Readers react to mass killings, Franken-foods and Planned Parenthood
More mass killings
In the wake of the many mass shootings/killings (Dec. 2’s events in San Bernardino, Calif., for example) and the increased threat of terrorists attacking our country, I find the gun lobby’s adamant refusal to support legislation that would prohibit gun sales to persons who are on the government’s no-fly list to be totally insane.
It suggests that the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers are more interested in making money than protecting our country.
Perhaps someone from the gun lobby would be so kind as to offer an exclamation on its ridiculous and dangerous opposition. The if-a-good-guy-had-a-gun-it-wouldn’t-have-happened rationale has been shown recently to be absolutely absurd because a sizable number of “good guys” (law-enforcement personnel) were in fact present at these shootings and many got wounded or killed.
It is time for the gun lobby to wake up and smell the coffee. You are not helping make this country safer. Rather you are opening the floodgates to more killings.
But that’s not your problem, is it? It is all about money.
David Briggs
Basehor
Franken-foods
Genetically modified foods are not innocent. Gluten is an inflammatory, and genetically modified wheat contains 90 percent more gluten than wheat grown decades ago.
Within three weeks of eliminating it from my diet, I was free from severe asthma that had plagued me for six years. Gluten can cause asthma, irritable bowel, throat and voice difficulties, sinus and neurological problems and likely other health problems.
Two of the nation’s top hospitals couldn’t help. I struggled to breathe with every breath and could get only a few hours sleep nightly. Only Prednisone, an anti-inflammatory, helped, but briefly. I feared for my life.
I owe my life to a wonderful specialist at the University of Kansas Medical Center who found through a genetic test that I was gluten sensitive on both sides of my family.
I didn’t have celiac disease. I wasn’t even allergic to gluten, but just sensitive to it because of my genetic makeup. Blood tests had always been negative, but the genetic test proved otherwise.
No gluten, no asthma. I was reborn.
Some genetically modified foods supposedly contain fish and animal proteins, some of which humans don’t normally eat. Many European nations have banned genetically modified organisms. Shouldn’t we?
Eleanor O’Malley
Warrensburg, Mo.
Different treatment
It’s interesting. A white man armed with a rifle who had killed three people (including a police officer) inside the Planned Parenthood office in Colorado Springs, Colo., is allowed to surrender (11-30, A10, “Clinic attack comes amid political fight”).
A black teenager armed with a knife who was suspected of breaking into cars and was veering away from police in Chicago is shot 16 times (11-28, A9, “Rally over slaying disrupts shopping”).
Hmm. Maybe black lives really don’t matter.
Elwin McKenzie Jr.
Peculiar
Rational lawmakers
What is a $1 billion or so in taxpayer subsidies and tax abatements for a new stadium in St. Louis for a team that may not even be around when built?
What is $22 million a mile for a streetcar system in Kansas City when home owners are paying higher and higher rates for an unfunded federal mandate to upgrade water and sewer lines?
What is with a road and bridge infrastructure that is falling apart but that the state and feds cannot fund to repair or even maintain?
The answer is that the politicians in Washington, D.C., and Jefferson City refuse to raise revenue for the benefit of all.
God forbid any federal money for infrastructure is spent here at home, because nothing is left in the treasury after shoveling our tax money overseas and into dubious projects even our military does not want.
Jefferson City is not going to do a thing unless directed to do so by lobbyists.
Perhaps one solution that Missourians can undertake is a statewide ballot initiative to reduce House and Senate seats in Jefferson City by a third to get rational representation.
H. Jonathan Pratt
Kansas City
This story was originally published December 4, 2015 at 6:56 PM with the headline "Readers react to mass killings, Franken-foods and Planned Parenthood."