Readers share thoughts on Donald Trump, KC building demolitions, minimum wage
Trump’s rule
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is loaded with dirty laundry and ammunition for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Trump cannot seem to control his mouth when it comes to innuendo and lies.
We are faced with a not great choice for president. Clinton started promising a lot of the same things that Democratic challenger Sen. Bernie Sanders made her shift toward but very reluctantly.
What Trump promises, we are not sure yet. He has said anything he thinks will get him the presidency. Now I ask you to remember what he has said and the changes he will surely make to get some votes besides the radical right.
I can see Trump in the Oval Office telling the public how smart and great he is because he got elected by the people who love him so. The next step would be how he will straighten out the rest of the world.
High-paying jobs. Full employment. Wall Street under control.
And if you believe that, the check is in the mail. Do not worry, America, Trump the Great will fix all problems.
Thomas Taylor
Independence
Razing buildings
Well, the city has knocked down one old building on Troost Avenue. If officials really have the $10 million, they need to knock down at least a house a day.
Figuring 52 weeks in a year and a building per weekday, that’s about 260 razed structures a year. The Star needs to put a scorecard in the paper showing how many buildings are torn down.
If we don’t keep the pressure on the city, next year we will see that it has dropped the ball, and the $10 million has somehow disappeared.
Joe Purcell
Kansas City
Minimum wage
How many gas stations still have someone to pump your gas? How many jobs were lost to self-service soda dispensers? Most people don’t earn the minimum wage, so getting rid of it would not put downward pressure on wages.
Raising wages encourages businesses to replace workers with machines. Getting rid of the minimum wage would allow more people to convert idle hours into wages. A minimum wage hurts those on the lowest rungs as well as businesses that cannot make a profit at that wage.
The minimum wage might have been necessary when information was limited. A database on the internet that tells the minimum, mean and maximum wages and skill requirements of every job would help people find better-paying jobs and prevent exploitation.
People could search for places that pay better or use this information in negotiations with their employers. People could find out what skills they need and which jobs are in demand.
Joseph Coon
Leawood
Leawood, guns
The Leawood City Council should be commended for proclaiming June as Asking Saves Kids month. The ASK campaign is a collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics and Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence. It encourages parents to ask whether there is an unlocked gun in the homes where their children are going to be playing.
It is estimated that 70 percent of child shooting deaths could be prevented if firearms were properly stored, locked and unloaded. Leawood is the first city in Kansas to acknowledge this safety concern.
Hopefully, it will raise parents’ awareness of the risk as children indulge in their summer fun. Let’s hope that other community leaders will follow this important example.
Paul Temme
Prairie Village
GOP transformed
Please bring bring back the real GOP from the brink of extinction. How can a party morph into a party of hate, racism, isolation and anger in such a short primary season?
The answer is presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump. Imagine the effect of his vulgar tone on us and more importantly on our children if he were to capture the White House.
Imagine his addresses to our nation. We will all feel free to insult each other at random.
The GOP should enlist Newt Gingrich, who has vision, to reconstruct basic Republican tenets to give us a real choice in November. And give him charge to find a Trump alternative — quickly.
Let the Republican Party restructure now even if it means an election loss. Let it stand for principles and honor to keep America, as President Ronald Reagan stated, “a shining city upon a hill.”
Robert Maurus
Kansas City
Sanders candidacy
The Star’s June 6 editorial, “Presidential race: historic, delusional and racist,” referred to Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as delusional.
The Catholic Church rejected the theories of Copernicus and Galileo because they were contrary to Catholic beliefs. They were both right.
People once thought that launching missiles into space would burst the atmosphere that surrounds the Earth. They were wrong.
To call Sen. Bernie Sanders delusional because of his ideas to have free college education, to have universal health care and to find ways to finance those programs is just as wrong. Shame on the editorial board. That opinion can be compared to many other myths based on faith or beliefs.
Gene W. DeVaux
Greenwood
This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 3:00 PM with the headline "Readers share thoughts on Donald Trump, KC building demolitions, minimum wage."