Readers share views on Republicans, Gov. Sam Brownback, same-sex marriage
Lesson in slaying
The Republican Party can learn one thing from the execution of Khaled al-Asaad, the antiquities scholar whose life was dedicated to exploring and overseeing Syria’s ancient ruins of Palmyra. Ignoring segments of society, defunding education and eliminating structural institutions leads to societal behaviors we find unbelievably primitive.
Everett Murphy, M.D.
Kansas City
Kansas time warp
Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback doesn’t know the purpose of government. In the 1950s, we learned in grade school that the purpose of government is to protect the health, safety and welfare of its citizens.
It is disturbing that he wants Kansas to be another Texas. Hasn’t Brownback heard that George Bush is no longer in the White House?
He must think he’s currying favor with an administration that doesn’t even exist anymore.
Unbelievable.
Steve Sumner
Shawnee
Same-sex marriage
Once again, the Christian Taliban shakes a defiant fist of intolerance.
Pam Bennett
Lenexa
Judicial overreach
News reports by the liberal press indicate that the Supreme Court decision last month to permit same-sex marriage conforms with a majority of the beliefs of the American people and state laws.
When the high court made its ruling, only 12 states, or 24 percent, had acted to permit same-sex marriages, but 38 states, or 76 percent, had laws preventing same-sex marriage or did not have a law allowing same-sex marriage.
Federal judges overturned defense-of-marriage laws in 25, or 50 percent, of the states.
Marriage has been defined as a union between one man and one woman in most states since before the beginning of our nation. Each state has laws that define who may marry. The conditions for marriage have been and should continue to be established by the states.
Federal courts have again interceded and prevented states’ rights as established in our Constitution. Federal judges have exceeded their authority.
Federal judges are taking away the rights of the American citizens and their state governments.
The issue here is not the right to marry for gay couples. It is that our federal courts, and some liberal judges, ignore the law and in effect are legislating from the bench.
Bob Pfeiffer
Overland Park
Trump’s rhetoric
Going back to the Republican presidential debate last month, as we all know by now, billionaire Donald Trump was asked about his extreme insults toward a woman. Trump proved he is not only severely lacking as a candidate but would be a nightmare as president of the United States.
Rather than giving the clownish “just Rosie O’Donnell” retort, any smart, sincere candidate would have used it as an opportunity to talk about his or her platform on women’s issues such as equal pay. Trump couldn’t because he doesn’t have one.
Calling people stupid is not a platform, nor is rhetoric about things he would never be able to do.
Patty Nolte
Kansas City
Never Donald Trump
While preparing this “Tirade on Trump,” I ran across a timely Sept. 15 letter to the editor. The writer took the words right out of my mouth in describing this “arrogant, egotistical, offensive narcissist.”
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump is anything but a politician or statesman (or gentleman), which we need so badly as president. And I think he knows it deep down.
He isn’t stupid. He just calls everyone else stupid.
I predict that in the near future he will finally fess up with a statement something like this: “Hey folks, I appreciate all the adulation and encouragement, but if you think I’m qualified to be president of the United States, you are stupider than I thought you were. I can’t negotiate with leaders around the world when I don’t even know their names or policies.
“Can you see me in a position like George W. Bush after 9/11? Or Ronald Reagan (name the occasion)? In your dreams. Thanks for all the support.”
I’m dreaming and praying.
Mary Pat Miller
Overland Park
Trickle-down GOP
I recently received a piece of vile right-wing porn in the mail from the Koch brothers delivered through MoWorkerFreedom.com and Americans for Prosperity — Missouri. The mailer stated, “AFP Supports Workers in Missouri” and asks, “Do You?”
It’s why I am no longer a Republican as I foolishly through willful ignorance believed I was in the past.
No, I will not be a useful idiot and a tool as Americans for Prosperity — Missouri suggests and call my state representatives to say I support their efforts to further gut unions and suppress middle-class wages.
I now fully comprehend the vile perniciousness of supply-side, trickle-down economics and the GOP’s beloved corporate “low-wage model” and the devastation these and other conservative Republican policies have wrought upon middle-class America.
I fully understand that entitled plutocrats such as the Koch brothers and their brainless, unprincipled Republican handmaidens won’t be happy until billionaire tax rates are zero and workers have no rights to earn a living wage.
I know whenever the Koch brothers mention “freedom and prosperity” it is only theirs that they are interested in along with their “liberty” to continue gutting our middle class.
Now I need to take a shower.
Jeff Gerner
Gladstone
High-court justices
The Supreme Court’s recent decision on marriage equality should remind us of one of the most important consequences of presidential elections. The president serves not only as the leader of the country and the commander and chief of the military, but he also selects who serves on the Supreme Court.
Had Sen. John McCain defeated then-Sen. Barack Obama in 2008, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor would not be serving on the court. In their places would likely have been two more conservative justices who probably would have sided with those opposing marriage equality.
As a result, homosexuals would still be a discriminated underclass regarding the right to marry.
Keep this in mind when you vote in 2016. The next president will likely choose one or two new justices.
Four of the current justices were born in the 1930s. If you are a progressive, like me, and wish to maintain at least a liberal balance on the court, it is extremely important that the Democratic candidate win.
Elections matter.
William R. Lenz
Kansas City
Beneficial drug
I had an uncle who recently passed away at the age of 98. He had been hospitalized with congestive heart failure.
I was told that he had been drowning in his lung fluids and that he could not take any more Lasix to get rid of it.
A year ago, my mother passed peacefully with the same condition. The difference was that her hospice nurse gave her atropine drops under her tongue. Atropine has been shown to dry up lung secretions.
This was a blessing not only for her but for my family and me, who were at her bedside. Atropine eased her suffering right up until her last breath.
Janet Griffiths
Lenexa
Income inequality
If there is such an outcry on income inequality, why just target the incomes of doctors and chief executives?
Why not impose a limit on the incomes of professional athletes or those in the entertainment industry or cap the amount of money that can be “earned” by speakers?
Many of those individuals within a short period receive more money than average citizens will earn in their lifetimes.
The argument for overpaid athletes is that their careers are short. Does that mean when their careers are over that they will be unable to ever hold regular jobs like the majority of people in this country?
I for one am getting fed up with control freaks — those people who think everyone and everything should be regulated.
Targeting specific individuals or industries is inequality.
Jackie Yantis
Olathe
This story was originally published September 16, 2015 at 6:49 PM.