Readers react to liberals, F. Glenn Miller Jr. and Donald Trump
Liberal bias
To the driver on Interstate 70 with the bumper sticker “I don’t believe the Liberal Media,” you also don’t believe:
▪ One plus one equals two.
▪ In birth control.
▪ Neil Armstrong walked on the moon.
▪ In vaccinations.
▪ Two atoms of hydrogen and one of oxygen equal something to drink.
▪ Earth is older than 5,000 years.
▪ Oceans are rising.
▪ Other religions are as right as yours.
All of that is found in the liberal media, and it’s OK with me. Think what you want. Just please don’t vote.
John Chapman
Gladstone
Love exceeds hate
“Love, kindness and understanding will triumph over hate” was highlighted in the Sept. 9 story, “Relief for the families, and no mercy for Miller,” about the hateful, stupid insanity of F. Glenn Miller Jr.
Will another brutal murder inside the walls of a state institution balance what Miller did in that parking lot last year?
Miller displayed his insanity clearly and forcefully. Yet still we acquiesce in the killer’s wish to be killed.
Will his death soften in the slightest the loss of those three people? Perhaps, but probably not.
Miller in the miasma of his scurrilous beliefs is just another victim of the wrong thinking that we all should be armed and dangerous. And so we elect lawmakers who will answer our basest beliefs that an eye for an eye is better than whatever has been taught to us by Jesus, Buddha, or Muhammad or Guru Nanak.
Karta Purkh Khalsa
Kansas City
Trump presidency?
Republican Donald Trump says he’d be a smarter president than his competitors. It’s 14 months until Election Day. Whether you’re a Republican or Democrat, before passing judgment, listen to Trump’s New Hampshire town hall (no teleprompter). It’s on C-SPAN.
How smart do you have to be to not incur $1.4 trillion in debt to China? How smart do you have to be to not send our manufacturing jobs to China, South Korea, India and Mexico. Anyone want to work for peanuts?
How smart do you have to be to not let the world’s greatest highway system crumbleor to not allow our airports to become miserable? How smart do you have to be to figure out a single-payer health plan? How smart do you have to be to not get embroiled in colossally stupid wars like Vietnam, Granada, Panama, Iraq and Afghanistan?
How smart do you have to be to not allow our Congress et al. to accept secret money for elections?
Can’t we do better than Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, Jeb Bush and the usual suspects?
Bill Emerson
Kansas City
Tiger Woods, golf
Stick a fork in him. Tiger Woods is done. It could not happen to a nicer guy.
Richard W. Dahms
Country Club, Mo.
Underpaid teachers
To the people who whine about fast-food workers making a decent wage, I’m sorry but the point you made was perfect for how teachers are also underpaid. Aren’t you, as an Americans, ashamed that the teacher with a master’s degree is making less than $15 per hour?
What’s ludicrous is that teachers are in by far the most underpaid profession in this country, and apparently many people are just oblivious to it. That is what’s wrong with claiming that fast-food workers don’t deserve a decent, living wage.
Jim Lullie
Kansas City
Nuclear agreement
The powerful exhibit at the University of Missouri-Kansas City main library reminds us of the damage caused by atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 70 years ago.
Unfortunately, when it comes to war, no one’s hands are clean. Atrocities and civilian casualties were inflicted on all sides. The lesson to be learned is not blame and deciding which nation committed the worst atrocity, but how do we work together to ensure this never happens again?
The 70th anniversary of Hiroshima/Nagasaki comes when a historic agreement has been negotiated among the United States, Germany, France, Russia, China, the European Union and the United Kingdom with Iran. The agreement is a huge step toward reducing nuclear development in Iran, as it requires Iranian reduction of low-enriched uranium supplies and discontinuing centrifuges that could produce plutonium.
This is augmented by the International Atomic Energy Agency monitoring of facilities, air and soil to assure there are no forbidden nuclear-related activities in Iran. The common-sense diplomatic agreement to ensure the reduction of nuclear-weapons capability in Iran should be followed by a sincere return to working toward multilateral and verifiable international disarmament.
Never again.
Amrita Burdick
Member
Hiroshima/Nagasaki
Exhibit Committee
Kansas City
Leonard Pitts column
I awoke this morning to the following verse a friend had texted me: “Yet we do speak a wisdom to those who are mature, but not a wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. Rather we speak God’s wisdom, mysterious, hidden, which God predetermined before the ages for your glory.” 1 Corinthians 2:6-7.
Next I opened The Kansas City Star on Sept. 8 and read Leonard Pitts’ column, “‘Religious liberty’ looking like intolerance”).
Deeply ponder the first as you consider the second.
Joyce Kallenberger
Weatherby Lake
Extraordinary pope
As Buenos Aires archbishop, Pope Francis avoided the trappings of office, living in a simple apartment and cooking his own food. In his 99-page encyclical, this authentic pope offers a remarkable dialogue suggesting modern society have a change of heart.
He seeks to address every person about our common home and to bring the human family together.
One columnist observed that science is like a compass. It can tell us where north is, but it can’t tell us if we want to go north. That’s where morality comes in.
A majority of American Christians view climate change as real, but less than a third understand that the world’s poorest people are already being harmed by it.
The pope reminds us that a Christian who does not protect creation is a Christian who does not care about the work of God. The pope expresses concerns about consumerism and unsustainable consumption, loss of biodiversity and issues of water and climate as a common good.
“We can leave our children and grandchildren a world that is still beautiful, nourishing and healthy.” It’s a hopeful call asking us to reconsider our mastery and instead consider ecology through civic and political love.
Pope Francis is an extraordinary man.
Tony Schmidt
Lawrence
End speed traps
Police should stop enforcing an involuntary tax in the form of speed traps. Their jobs are to protect and serve. Who are they serving when they are sitting on the side of the road trying to catch people speeding?
Mason Grabber
Paola, Kan.
Better gun laws
The Paul Combs Sept. 9 editorial cartoon is deliberately misleading, insinuating that criminals are for gun control because fewer law-abiding citizens would then have guns. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Law-abiding citizens will never need to worry about their ability to own a gun. However, background checks would ensure that convicted felons, domestic abusers and severely mentally disabled people wouldn’t have guns, and that is in the best interest of everyone.
So many have been asking for so long: “What will it take to end gun violence in this country?” A good start would be enacting and enforcing common-sense gun laws to keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.
Data show that background checks have saved lives, and the current background-checks system has blocked more than 2 million gun purchases since instated 20 years ago. Repeated surveys by unbiased pollsters show public support for expanded background checks at 90 percent, with even 74 percent of National Rifle Association members supporting them.
It is time for our lawmakers to stop selling out to the NRA and start listening to their constituents.
Judy Sherry
Grandmothers Against
Gun Violence
Kansas City
This story was originally published September 10, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to liberals, F. Glenn Miller Jr. and Donald Trump."