Readers share thoughts on the Middle East, Congress and roundabouts

Exit Middle East

I don’t believe there is language strong enough to express the frustration I and my peers feel about the process going on with our elected servants.

Under no circumstances should there be any more funding or lives spent in the Middle East.

Bring our troops home or put battle gear on all congressmen and senators and send them to the front lines wherever lawmakers would send our children.

Members of the House and Senate have taken every ounce of integrity from this country for greed purposes.

A recent report says a veteran commits suicide every 65 minutes, or 8,000 a year. How can lawmakers look themselves in the mirror without vomiting?

Our children deserve much, much better than their greed is providing.

Jim Bishop

Holt, Mo.

Too many surprises

Does the current state of affairs make anyone besides me ask: “Who is minding the store? Who is in charge of protecting our country?”

Where are the president and his advisers? Where is Congress, where are our intelligence personnel and where is the State Department?

Every crisis seems to be a surprise to those who have authority in our government.

Isn’t anyone in charge and paying attention to the Islamic fighters overtaking Iraq?

I keep hearing speeches from this president and more speeches and then more speeches. It makes me think of the song from “My Fair Lady.” Words, words, words, I’m so sick of words, words, words.

Global warming may be a concern, but global warming won’t really matter if we are hit with another 9/11 or worse.

Also, with the thousands of undocumented children and others coming across our southern border, overwhelming our border security and cities, who else is coming in?

Naomi Karmeier

Kansas City

KC roundabouts

Having lived in England for 20 years, I know something about roundabouts. They are relatively new to drivers in this country, so many people do not know the “rules” or etiquette when navigating one.

The safe way to pass through a roundabout is to treat it as a four-way stop. The person who arrives on the right near the same time you do has the right of way to enter the circle first.

Most important, use your turn signals when you plan to leave the roundabout so others entering it will know your intentions.

When used correctly, roundabouts enable traffic to flow well. Otherwise, they can be a source of aggravation or, dangerously, more accidents.

Amy Brown

Leawood

No aid to Palestine

Why is the United States sending $212 million of our tax dollars to help Palestine rebuild after the damage that resulted from its terrorist aggression against Israel?

Palestine and Hamas under subterfuge, secrecy and lying pursued their longstanding irrational objectives of killing all Jews and wiping Israel off the map and suffered the consequences.

Let those who supported that terrorism, including Iran and others, pay for what they sowed.

Why should we who are the object of their disdain pay? Are we stupid or what?

It is time to put a stop to helping those whose objectives are the annihilation of Israel, the domination of the U.S. and the imposition of Sharia law.

Bob Burns

Blue Springs

Charter advantage

Richard Whitmire, former editorial page writer and newly published author, gave a speech recently that was basically an advertisement/editorial piece rolled into one — spoken rather than written.

If we were talking about Pembroke Hill School or Rockhurst High School, it would have made more sense because there wouldn’t be tax dollars taken away from real public schools.

Whitmire said charter schools shouldn’t accommodate students with special needs because the public schools do a better job.

It’s amazing what the rich want isn’t it?

They’re not willing to fund public schools because of how lousy they are. But then they want to fund charter schools and leave students behind who they don’t think can show improvement because special-needs students advance in smaller increments.

Charter schools then get the same results as a private school, a parochial school and a home-school system.

Whitmire’s answer is to give tax money to high-class charter schools that don’t want to take special-needs students at the expense of real public schools that help all children.

H. Lon Swearingen

Kansas City

Love-hate relationship

It should be obvious that our assessments of and responses to social issues are indicators of our inner directives. For instance:

▪ Immigration. Wishing to assist and assimilate those desperately seeking relief from an intolerable life — love-based. Harshly turning people away (even children) without due consideration of their plight — hate-based.

▪ Health care. Providing a means for economically disadvantaged people to receive a basic level of health care — love-based. Voting more than 40 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act — hate-based.

▪ Unemployment compensation. In a time when job growth is not keeping pace with the number of people entering the workforce, offering a financial cushion to those out of work for prolonged periods — love-based. Insisting that those who can’t find jobs are lazy — hate-based.

▪ Civil rights. Accepting the fact that we are all born with innate differences — love-based. Deciding that all who are different from you must be inferior — hate-based.

Ultimately, the survival of the human race (and this is in question) depends upon building a largely egalitarian society based on love and respect for each other and our home, the Earth.

Richard Hedges

Lone Jack

Training fighters

I am wondering whether we are using the wrong term when we talk about training the good guys in Syria. Are the troops that we want to train more motivated than the good guys were in Iraq?

Even though we all want to get rid of the militants in Syria who are savagely against Americans, do we know how motivated the warriors are that we do support?

I also wonder why and how the bad guys in Syria and Iraq fight with such determination and skill. I suspect that comes from determination and hate for Americans and not from training by a third party.

Maybe we should ask, “Who are the good guys and how much are they motivated and why are they motivated to fight the bad guys?”

Cal Wrege

Overland Park

Thanks to Star, Royals

Thank you to The Star for the wonderful coverage of the Kansas City Royals from the Wild Card Game through the World Series. I appreciated your World Series special.

Thanks to the Royals for making the season and postseason such an exciting time. You all deserve the special most valuable player award.

I’m glad I didn’t have to pick just one. If I had to pick one Royals player I would like to have dinner with, I couldn’t do it.

It would have to be the team, because I think of all of you as one. You’ve been amazing.

Thanks to Ned Yost. It has been great seeing you smile.

Not one of you has anything to be ashamed of. You all gave your best.

I’m looking forward to next year already.

Nina Kemper

Freeman, Mo.

Heartbreak ahead

A caution to all the young Royals fans. You are too young to remember Jermaine Dye, Carlos Beltran and Johnny Damon.

When we fell in love with them and thought they were in love with Kansas City, they left Kansas City for the bigger paychecks offered by the large-market teams.

Major League Baseball has still not put a salary cap in place, and until it does, we will continue to be heartbroken when players depart.

Steve Cunneen

Leawood

This story was originally published November 12, 2014 at 5:45 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on the Middle East, Congress and roundabouts."