NBA in KC, marketing guns, abortion
NBA team for KC
Now is the time. We have one of the most diverse, accommodating and vibrant communities in the United States.
We have a state-of-the-art arena not located in the river bottoms anymore. The University of Missouri has flown the Kansas City coop, so to speak.
This town is now ready to support an NBA franchise. It is a totally different animal than when the Kings were here.
It will work.
Make the move, Greater Kansas City city councils, and make it now — or at least be ready if it can be done and have a commission prepped and ready.
Maybe it could be the same one trying to lure the Republican National Convention here in 2016. Do it.
Ambrose Fontaine
Overland Park
Over marketing guns
As a responsible gun owner and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, I am increasingly uncomfortable and concerned with the unrestrained marketing of firearms and firearms equipment.
Nothing illustrates my concern, and the growing concern of other responsible gun owners, more than three items in a flier from a large sporting goods retailer in the mail: A stockless semiautomatic AK-47-style assault weapon with a 10-inch barrel (which would fit comfortably under a jacket), a 9 mm pistol with a 3-inch barrel that I could easily hide in the palm of my hand and a three-dimensional target made from “self-healing material” shaped like a human skull.
Really, after all we have seen in the news, marketers are selling targets that mimic human skulls? By what stretch of the imagination does a skull target and two easily hidden firearms fit into the category of “sporting goods”?
It’s time for sportsmen, manufacturers, legislators and the public to step back and reassess what we are willing to endorse and defend. I’m in favor of firearms ownership but not this madness.
Joe McMillian
Olathe
Life at conception
Dear pro-choice America: You have been duped.
You have been told a fetus is not a human being, merely tissue. You have been told that because of this fact, abortion is simply exercising one of the rights to which you are entitled.
That is simply not true.
So-called fetuses are genetically distinct, living human beings, and in fact have been since the moment of conception. If you don’t believe me, take a good hard look at the evidence.
Dianne Irving, Ph.D., stated in a 1999 International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy article that her assertion that “during the process (of fertilization), the sperm and the oocyte cease to exist (as such), and a new human being is produced” represents a “consensus of human embryologists internationally.”
In 1981, a U.S. Senate subcommittee held hearings on when human life begins. Among the world-renowned scientists who testified was Jerome Lejeune, the doctor who discovered the cause of Down syndrome.
Lejeune had the following to say: “Life has a very, very long history, but each individual has a very neat beginning: the moment of its conception.”
These are but two pieces of a mounting pile of evidence. Life begins at conception.
Robert Santamarina
Overland Park
U.S. liberal laws
In the colonial period, voting rights in the United States, while narrow, were among the most liberal in the world.
While voting was usually highly restrictive (like owning 50 acres of land), there were rare districts that allowed women with property, free black men and Indian men living in the district to vote.
Even back in the day, there were people who wanted America to work for everyone.
The basis of the Second Amendment is Article 6 of the Articles of Confederation: “... every State shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered, and shall provide and constantly have ready for use, in public stores, a due number of field pieces and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition and camp equipage.”
Under our present Constitution, the Militia Act of 1792 ordered every 18- to 45-year-old man to be “enrolled in the militia” and to “provide himself with a good musket or firelock … or with a good rifle.” This showed the founders connected the right to bear arms with enlistment in a well-regulated militia.
Earl Brigham
Sugar Creek
Value children more
A late 1990s Partnership for Children campaign focused on addressing the question, “Is it good for the children?” The question has stuck with me.
I view children as intrinsically vulnerable. As adults, it is our responsibility to ensure all children are cared for and have what they need to be their personal best.
As human beings, how can we justify less?
I’m not talking about extras.
I’m talking about absolute basics: Love and caring, food, shelter, clothing, a good education and protection from abuse. With these basics, they are able to do their best and have hope for their futures.
If they don’t receive each of these six things, we collectively are reducing their potential today and well into the future. What an incredibly pathetic legacy.
Why do we elect politicians who repeatedly take very explicit steps that favor some while reducing the ability of all children to receive the basics? And then why do we remain silent?
Why do we allow the rhetoric?
It is up to each of us to hold them responsible for putting the basics for all children at the top of their priority list. No excuses.
They must be held accountable when their actions negatively affect children. Period.
Lisa Hays
Overland Park
Slaying Goliath
Critics raise the question: “Did David have to slay his much larger aggressor?” Could he have used a smaller stone or retreated or fled?
Clint Kelly
Kansas City
Relief in Missouri
Three months ago, I passed out in my bathroom. I started having black spots in my vision, fell to my knees and blacked out.
I woke up in a hospital bed, sore and bruised, wondering what was going on, and found out that I had a grand mal seizure. A week later, I was diagnosed with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.
Shortly afterward, I decided to do my research about what it is and what epilepsy as a whole is. I came across many emotional stories about traumatic journeys that families who have it worse had gone through.
Some families had gone through countless medications with no solution. It seemed the only thing that worked was cannabis oil without THC. But in Missouri, cannabis is illegal.
Missouri just passed laws saying that after three medication failures one could be offered this treatment. I am proud that my state is offering this option for epilepsy patients with no other place to turn.
It was a wonderful choice for the great state of Missouri to make to help families trying to cope with epilepsy find some relief.
Claire Davis
Kansas City
World Book Night
Last month, I volunteered for World Book Night. I was among 25,000 volunteers going out into 6,000 towns and cities across the United States.
As a volunteer, I was able to select 20 books from a list of books to distribute. The mission of World Book Night is to seek out light readers or non-readers in the community and offer them a book.
I had a wonderful time distributing the books and met a wide array of people.
The people I gave books to included a 22-year-old man in a wheelchair, a Hispanic high school girl, a boy relocating to the U.S. after his father’s job had taken the family to Hong Kong for five years, a home-schooled boy and a grandfather.
My participation in the program was very rewarding and eye-opening. I would encourage more participation in the Kansas City area.
To learn more about World Book Night, check out:
www.worldbooknight.org.
It would be great to have more Kansas City area participants.
Julie Conn
Gladstone
This story was originally published May 26, 2014 at 7:00 AM with the headline "NBA in KC, marketing guns, abortion."