Kathleen Sebelius, Catholic leadership, living wage

Regarding the resignation of Kathleen Sebelius as secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, P-L-E-A-S-E don’t come back to the great state of Kansas (4-11, A1, “Sebelius stepping down”).

Some letter writers have praised Pope Francis while criticizing two Kansas City area bishops for supposedly not being more like Pope Francis.

It is great that Pope Francis has broken through to so many, but he has changed no fundamental teachings of the Catholic Church. Nor will he. Nor can he.

Pope Francis’ call for a “new balance” in priorities has led many to wishfully think that will mean less emphasis on abortion, marriage, contraception and other hot-button issues, and even a retreat by bishops, other clergy and religious and lay Catholics from their rightful places in the public square.

That’s not likely to happen, though, as evidenced by the recent comments by the Vatican chief justice, American Cardinal Raymond Burke, who said President Barack Obama “promotes anti-life and anti-family policies” that “have become progressively more hostile toward Christian civilization.”

Pope Francis has been a blessing to the Catholic Church, as have local bishops, Bishop Robert Finn and Archbishop Joseph Naumann. They are among the many outstanding bishops now on the scene.

Please return “Shoe” to the comics. Nothing in “WuMo’s” banal humor can compete with those sardonic birds.

You know that you are losing faith when the bases are loaded, no outs, Billy Butler is at the plate and all you can think is “triple play.”

We have gone past the point of no return. There is no way we can do anything about gun control. It’s over.

The National Rifle Association can give every newborn a silver gun instead of a silver spoon. We have enough guns for nearly every man, woman and child in this country.

The Star should label every shooter a “cowardly thug.” What else can we call shooters that a family newspaper can print?

How can a guy get guns after serving time in a federal prison on a gun violation? Easy, that’s how.

If I had a gun, what would I do? I can’t even get my cellphone out of my pants pocket when I’m driving.

The hypocrisy of the Republican legislators in Jefferson City has returned after a long absence.

Heavily funded by conservative groups outside of our state, they continue to push anti-family and anti-worker agendas on us here in Missouri (4-10, A6, “Right-to-work bill advances”).

My faith tradition teaches as a fundamental truth the right to organize into unions and to work for a living and just wage. Rather than working to create better lives for Missouri families, Missouri lawmakers choose to create a hostile and divisive environment.

Right to work is not an issue of the organized worker vs. the unorganized worker. Rather, it is a blatant attempt by monied interests from out of state to buy a few votes in Jefferson City.

Another senseless shooting against innocent people occurred April 13 in Overland Park.

As a member of the Ahmadi Muslim Community, I wish to express my sincere condolences and sympathy to the entire Jewish community for this tragic loss.

Actions such as this shatter our sense of security. Our community’s motto of “Love for all, hatred for none” is a mantra that can counter these misguided individuals who rely on violence to promote their false narratives.

As an Islamic faith leader and an officer in the U.S. Army, I am pained to see such senseless violence and hatred on our streets.

An attack on the Jewish Community Center is an attack on us all, and if our religions do not teach us to stand up against such violence — regardless of faith, ethnicity, background, political affiliation or any other difference — then what use is such a faith?

Our community teaches us that if you claim to love God, then you must love his creation.

I pray for the entire community and especially for the families of the victims.

May God counter this senseless violence, stop the hands of those who perpetrate such crimes and cause peace to fill its place.

Kansas Children’s Service League is the state chapter for Prevent Child Abuse America. April is Child Abuse Prevention Month, when we recognize the actions our communities take to promote healthy child development and reflect on the work that still remains.

When communities support children and families, we all benefit.

Children and families need loving, nurturing experiences and environments to thrive, made possible through services such as home visitation and prevention programs around bullying, child sexual abuse and abusive head trauma.

Child abuse costs the U.S. upward of $80 billion annually. That same amount of money could:

• Send 1 million children to college.

• Pay the yearly salaries of 2 million teachers.

• Eliminate hospital bills for 8 million new parents.

We hope April is just the beginning of the conversation. Learn more about the roles you can play in support of children and families at www.kcsl.org or call 1-800-CHILDREN.

I was disgusted when I saw the photo on the April 16 front page. For two days The Star has chosen to feature prominently the face of a coward. How can you not know that you are feeding his sick desires, giving him just the publicity he sought?

Go ahead and tell the story, but we don’t need to see a photo to know what hate looks like.

There is significant misdirection of working people’s attention today. Some of this misdirection is deliberate, and some of it is playing on people’s value systems.

Working people should be focused on jobs in the U.S. that pay a living wage. When a person works 40 hours a week, he should not have to have government assistance except in rare cases.

With better paying jobs, there are many benefits besides the obvious. When people can make a decent living, they feel better about themselves, and that will generate effects that are hard to predict.

One can start to have hope.

Without hope, life is not very appealing.

It would quite likely affect our crime rate, incarceration rate and maybe even the number of people who want abortions.

This will not occur with trickle-down economics.

We had significant growth in the U.S. during the 1950s and 1960s with a higher top tax rate.

This is not to say that a higher tax rate on the 1 percent would solve all problems for jobs, but it would not hurt.

It would even affect the top level of greed.

If you want to know where all the heroin that is flooding the nation is coming from, ask the Central Intelligence Agency.

The CIA was alleged to have drug-running ties from southeast Asia during the Vietnam War, and then out of South America in the 1980s and 1990s.

Now it’s back to the favorite drug, heroin from Afghanistan.

Ours isn’t the only nation dealing with this scourge. Iran and Russia have been getting hit hard with heroin addiction, courtesy of Afghanistan’s poppy fields that our troops protect.

Flights out of Afghanistan carry a much deadlier load than Hellfire missiles.

This story was originally published April 16, 2014 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Kathleen Sebelius, Catholic leadership, living wage."