Readers share views on climate summit, leaf pickup, politicians
Protecting Earth
As we reconsider our responses to violence with violence, Paris and the world must take care that responses to recent attacks do not ignore a more dangerous, and less visible, planetary terrorism.
Paris is planning for a very important environmental and climate summit, which is expected to attract thousands of delegates.
Responding to the Paris attacks by tightening police control and restricting freedom to demonstrate for the planet’s future would only enable an even more serious form of terrorism.
As recent news indicates, by the early 1980s, oil companies’ research scientists had confirmed the effects of carbon emissions on increasing global temperature. Yet, rather than seeking solutions, they spent 20 years pouring billions of dollars into climate denial.
Police repression of delegates and activists in Paris would present a tremendous corporate climate denial bonus to this group.
Corporate efforts to protect greed at the expense of the human race could lead to billions of deaths rather than a few hundred. We must keep the resolve to speak out and to protect the future of our planet.
Amrita Burdick
Kansas City
KC leaf pickup
Nature’s schedule for dropping leaves does not agree with the city’s pickup schedule. Nature’s schedule would have leaf pickup in December and January, when the leaves have actually fallen and people have time to rake and bag.
When the pickup happened a few days ago, I had only three bags ready. Now I have at least 30 bags on the ground.
The same thing happened last year, and it happens to most of Kansas City’s taxpayers. The 20-bag limit does not fit our needs either. A lot of our irresponsible citizens will just throw the bags in ditches.
City government needs to work with our citizens to keep our city looking good. We need to have drop-off sites all around town where people could take trash, recyclables and good used stuff to be given away.
The leaf problem has a cheap fix.
Making Kansas City better takes effort but has a huge payoff. The Royals were creative and made some changes, and look what happened.
Don Crupper
Kansas City
Political tangle
The difference between a politician and a candidate who denies he is a politician is that the politician has opinions on policy and identifies with a set of principles. A candidate who denies being a politician thinks his personality is so messianic and overwhelming that having principles and policies isn’t needed.
Examples are Republican presidential hopefuls Donald Trump and Sen. Ted Cruz, as well as Sarah Palin, North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In a recent interview, Trump explained that knowing facts about issues wasn’t a necessity. He said he would surround himself with “yes men.”
Throughout history, the downfall of a nation that holds the same lofty profile as the United States does now was precipitated when a leader with egocentric syndrome assumes control of the governing mechanism.
It’s called political science for a reason.
Paul Comerford
Blue Springs
Brownback bashing
Enough, already. I get the picture.
According to The Star, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is the most evil person since Richard Nixon. But how many letters do we really need telling us this?
Every morning when I open my paper, I wonder just how many anti-Brownback letters will clutter things up.
Vernon C. Hales
Merriam
Return to sender
Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me. I lift my lamp beside the golden door.
Inscription at the base of the Statue of Liberty.
Dear France,
Please come get your statue. Sorry, you misjudged us.
Signed: Governors of more than half the states in the U.S.
Jean Sund
Shawnee
This story was originally published November 23, 2015 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Readers share views on climate summit, leaf pickup, politicians."