Readers share thoughts on Fox News, F. Glenn Miller Jr. and climate change

Fox News fan

To the people who complain about Fox News, you have NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN and MSNBC to tell you all the things that Fox News doesn’t report and you don’t have to be informed on.

But I like to know what is really going on and if anything is being done about it, so I watch Fox News.

You can stick your head in the sand if you want.

That is why the Obama administration doesn’t like Fox News.

Betty Phillips

Overland Park

Handiwork of hate

I was dismayed to read the F. Glenn Miller Jr. interview (11-16, A1, “‘Every Jew in the world knows my name now’”).

On April 13, I dropped off my daughter for her final performance as Scout in “To Kill a Mockingbird” at the White Theatre at the Jewish Community Center. I soon received a distraught phone call from a friend telling me there had been a shooting.

Our family was blessed that day — by the caring cast who comforted our kids, by staff who acted bravely to protect others, by police who stopped what could have been an even greater loss of life, by friends who retrieved my daughter and by the compassionate response of this great community.

My heart aches for those whose loved ones were killed.

These words from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. hang in our kitchen: “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

While I respect Leonard Zeskind’s opinion that exploring the mindset of extremists can lead to a better society, the only issue illuminated here were the legal loopholes that allowed a hate-filled convicted felon to obtain firearms.

The story did not serve to “drive out hate.”

It only served as an unnecessary reminder of a sick, evil man.

Lisa McGahey Veglahn

Prairie Village

Climate change

Climate change should be viewed from both the geopolitical and the scientific perspective.

Our technical advancements have worked to control CO₂ emissions. The United States’ emissions are down to 1990s levels. Increases are almost completely attributed to China and India.

Any altruistic political solution will be insignificant and unilateral. There is no way China or India will choke their growth. That aside, CO₂ is a poor absorber of atmospheric heat (remember the bovine methane emission jokes).

One average volcanic eruption negates all the politically imposed efforts to reduce emissions. When I was a grad student (meteorology) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, “all climate scientists” agreed that we were heading to another ice age because we were adding to atmospheric greenhouse gases.

Reid Bryson, the late professor emeritus at UW and a global laureate honored by the United Nations Global Environment Program, said in 2007: “All this argument is the temperature going up or not, it’s absurd. Of course, it’s going up. It has gone up since the early 1800s, before the Industrial Revolution, because we’re coming out of the Little Ice Age, not because we’re putting more carbon dioxide into the air.”

Mike Looney

Overland Park

Valuing police officers

In regards to the recent rise in gun sales because of the unfortunate death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., I feel for everyone’s safety. My father was a police officer and later became a detective after 20 years of a very stressful and dangerous job.

I was taught to always lock my car doors, even before automatic locks were available, and to always be aware of my surroundings. I have tried to pass these lessons on to my daughters.

I have also attended the Lee’s Summit Citizens Police Academy twice, once alone and once with my daughter.

These public servants shoot to go home to their families, and I respect the officers who put their lives in danger protecting ours.

I’m deeply saddened by the loss of a young life, but we need to remember that the officer in question is innocent until proved guilty, as is every American citizen.

I encourage people to see whether their city offers a citizens police academy or a sign-up opportunity for a ride-along. It’s time well spent and brings us all one step closer to understanding the loss of another young man with so much potential.

Rebecca Onken

Lee’s Summit

Obama’s battles

We still have troops in Germany, Japan and South Korea. This very successful strategy is not without incident.

A 1948 Soviet blockade in Germany threatened West Berlin. A massive U.S. led airlift saved West Berlin.

North Korea routinely threatens South Korea. Russia and Japan still have border issues. North Korea and Japan remain stable.

We abandoned South Vietnam, no troops. We failed to provide promised air support. In 1975, North Vietnam drove straight down Highway 1. South Vietnam was lost. Many were imprisoned or assassinated.

President Barack Obama abandoned Iraq. Obama said Iraq was stable, a model for the region.

Obama’s former defense secretary, Leon Panetta, said U.S. troops would have reinforced Iraq’s military, limited Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s assault on Sunnis and promoted stability.

Obama said Syria’s Bashar Assad must go. Obama drew a red line. Disagreeing with his cabinet, Obama declined to support Syrian moderates.

Obama initially said the Islamic State was a junior varsity. Assad remains in Syria. The red line disappeared. The junior varsity Islamic State invaded Iraq and beheaded Christians while raping and kidnapping women.

Iraq is no longer stable. You cannot always choose your battles.

Sometimes they choose you.

Jim Kilen

Kansas City

Love, togetherness

Although this letter will not bring back the lives of these two young women, it will shine a light on a dark, dark subject (11-16, A1, “Support soothes anxiety, grief after suicides”). This is something that needs to be addressed by the media.

Suicide is a very sad but very real occurrence in today’s society. Youths see magazine and television advertisements about having a perfect body. Or they read things throughout the Internet on how to obtain the perfect image.

Society tells them that without a college degree, they won’t amount to anything. What we need to be teaching these kids is joy, love and happiness.

We need to be teaching in our schools that loneliness is a disease. We should be reading about how your mind can be a sad and broken place.

We need people to understand that these things happen, but suicide is never the answer.

Instead of putting all this pressure on these kids, we should be telling them we love them.

Nicholas Carroll

Olathe

Kindness in Aldi’s

I was checking out my groceries at Aldi’s in Belton and wanted to use my credit card, but the Aldi’s required a pin number, which I have never had with my credit card. The store also would not take a check.

What to do? Would you believe the gentleman next in line paid my bill?

Yes he did, and scooted out the door before I could write him a check for the amount. What a nice thing to do.

Thank you, thank you, nice gentleman. I was flabbergasted.

The best way, I think, to really thank him is to do the same for someone else, and that I shall do.

Harriet Bennett

Kansas City

Thankful grandmoms

The gentleman was seated next to our table of five members of American Association of University Women at the newly opened Stroud’s restaurant in Overland Park.

We had a very good discussion checking on friends and their health.

The manager had come around checking to see how everything was. The waitress was very helpful and good.

When we were getting ready to leave, the waitress told us the gentleman said he was reminded of his grandmother and paid our checks.

We right away told her we were all grandmothers.

How warmly wonderful we felt for the kindness of the gesture and how complimentary it was.

Barbara Hulett