Readers share views on poor Kansas roads, guns, pro-life hypocrisy

Bad Kansas roads

On a recent drive from Kansas City to Denver, I had the pleasure of noting the difference between road construction in Kansas and road construction in Colorado. My only regret is that I had no dash cam mounted in my vehicle.

Headed west, I drove through Topeka and the traffic began to slow near Gage Boulevard when a sign appeared saying, “Road work ahead — left lane closed.” As traffic merged and slowed to a crawl, we approached the orange cones.

I saw a truck ahead with a man hanging off the end picking up orange cones.

“Hmm, already done and only 11 a.m.,” I thought. But we had at least another mile or so of cones to crawl through with no work.

Finally, up ahead was another truck — putting down orange cones. I laughed. This is roadwork in Kansas.

During that long drive through Kansas there was only one more project, but again it was marked by miles of cones with almost no work — two jackhammers.

After the Colorado border, the first road work sign was of earth movers and crews working — actual work.

Thank you, Gov. Sam Brownback, for the deteriorating condition of Interstate 70 and the elation of seeing road construction occurring elsewhere.

Liz Foley

Prairie Village

Glorifying guns

I caught a recent article on msn.com concerning how Missouri has relatively few gun laws but a high rate of gun violence.

The story showed the Jackson County prosecutor looking at a web page with three young men, one wearing a mask, another proudly holding a gun in each hand, and last but not least a laughing member of everything that is wrong with gun laws in Missouri, holding an assault rifle.

Where the humor is in these disgusting displays of terror and intimidation is beyond me. How much longer are the majority of Americans going to tolerate the easy access to weapons whose only purpose is to kill other people?

We have a terrorist watch list that keeps these dangerous people from boarding airplanes but not from buying as many guns as they want. Why would the National Rifle Association not want to stop these people from buying guns?

When it came to smart guns, the NRA intimidated gun shops that wanted to sell these weapons, which could prevent the accidental shooting of one child by his brother or the intruder from turning it on you.

I thought America was better than this. I guess I have been wrong.

Steven Addison

Kansas City

Pro-life hypocrisy

Proponents of the far right complain about tax money going to the poor while they support a ban on abortions. They call themselves pro-lifers, but in fact they are only pro-birth.

What would happen if 1.2 million unwanted fetuses were born and enter the system? The parents wouldn’t want them, and foster care could not handle that much of an increase, so an orphanage program would have to be established and funded by taxes.

Statistics show it takes a middle-income family about $245,000 to raise a child to 18 years of age. This equates to $294 billion of tax revenue for the first 1.2 million children who age out after going into the system. Try doing the math for what it would take in taxes to expand the program over 18 years.

Now tell me how the GOP would be all gung ho to fund this program. All I hear now from the GOP is that freeloaders who receive government assistance are scum.

Responses to this letter will be, “It’s not about money” (until they get the tax bill). Hypocrites.

Victor Dietz

Kansas City, Kan.

Vow to not forget

I would like to thank Leonard Pitts Jr. for his June 7 critique of the critics, “History is not obliged to make anyone feel good,” of the retelling of “Roots.”

Growing up in legally segregated America, seeing this country change and grow, I have lived during historic times. A major source of strength was how black people fought to keep their souls and minds intact by learning how strong our ancestors were and what they wanted us to do.

I am of the last generation of people who knew someone who had known someone who had been enslaved. These were people whose parents and grandparents were slaves. Those brave souls spit in the eye of that horror and provided a foundation for the success of a people.

We, the people — that’s all Americans — must decide to always remember how we got to this point in our history. We as black people must never forget.

Michael Patton

Kansas City

This story was originally published June 10, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Readers share views on poor Kansas roads, guns, pro-life hypocrisy."