sometimes killed because of their sexuality? We have preteens who are realizing they are sexually different from their peers but have no one to talk with — not their parents, friends, teachers or ministers.

When athletes like Michael Sam publicly reveal their sexuality, it gives our young citizens hope and someone to relate to. This is vital to their survival.

I wish Michael Sam the best in his professional career, and even though I’m not a football fan I’ll sure be watching Mike and the lucky team he plays for.

I said to my wife, Diane, the other night, “The Scarecrow, even though he didn’t have a brain, would never have done to Oz what the Kansas House tried to do to Kansas.” Brainless and mean-spirited legislation, that being House Bill 2453, had us talking about Jim Crow-era memories.

Reading my thoughts, my pre-kindergarten teacher (former kindergarten teacher) wife came back with, “At least the Tin Man really did have a heart, unlike Gov. Sam Brownback.”

Later it hit me, and I said, “Brownback thinks he’s the Wizard, but he better fits the Wicked Witch of the West.”

If only Kansans of all political stripes, like the Cowardly Lion, could find their way and the courage to stand up and say no and out with you to this out-of-line and out-of-control ideological bunch in Topeka.

The Kansas City Star’s review of the film “The Monuments Men” was not fair (2-7, D1, “So much potential in this monumental struggle, but Clooney Co. aren’t up for it”). The film tells an important story of the men and women of the U.S. military who helped recover art that was stolen by the Nazis from Jewish families, churches and museums across Europe.

There were hundreds of men and women involved in this recovery program. These heroes were put in dangerous situations at the end of World War II trying to find and return valuable paintings and sculptures to their proper owners and help preserve the culture of Europe.

I am sure the film took liberties, but the recovery program is part of the history of World War II that many people don’t know about. Some of the monuments men have worked at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.

This is in response to Aimee Patton’s Feb. 15 column, “Do I dare become a Republican?” I surely don’t want to tell anyone what to do, but I will try to persuade you to stay a Democrat.

I think that choosing a political party is much like choosing where you worship. You should go to the place where you feel at home and your soul receives the most nourishment.

An argument I have in favor of staying a Democrat is that the current trend is that it is very tough for moderate Republicans winning primary races in most locations in Kansas. That is why so many Republicans, if not bolting the party, are joining to help elect Paul Davis, who is running for governor.

One more argument for staying a Democrat: It is hard to be an activist in a party that you do not feel at home in. It is somewhat like marrying for strategic purposes, instead of marrying for love.

The JE Dunn company’s jumping into the fray along with Hobby Lobby and others regarding the health insurance they offer their employees is another example of why health insurance needs to be separated from employment (2-16, A1, “JE Dunn joins cultural debate”).

The Affordable Care Act did not go far enough. There needs to be a vast insurance marketplace regulated by the federal government in which everyone buying health insurance can shop for her particular needs, get the pricing that is available currently only in group plans and have the protections of those group plans.

This should be welcomed by all employers who wrestle with these issues and guarantee the freedoms of those who do not agree with their religious views.

So let me get this straight, JE Dunn believes in following church teaching when it fits its needs such as when the company wants to keep its employees from being covered for the morning-after pill . But, when it’s not convenient to follow the church, such as when Dunn was the general contractor for the new nuclear weapons parts plant, then it doesn’t have any problem ignoring those teachings.

You know, the ones that support nuclear disarmament and oppose nuclear weapons.

How do you spell hypocrisy? JE Dunn.

Our country currently does not address the problems of people who are mentally ill. Lost, they populate our prisons, live under our bridges, obtain guns and shoot themselves and others.

They self-medicate with drugs, etc. Families are devastated.

Should we not take this issue as a cause?

We get so many requests for donations, and we try to do our part. Where do we give our money, time and energy in support of the mentally ill?

Uh oh. Former Republican Sen. Kit Bond has become a lobbyist for Medicaid expansion. Is he now a liberal?

No. He just sees reality. He is being paid by the Missouri Chamber of Commerce.

What happened to its members? They are able to see reality.

They see the creation of 24,000 jobs in Missouri and the potential closing of two dozen rural hospitals because of a federal transfer of $700 million from its support for Medicaid expansion. They see lives being saved.

These may be part of Obamacare, but they are important to the future of Missourians.

These are joined by another realist, the Missouri Hospital Association. Does it support expansion to enrich itself? No. The Missouri Hospital Association actually tried in 2008 to donate money to the state to return Medicaid coverage to the kids removed by the legislature and then-Gov. Matt Blunt.

Unfortunately, the legislature refused the generous gift. Meanwhile, even with federal dollars to serve the poor in emergency rooms now, we see one county in the state where 14 of every 100 babies die because of lack of care.

That is not unique, just the worst. Hopefully, our legislators will listen to Kit Bond.

As an atheist, I would like to address the generalization that many of us believe in the big bang theory as the sole avenue of the beginning of this universe. It is a theory and but one of many.

Science is working to determine whether it is the correct one. For more information on the big bang theory, consult most high school or college textbooks in physics and biology.

So let 2014 be the year of an open exchange of ideas between all religions and nonreligions. For what some people find to be fact, I find to be of no more value than the legends of ancient Greece and Rome.

And what I hold as fact, some people would consider to be science fiction. And between us are the ideas of most of the other world religions.

I don’t believe anyone should be asked to accept another’s ideas as his or her own, merely that he or she should respect them. The world would be far easier on us all if we chose respect of personal choice over forcing others into our idea of how the world should work.

This story was originally published February 19, 2014 at 5:34 PM with the headline "Michael Sam, Kansas embarrassment, ‘Monuments Men’."