Readers share views on Missouri legislature, low pay, gun laws
Needs unaddressed
It saddens me to think our legislators are representative of the citizens of Missouri. I find I am embarrassed as a Missouri citizen that they represent me. Heroin and prescription drug abuse and deaths from that abuse are rampant in our state.
Missouri is the only state in the U.S. that does not have a prescription drug database. Missouri is the only state that does not have a system for monitoring day-care institutions for quality care.
Could our legislators be too busy working on putting a gun in the hands of every citizen, including felons, to address the problem of drug abuse and poor day-care institutions?
Barbara D. Jones
Maplewood, Mo.
Raise low pay
I support nearly 1,000 Service Employees International Union Local 1 janitors, many of whom live in my district, in their fight for a living wage.
In the last 30 years, real wages for the bottom 70 percent of workers have shrunk. In Kansas City, the median wage for janitors is $9.25 an hour. So the average janitor makes just more than $16,000, pushing many families below the poverty line, forcing them to rely on public assistance.
Working parents should not have to choose between putting food on the table and paying rent. They shouldn’t have to depend on public assistance. Taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize the low wages big companies pay their workers.
Kansas City contractors need to do the right thing for our city. Instead of offering janitors nickels and dimes, pay janitors what they need to raise their families. This would help make our neighborhoods safer and make our great city a more prosperous place for everyone.
Jermaine Reed
City Councilman
Kansas City
Stand your ground
The legislative session ended last week with the passing of SB 656, a “stand your ground” bill that would make every day in Missouri more dangerous, especially for African-American communities.
Stand your ground laws let people shoot to kill in public places, even when they could clearly and safely walk away from danger.
The Urban Institute examined racial disparities in justified gun homicide rulings and found that when white shooters kill black victims, 34 percent of the resulting homicides are deemed justifiable. Only 3.3 percent of deaths are ruled justifiable when the shooter is black and the victim is white.
Stand your ground adds to racial tension in Missouri and could increase violence in our cities.
Hundreds of volunteers with the Missouri chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, have made phone calls, sent emails, met with lawmakers and testified to defeat SB 656. They are afraid our state will be the first to enact a stand your ground law since Trayvon Martin was killed in February 2012.
The bill heads to the governor’s desk next, and it’s not too late to urge Gov. Jay Nixon to veto it.
Erin Gingrich-Gaylord
Kansas City
Missouri advances
Last month we saw Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon sign an executive order to remove all questions about criminal history from state job applications. This is the latest in a growing “Ban the Box” movement, which gives people with prior convictions an opportunity to be judged on their merits rather than past actions.
Twenty-two states and more than 100 municipalities have adopted fair-chance hiring reforms aimed at getting people with criminal records back to work. The most well-known reform in this movement involves removing the conviction history check box from job applications.
This policy, along with other fair-chance reforms, has been adopted by some of the nation’s top private employers, including Koch Industries, Wal-Mart, Target and Home Depot.
In Kansas, an estimated 400,000 adults have criminal histories, representing 22 percent of the state’s working-age adults who might face barriers to entering the labor market after incarceration.
It’s time for Kansas to embrace fair-chance hiring so everyone who wants to work can find a good job and contribute fully to our economy and society.
Kathryn Evans
Madden
Kansas City
Bartle Hall curlers
I clearly remember the controversy surrounding our Bartle Hall sculptures in 1994. You loved or hated them. Your opinion — regardless of love or hate — is all that matters.
In other words: “It really does not matter what the girls in the locker room are saying. As long as they are talking about you.”
We are still talking.
Larry G. Smith
Roeland Park
KCI pause needed
Thank you Mayor Sly James for hitting the pause button on renovation/changes to our beloved Kansas City International Airport. As someone who flies intermittently, I am mostly happy with our current airport.
Our airport may have flaws but three-hour wait times is not one of them.
Mary Ethington
Independence
Inconsistent acts
Some people believe that to prevent mass shootings, society should work on providing mental health care rather than limiting guns. Many of these same people think we should remove the means for abortion rather than help provide birth control. That seems inconsistent.
Marti Schlosser
Lee’s Summit
This story was originally published May 20, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Readers share views on Missouri legislature, low pay, gun laws."