Readers share thoughts on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, the Islamic State and the Royals
Questionable acts
Reading your Oct. 30 article on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, “Koster contests claims that donations steered probes,” receiving campaign contributions from large corporations his department is suing is really troubling on two fronts.
First, Koster said he was not aware that his staff members joined many other states in suing two large corporations and that they neglected to join in another case. Was he too busy being hosted by these corporations and their law firm to come to the office? It seems like something he would learn about from his counterparts, if not his staff.
More important, am I the only one who is madder at the actions of the corporations? Isn’t bribery a crime anymore? And isn’t the briber more guilty than the accepter of the bribe?
Why is the Washington, D.C., law firm representing many large corporations regularly hosting the Missouri attorney general and donating heavily to his campaigns? It smells like criminal activity to me.
These large corporations are always yelling that government regulations are not necessary. Really?
It looks like we need more oversight from those stealing from us. And many corporate leaders should be in prison.
Unfortunately, in the real world, we are more apt to see total deregulation of these thieves than we are to see even one go to prison.
Martin Walsh
Glendale, Mo.
Islamic State horrors
I have recently read “The Auschwitz Escape” by Joel C. Rosenberg. It is a reminder of the world turning a blind eye to evil.
Adolf Hitler was evil, and his SS troops ran prison camps that were nothing more than holding pens for Jews before they were sent to the gas chambers. Millions of Jews were eliminated — complete families — all because they were Jews.
There is nothing different between the Hitler forces and the Islamic State.
The world and America are treating actions by this group, including the recent beheadings of the American reporters and mass killings of Christians, as if they are not horrific. After all, they are thousands of miles away. Why should we care?
The Islamic State is evil. People are being murdered because they are Christians and in some cases tolerant Muslims. The world and America cannot let this stand.
Ed LaBarr
Kearney
Loving L’Arche
Thank you for featuring Michael Gerson’s recent opinion piece about the L’Arche community in Greater Washington, D.C. (10-31, Opinion, “This special home creates the beloved community”).
Gerson gets to the heart of L’Arche: Sharing life with people who have intellectual disabilities is humanizing, sometimes challenging and often a means of grace.
L’Arche is a wonderful place. Fortunately for the Kansas City area, there is a L’Arche community in Overland Park. I encourage anyone who wants to learn more about this beloved community to look up L’Arche Heartland’s contact information at www.larcheks.org.
If you want to visit, we would love to get to know you by sharing a meal and conversation at one of our monthly community nights.
Andrew Nelson
L’Arche Heartland
Assistant
Kansas City
Kudos to The Star
Special kudos to The Kansas City Star for its detailed and professional coverage of the 2014 Royals playoffs and World Series. Our deserving fans and Greater Kansas City have waited patiently and are integral parts of this magical destiny.
The newspaper’s photographs of players and fans have inspired our city, state and nation to go Royal. The special-interest stories have reminded us that our fans dealing with serious health issues are the true heroes; baseball is still a game.
Royals fans are diversified with regard to gender, age, politics, economics and demographics. How great is this — people who don’t agree on much have found the Kansas City Royals.
We all agree that being a Royals fan feels good. Thank you, Kansas City Star.
Sal Montuori
Kansas City
Praise for Obama
Why did the Republican candidates run against President Barack Obama instead of against the Democratic candidates? Why did the Democratic candidates distance themselves from Obama?
Obama came into office with the country in shambles. We were in two wars, our financial companies were going under as were our auto companies and the stock market was tanking as were our retirement accounts.
Employment was declining, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he’d do everything to make Obama a one-term president. With all that, Obama has turned things around, ending one war. We are now exporting oil, gas prices are down and we got Osama bin Laden.
What did President George W. Bush do? He started two wars, left thousands of our women and men dead on battlefields, ruined our economy and increased the price of oil. Oh, yeah, he’s an oil man, and Texas is an oil state.
Now here in Kansas, we have Gov. Sam Brownback doing the same thing to our state by bankrupting it. And Sen. Pat Roberts, I can’t think of anything he has done except raise his wages.
Obama is one of our better presidents.
Tyron Carlson
Lenexa
Preying on elderly
The police assured me that this can happen to anyone when we reported that my aunt’s house had been vandalized after she moved into assisted living.
Several years before the move, she had frequently given money to both a neighbor and a handy man. Their tales of woe increased with each disbursement. When the gravy train stopped, they became furious and jammed the doorknob with broken keys and added Super Glue.
These people reported us for all kinds of crimes in the hopes of convincing my aunt to mistrust us.
My advice to anyone going through this nightmare is to be vigilant, stalwart and honest. If enough people become aware of how to spot this predatory behavior, the world will be a much better place.
My aunt is now aware of how she was used, and luckily we are at peace as a family. It was hard work.
Debbie Carmody
Shawnee
Humane treatment?
I live in an unincorporated part of Jackson County. Great Plains American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is my animal shelter.
Cats are dumped where I live. I have a cat who was dumped. She constantly has water, food and a nice warm bed.
I can’t stand the sight of an animal that has been hurt or neglected. This past winter, I took a cat to the ASPCA that had a eye infection, no fur on its back leg and a bad limp.
Two cats are now wandering around. I finally got them to the shelter, only to be told it has more than 600 cats and could not take in the two cats. However, the shelter offered a free spay.
The point of the call was to get the cats off the street, not to take on two more cats to feed.
Can shelters bill themselves as a no-kill shelter under those circumstances?
Is it so terrible to give cats a nice meal and a few extra hugs and help them fall into a peaceful nap? Is it better that the thousands of cats on the streets in the Kansas City area get hit by cars, die of diseases or starve?
Which is more humane?
I kind of think these shelters are stretching the truth a bit.
Karen Dodson
Oak Grove
Let’s go, Royals
The Kansas City Royals weren’t supposed to win the wild card, but they did. They weren’t supposed to win the playoffs, but they did.
The team that wasn’t supposed to be anything went to the World Series after 29 years. It showed us what teamwork can do in a time of wars and partisan politics.
These young men gave their all, not only for Kansas City but for all of us — their fans. Throughout the playoffs and the World Series, young and old, rich and poor were all cheering them on.
Their sportsmanship was something to behold. Last Wednesday, as I talked with various people, the talk was the same — win or lose in the final game, they have given us something to be extremely proud of.
The smiles on their faces during game six was a joy to witness. Hold your heads up high, Kansas City Royals.
You are champions to us. “Let’s go, Royals” still rings in my ears, days later.
Gail Coffield
Downs, Kan.
This story was originally published November 4, 2014 at 5:26 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster, the Islamic State and the Royals."