Readers react to guns, Donald Trump and the minimum wage
Guns on campus
An Oct. 25 article, “Most Kansans in survey disagree with state policies,” showed how disconnected our leaders are from the majority they are supposed to represent. Most specifically, and dear to this Grandparent Against Gun Violence, is the appallingly low number of folks (a paltry 16 percent) who favor concealed or open carry on our college campuses.
How they ever carried that abominable law through our Legislature is a crime in itself.
Kat Berger
Overland Park
Viable candidate
I am inspired and excited with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign rhetoric. He’s saying all the things I’ve been thinking for 10 years but kept to myself.
Federal government, elected officials, immigration. He’s clearly touching a nerve in certain political demographics. He’s juicing an America fed up with business as usual.
He’s absolutely turned the presidential race on its head. The Republican Party is stunned, and the Democrats are loving it.
Trump is fresh air. He owes no one. He owns the media coverage. That said, I have bad news. He’s not electable.
His policy points are unachievable with our nation’s laws. He’ll go nowhere with Congress. America needs a reality check.
Pass on Trump and look at the next candidate. After eight years of President Barack Obama, we need to make a good decision.
You can watch Trump on his next TV show. Meanwhile, look at all viable candidates. America needs you.
Phil Swayne
Gladstone
Minimum wage
The Missouri legislature recently undermined home-rule powers by nullifying Kansas City’s minimum-wage ordinance. Still, the City Council could pass an ordinance requiring city agencies, subsidiaries, contractors and entities receiving city funds or tax abatements to pay at least $15 per hour.
This would create a ripple effect, which would raise metro area wages. Paying a living wage is the right thing to do.
Clark H. Coan
Lawrence
Fetal tissue
Recently, Planned Parenthood was duped by an anti-abortion activist who posed as a research representative, shot a concealed video, edited it in a misleading way and then released it so as to portray Planned Parenthood as an uncaring barbaric organization.
As a result, several state legislatures are threatening to introduce legislation to make it more difficult to use fetal tissue in research.
The public needs to understand that 95 percent of Planned Parenthood services are providing women’s health services, cancer screening and prevention, contraception and screening for sexually transmitted diseases. In fact, the irony of the fervor by anti-abortion groups to defund Planned Parenthood is that it would reduce contraceptive services, which would lead to more abortions.
Especially affected would be the poor. They would get a double whammy when these same anti-abortion enthusiasts advocate cutting safety-net services to the poor’s unplanned children.
Almost all Americans have benefited from research using fetal tissue. Many lifesaving vaccines have been developed through the use of fetal tissue — which would otherwise have been discarded.
To guard against fetal-tissue misuse, the Fetal Tissue Transplantation Panel was appointed by President Ronald Reagan. Planned Parenthood strictly adheres to the guidelines initiated by this panel.
Robert Stuber, M.D.
St. Joseph
Syrian refugees
There are some things to be considered involving admitting Syrian refugees:
▪ The United States lacks the ability to properly vet such immigrants. Some questions include Are they criminal, what is their true nationality and do they have a terrorist connection?
▪ Most if not all are Muslim. Why don’t the Syrians migrate to Egypt or Saudi Arabia? Why not create a safe zone in Syria that is guarded by the United States and Russia and funded by the European Union nations?
▪ The recent five- to 10-year history of Islamic refugees is that they do not want to assimilate into the host country, preferring to remain with their other countrymen with their own beliefs.
▪ What is the possible cost to the U.S. taxpayer? We cannot even take care of our own veterans now. And while this may seem harsh, we need to take care of our own first. HR 3314 is the answer.
Ed LaBarr
Kearney
This story was originally published October 28, 2015 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to guns, Donald Trump and the minimum wage."