Mother’s Day, Republican support, KCI

Compassion and generosity are hallmarks of motherhood. In honor of Mother’s Day, there is a singularly meaningful way that expectant mothers can show compassion and give hope to people in need: by donating umbilical cord blood.

Cord blood, normally disposed of after birth, is unlike any other blood donation. It can be the only potentially life-saving treatment option for thousands of patients suffering from devastating blood cancers such as leukemia and lymphoma.

The donation process is simple and can be arranged months in advance. It doesn’t affect labor or delivery and is safe for moms and babies.

When you donate your baby’s cord blood to a public cord blood bank, such as the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank, you pay nothing. Your baby’s cord blood will be listed on the national Be The Match Registry, where it is made available to anyone in need of a transplant.

I wish everyone a happy Mother’s Day, and thank you for considering a gift of life and hope through a public cord blood donation. For more information, contact the St. Louis Cord Blood Bank (1-888-453-2673 and www.slcbb.org) or visit bethematch.org/cord.

As we celebrate the important role of moms this month, I encourage Sens. Jerry Moran and Pat Roberts and Rep. Kevin Yoder to support proven efforts such as the Title V Maternal and Child Health program.

Through a block grant, Kansas independently determines how to allocate Title V funds to meet its public health priorities. This is the only public health initiative to affect a child’s health before birth, throughout childhood and beyond (the life course).

Since 1935, Maternal and Child Health has contributed to a more than 90 percent reduction in infant mortality rates. This is a public health achievement we can all be proud of.

Yet the U.S. continues to rank behind nearly all other industrialized countries in both infant and maternal mortality rates.

As Congress prepares its spending bills for the coming year, I hope Moran, Roberts and Yoder make sure the Title V Maternal and Child Health block grant remains a priority so we can become the best in the world.

According to Lee Judge, if you think the federal government is too large, wasting our tax dollars and intruding into our lives way too much, then you must be a bigot. Mr. Judge, I suggest you look in a mirror.

I am saddened by the lack of response to the kidnapped high school girls in Nigeria who are being sold as wives to members of Boko Haram, a militant group in Nigeria. These girls have loved ones frantic in their fear and sorrow.

But for the fate of birth, I could be one of those frantic loved ones or even one of the kidnapped girls. That could be any number of people in Kansas City or the U.S.

The debate over Kansas City International Airport has been troubled from the start. Officials involved have not been forthcoming about costs, security or factors that attract more flights.

Press coverage has leaned toward a single-terminal side to imply that resistance is futile or the fix is in. Please objectively review the facts.

• There are few facts. Comparing rebuilding with new construction takes money. Although such a study could save more than $600 million, no one wants to pay for it.

• Southwest Airlines advises that planes come for paying customers, not new terminal amenities.

• Most agree that the airport is fine unless flights are delayed. Smartphones enable people to minimize waits. Leave home or the office later. This technology receives little attention.

• The Transportation Security Administration confirms that a single screening point will deliver neither greater safety nor more efficiency. And new technology and methods might reduce the current security footprint in the existing facility.

• The Convention and Visitors Bureau exclaims that an ugly airport hurts the local economy.

Following that lead, maybe it’s best for our gateway to declare, “Welcome to Kansas City, where money goes to sports and bars, not schools or roads.”

AT’s plan to invest half a billion dollars in an Internet video service is further evidence that regulations singling out the cable industry have outlived their useful life and that Congress is right to consider repeal (4-25, A10, “Consumer groups rip FCC ‘fast lane’ rules”).

As companies introduce innovative online video devices — from the sleek Apple TV box to the miniature Google Chromecast — FCC rules prevent traditional cable companies from developing smaller, less costly and more energy-efficient cable boxes to keep pace.

These rules force cable companies to place the nervous system of the cable box on a removable card-like device. The FCC intended to foster alternatives to renting a cable box, but the tens of millions of renters have absorbed more than $1 billion in additional costs since 2007 while missing out on the exciting high-tech advancements common among Internet video devices.

When the government mandates specific technologies rather than promoting research and development, we can expect lackluster results.

With cable companies losing more than 10 million subscribers to satellite, phone companies and now Google and a number of homes cutting the cord altogether, it’s clearly time for Congress to undo this costly rule.

Why is it that any time there is a conflict in the world, the United States has to stick its nose and money into it? These countries are so unappreciative of our help that they turn on us.

We have enough problems in this country that we shouldn’t concern ourselves with some other country’s problems. How unfortunate that we have no sound leadership in this country to keep us from messing up time and time again.

Recently, a group of concerned citizens visited our legislators in Topeka to discuss expanded Medicaid. Some were in favor; some were not, with explanations that they cannot trust the federal government or the president.

We pointed out that Medicaid expansion would create 4,000 new jobs and more than $2 billion in economic growth over five years while protecting the poor and dying and that Kansans had already paid for the program in their federal taxes.

Rep. John Rubin, a Shawnee Republican, however, did not want to discuss these political or financial facts. I asked him if we could discuss this as a moral issue.

This representative accused me of calling him immoral (which I had not), further loudly proclaiming, “No one ever calls me immoral. ...”

Then he threw us out of his office, demanding that we leave immediately and were not welcome in his office.

I will not accuse him of being immoral on this issue; that is a question he and his constituents need to address. However, treating concerned citizens in this outrageous and intimidating manner was unprofessional and out of line.

Remember this when you vote.

Hopefully, the Obama administration will follow the Queen Mother’s admonition to family members to husband their expenses so the royal family stays solvent. The message hit the mark as Prince Harry traveled in coach class to return to England after attending a wedding in Memphis, Tenn.

I wonder whether our royal family will take the hint.

This story was originally published May 10, 2014 at 5:00 PM with the headline "Mother’s Day, Republican support, KCI."