Longview Road parking, negative GOP, Catholic Church hypocrisy

Illegal parking pass

I live on the corner of Longview Road and Winchester Avenue. The city has spent the last year having a contractor widen Longview Road, putting in new sidewalks and repaving Longview Road with turn lanes.

There are no-parking signs on both sides of Longview Road from Blue Ridge Boulevard to Raytown Road, yet the police are doing nothing about the dozens of cars that are still parking there.

They should be ticketed.

William McHenry

Kansas City

GOP goes negative

There are two things about the Republicans that should be apparent to today’s voters: They like to win elections, and they’re mean-spirited.

If they can’t win elections, then they’ll make it harder to vote. If they can’t win elections, then they’ll try to impeach the opponent who won.

The voter-identification laws, which deal with virtually non-existent voter fraud, and the Missouri lawmakers’ attempts this year to impeach Gov. Jay Nixon are the most recent examples. Even though I disagree with these disgusting tactics, I actually applaud them.

They allow voters to see these people for who they really are.

The saddest thing about these tactics is that many (or most) of these Republicans profess themselves to be devout Christians. Unfortunately, these mean-spirited political acts are so very different from Jesus’ loving and gentle nature.

I hope that all voters are aware of this and act accordingly.

Elwin McKenzie Jr.

Peculiar

Church’s hypocrisy

In a famous interview, Pope Francis asked, “If someone is gay and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?”

Evidently, our local bishop has no such reservations (5-15, A4, Commentary, “Church fumbles chance to change”). By all accounts, Colleen Simon was a woman of good will who searched for the Lord and brought tremendous energy, knowledge and compassion to her job in social justice ministry.

Yet she is unfit for employment in the church, according to a diocese whose bishop was convicted in 2012 of failing to report clerical sexual abuse. He remains in his position, apparently undisturbed by the sad hypocrisy of it all.

John Veal

Kansas City

Rush from Kansas

When Sam Brownback took over as Kansas governor, he declared that people would run over each other getting into the state. There was a big hurry to widen and lengthen all the off-ramps from the freeways and all the major highways.

Tax cuts en masse were the rule, as well as hurried laws to open-carry firearms to ward off the savages (liberals) who wanted to keep guns out.

I haven’t seen any wagons jamming the off-ramps into Kansas or miles-long ploddings of carpetbaggers rushing to get in the state. I have seen people, jobs and companies going the other way — out.

Don Rinck Sr.

Mission

Obamacare benefits

Can you remember when every day the news media reported horrible stories about health-insurance abuses?

People paid premiums for years but were canceled when they first needed health care.

Patients with chronic conditions, like women with cancer, were cut off after they had reached the maximum fine-print amount.

Patients with life-threatening diseases were denied promising new treatments their insurance companies claimed were too expensive.

Seniors with Medicare suffered from the huge drug-coverage “doughnut hole” gap that left them without pharmaceuticals for many serious or complex disorders.

Children and adults with even minor disorders were denied insurance because of “pre-existing conditions.”

Parents couldn’t keep their student children on their family plan after age 18.

Forty million Americans had no health insurance, and every year even more could not afford insurance.

This is only a partial list of insurance abuses. More and more of us couldn’t afford health insurance and were denied care when it was needed and most effective. Health care was devolving from chaos into anarchy.

Those bad old times are gone. Now health insurers cannot commit these abuses, thanks to the Affordable Care Act.

Bill Young

Merriam

Cut greenhouse gas

It really doesn’t matter whether you believe the global climate change now occurring is part of a natural earth cycle or is caused by human activity. The effects of a higher global temperatures are clear — wild weather, disrupted food production, redistribution of fresh water, spread of disease, accelerated extinction of species and human displacement from coastal areas around the globe, to name a few.

If we were a wise species, would we not do everything in our power to minimize our contribution to this temperature rise? Whether we started it or not, couldn’t we try to slow or stop it?

If we reduce our greenhouse gas production, what harm can be done?

Let’s choose to err on the side of caution and cut carbon emissions. Too much is at stake to behave otherwise.

Nancy Clark

Shawnee

VA health debacles

According to recent news reports, Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki is “mad as hell.” Furthermore, a White House aide reported that President Barack Obama is “madder than hell” (5-19, A2, “Veterans agency”).

Canned talking points aside, alleged rage means absolutely nothing. My advice to Mr. Obama and company: Stop talking and start doing your jobs competently in order to prevent these repeated health-care debacles.

Steven Go

Overland Park

Streetcar boondoggle

Opposition seems to be growing against the expansion of the streetcar plan for Kansas City. What did city officials expect?

This high-dollar plan was flawed from its original plan. What infuriates me is that city officials again want to gouge homeowners with a property-tax increase for a streetcar plan that is nothing more than a scenic romp through the city.

Many people have said we need this plan to attract younger people to our city. I challenge them to find a way to pay for it other than a property-tax increase for cash-strapped homeowners.

Perhaps this can be a good teaching moment for members of the millennial generation — a generation that has rarely been told the word no. If they want this streetcar expansion, they should find a way to pay for it.

We don’t want it, and don’t ever expect us to pay for something we don’t want or need.

David Zagalik

Kansas City

Clinton’s future

Former secretary of state and former first lady Hillary Clinton is an excellent actor and liar. Commander in chief she should not be.

John Fagan

Wichita

Palestine statehood

We see that the Obama administration is surprised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will push forward with the applications of statehood and other legal actions that would have the world recognize the Palestinian state. Why is this a surprise?

Israel has no interest in the Palestinians having a state of their own. The constant stalling and illegal expansion of settlements in the occupied territories shows Israel does not want a state recognized formally by the United Nations.

The U.S. Congress has passed a law that threatens to remove Palestinian aid if it goes to the United Nations. Why are American congressmen against the Palestinians applying to the United Nations?

Whose allegiance do these American congressmen swear an oath to? Israel has nothing to fear from a Palestinian state because its military superiority is overwhelmingly greater, not to mention the constant pandering by presidents and congressmen that shows American military might backs Israel.

Palestine deserves to be on the map as it was before World War II. Israel can move the cause of peace in the world forward by ceasing the never-ending obstruction of a Palestinian state.

John Kovelan

Lenexa

This story was originally published May 21, 2014 at 5:22 PM with the headline "Longview Road parking, negative GOP, Catholic Church hypocrisy."