Readers react to Dennis Hastert, guns, KCI, City Hall pork
Hastert’s sentence
There was a football coach at Penn State who did the same thing as former Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert (4-28, A7, “Ex-House speaker is ordered to prison after stunning downfall”). The football coach was prosecuted and jailed, and they threw away the key.
Hastert gets slapped on the wrist.
What gives?
Kids get more time for smoking a joint.
Ginny Kudlinski
Overland Park
Idiots with guns
More senseless gun violence and Kansas City’s mayor trots out his favorite nostrum: “idiots with guns.” Perhaps if Mayor Sly James worked as hard on “idiot control” as he does on “gun control,” progress might be made.
David Overman
Parkville
Disgrace at KCI
Shame on the mayor and City Council. Not to consider the users of Kansas City International Airport in their evaluation is borderline criminal (4-27, A1, “Airlines to KC: Single terminal is best”).
KCI is the best airport in the world for departures and arrivals.
You can drive to a parking garage and walk under cover to your gate and depart or await arrivals with the most convenience.
The facility was designed with that in mind.
The idea that anyone could build one facility with the same convenience is asinine.
The lack of proper maintenance at KCI is the result of the Aviation Department not doing its job. Officials in the department should be reprimanded or fired, I’m not sure which.
I know some members of the staff, and they should know better. The users deserve better, and they vote.
Do your job as owners of any property should.
Don Hurlbert
Former city engineer
During KCI
Construction
Kansas City
City Hall pork fest
Kansas City has a miserable record of taking on big projects.
Remember the Power & Light District fiasco? For years, millions of tax dollars will be required to underwrite this boondoggle.
What is the debt load of Kansas City International Airport? What are the landing fees at the airport?
What would the landing fees be after spending $964 million at KCI? What percentage increase in fees will the citizens be burdened with?
It’s another straw man argument to suggest that parking fees, airline fees and concessions will cover the $964 million. The city will issue bonds to cover the debt. Is the city financially healthy enough to take on such a massive debt?
If the city is intent on issuing bonds, then it should issue bonds to demolish the thousands of empty, derelict properties throughout Kansas City and clear out and remove the brush and debris that endanger the safety of the police officers. The safety and well-being of the police is more important than any City Hall pork fest.
Sadly, public officials remain addicted to spending other people’s money. The public knows this, and that is why there is no public support for another pork festival on the backs of current and future citizens.
By the way, the public has no issue with the purported “strange layout” of the airport.
Garth Adcock
Overland Park
Stewing in St. Louie
Kansas City Chiefs coach Andy Reid recently invited disenfranchised St. Louis Rams fans to Arrowhead Stadium. Now, if that isn’t gall, I don’t know what is. Sorry, Andy, but I think most Rams fans won’t make the long trip to Kansas City.
Your team stabbed St. Louis in the back when it voted to OK the Rams’ move to Los Angeles.
Of course, in your defense, so did our other Midwestern neighbors in Chicago, Green Bay, Minnesota and Indianapolis. However, because we are fellow Missourians, the Chiefs’ vote hurt the most.
Apparently, the Chiefs aren’t concerned about Missouri’s economy, just their own.
As a former Topekan, I grew up cheering Len Dawson and the Chiefs. Last year, I cheered your likeable Kansas City Royals, and I told St. Louis Cardinals fans in 1985 not to be so confident when they predicted a sweep of the Royals.
I still ask friends to bring me bottles of Arthur Bryant’s barbecue sauce.
I am not so bitter as to hope the Chiefs’ team plane crashes in a ball of flames, but I will not be making any trips to our sister city to watch the corrupt NFL teams play — even if it would be an excuse to pick up barbecue sauce and see the Country Club Plaza.
Sorry, just can’t do it.
Paul Kjorlie
St. Louis
Guns, Republicans
Different is different. Open carry of weapons at the Republican National Convention?
Absolutely a dumb idea, probably a hoax. Universities? Schools? Churches? Stores? The Second Amendment clearly protects the right.
Lee Biard
Lenexa
Overlooked at KCI
Seeing the proposed drawing of a new Kansas City International Airport single terminal on the April 28 opinion page with the editorial, “Clock’s ticking on new KCI terminal,” I observed no one with cane or crutches, wheelchair or walker, gray hair or toting several young children or even struggling with a load of luggage. And look at just a smidgen of the floor they’d have to walk to get to their plane gate. Oh, my aching back, arms, legs, arches and knees.
Not every passenger is young, healthy, strong or having only a briefcase to hang onto. Come on Kansas City airport committee, please realize that a new airport may be a very expensive feather in your caps, but wise spending of that money on the things that are truly dysfunctional in our city (crime, schools, crumbling infrastructures, etc.) could be golden crowns on your heads instead.
Maybe in time, when this city finally gleams from internal cleansing, there will be a genuine need for a new, convenient KCI. Maybe.
Cheri McCoy
Pleasant Valley
This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 10:00 AM with the headline "Readers react to Dennis Hastert, guns, KCI, City Hall pork."