Readers react to Donald Trump, Mike Hunter and Planned Parenthood
Trump’s candidacy
Has anyone asked Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump where his legacy comes from? He certainly doesn’t look like a Native American who has been in their/our country for many years.
Susan Hidalgo
Lake Quivira
Volunteer advocate
I am proud to say that for more than a dozen years, I knew Mike Hunter, the longtime volunteer Kansas City head of SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (9-17, A6, “Voice for victims of abuse Mike Hunter dies at 66”).
I am grateful that The Star wrote about him recently and recounted his tireless efforts to protect innocent children and vulnerable adults.
Judy Jones
Survivors Network
of Those
Abused by Priests
Marthasville, Mo.
GOP, Trump, Palin
Is it really so surprising that Donald Trump is doing so well in the Republican presidential race? This is the same party that put Sarah Palin on the ballot in 2008.
Donna Sunderson
Olathe
Planned Parenthood
One would have thought that Republicans would have learned their lesson over the last government shutdown, but apparently not.
The Republican senators who are running for the presidential nomination have publicly stated they would shut down the government if Planned Parenthood is not defunded.
I would like to remind these elected officials that the majority of the country does not want Planned Parenthood defunded. The people of this country are more well-informed; they know that 97 percent of the services provided by Planned Parenthood are for services other than abortions.
They also know that the Hyde Act prohibits any federal funding related to abortions.
Of course, just like the last shutdown over Obamacare, it is the president whom Republicans will blame, not the Republicans who voted for the shutdown.
Again, it will be, “Do as we say or we will shut down the government,” and “It’s all your fault for not giving us what we want.”
The last shutdown cost American taxpayers in the neighborhood of $24 billion.
Note to Republicans, the American people are not behind you on this.
Karen Lane
Shawnee
Political rhetoric
With so many politicians preparing for the next spate of elections, as always there are a considerable number, particularly on the Republican side, who proclaim loudly how Christian they are. They speak at conservative Christian rallies and speak with deep and sincere passion about God and Christ.
Many are affluent people. Such people Christ told to give away their wealth and follow him. He also noted that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
To exploit his church for political endeavors in an effort to court and in some cases to deceive Christians is to insult them and probably God.
To those politicians who want to take away or severely limit public assistance to the poorest of us, the children and the disabled (most of whom can do little to nothing to help themselves and very much need the minuscule help they do get), as they lower or abolish taxes for their uber-rich campaign donors there is one more thing Christ made extremely clear:
“Even as you have done it unto the least of these, my brethren, you have done it unto me.”
Laura Jackson-Radford
Warrensburg, Mo.
Automakers skate
General Motors concealed ignition defects for a decade that resulted in the deaths of many people. GM paid a trivial fine (9-18, A8, “Ignition switch lawsuit settled”).
Honda destroyed evidence and concealed defects in airbags that resulted in the deaths of several people. Honda paid a trivial fine.
Volkswagen intentionally programmed its diesel engines to fake emissions tests, resulting in increased air pollution and perhaps deaths. I am sure VW will have to pay a fine.
None of these companies went to jail for killing people.
Any person who kills goes to jail. He doesn’t get to keep doing business, buying ads and contributing to politicians.
I’ll believe a corporation is a person when the company goes to jail and has to stop its business for the duration of its sentence.
Allen J. Parmet, M.D.
Kansas City
Insurance experts
Along with retirement plans, we are now expected to be health insurance-plan experts.
When my wife’s Coventry premiums increased by $160 a month this year, we went shopping for something cheaper.
We found out too late that her drug expenses would increase when her hard-fought formulary exceptions for vital medications did not carry over to the new plan. We discovered our mistake quickly and switched back to our old plan but were still penalized $2,000.
We are college-educated and have high IQs. If we can make this mistake, what chance does the average person have of navigating the minefield of choices?
Now we hear of huge increases in health premiums for 2016 because patients on average are older and sicker than anticipated.
Instead of socking it to everybody, why not lower the Medicare age to 55?
This would transfer many to a more efficient single-payer system and greatly reduce the average cost of claims to private insurers from their remaining clients.
While we’re at it, we could change the law to allow Medicare to bargain with drug companies for cheaper rates rather than suffer exorbitant price-gouging.
America pays far more for drugs than any other country.
Ron Philo
Kansas City, Kan.
Political ignorance
I have read with great dissatisfaction about politicians denigrating the issue of “anchor babies” — foreign residents having children upon arrival to this country for the supposed less-than-honorable purpose of being allowed to remain in this country.
To hear them pontificate, you would think this was something new.
In visiting the graves of my great-great grandparents, it was obvious that both were born in this country shortly after their parents arrived, having fled the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.
To say that this is new would be in error.
Over the centuries, people arriving in the United States from many nations have started families in this, their new home. That includes the Irish, Italians, Germans, Poles, Swedes, Finish, Dutch, Chinese, Japanese, Russians and people from India, Iran, Iraq, Senegal, Sudan, South Africa and Chad.
Those who snarl and sneer at Asians, Mexicans and South Americans as they spew the term “anchor baby” with all the venom of a racial slur should take a long look at their family trees.
Unless they are American Indians or their ancestors predate the Revolution of 1776, their lineage is guaranteed to be chock full of “anchor babies.”
Mike Boatright
Leawood
KU sorority rush
I just survived rush at the University of Kansas. OK, not me, my daughter, but it felt like me.
I have to ask myself as a former Jayhawk and sorority member, Why do we continue putting our daughters through the archaic system? My son is in a fraternity, and all he had to do was attend a few parties his senior year, and he was in.
Why can’t the sororities do a similar thing, pledging the majority of girls throughout the year after meeting them in organic settings instead of the manufactured settings of traditional sorority rush, and getting to know them as actual people?
And for the girls who don’t know about the parties or who live far away, spaces could be saved for a more formal rush process later.
And why does it have to be before first semester? What an awful thing to go through when you are adjusting to your new home, leaving your family and making new friends.
Why can’t it be after first semester so that girls could adjust to school life and learn that even if they don’t pledge a sorority, they can have a fantastic college experience?
Susie Alum
Overland Park
This story was originally published September 22, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Donald Trump, Mike Hunter and Planned Parenthood."