Kansas City Star readers share thoughts on personal responsibility, health care, mass shootings

Better choices

We were having breakfast at the IHOP in Sulphur Springs, Texas, at 6 a.m. The young waiter was complaining good naturedly about the early hour, telling us his weekend shifts were to supplement his regular job as a mechanic. Extra income was necessary because his girlfriend of seven months was pregnant and unable to find a job.

Moreover, he had been “hit” with child support for a child with a previous girlfriend. Later, while pondering the waiter’s plight, I thought of the numerous speeches the president has made where he cites the struggles of hard-working Americans and blames “communities that have been forgotten by all of us for way too long in terms of substandard schools, and inadequate jobs and a lack of opportunity.”

But what about personal responsibility? Not everyone is born with the same talents and opportunities. But each person can be taught to make the most of what he does have.

The waiter and millions of others just like him could enjoy a better quality of life if they just made better choices.

Carolyn K. Patterson

Westwood Hills

Health care

Imagine you got a nasty cut that needed stitches while you were vacationing in Florida. Would you be concerned that you wouldn’t be able to see a Missouri-licensed doctor?

Probably not. Whether the doctor was based in Florida or some other state, most of us would be confident in the care we’d receive. Indeed, an M.D. from another state is trained pretty much the same way as an M.D. here.

That’s why, for the benefit of patients, Missouri should reform its medical licensing laws and allow more licensed, out-of-state doctors to serve Missouri patients without undue government interference.

More doctors should mean greater access not only for some of our most underserved communities but for all Missourians. I hope policymakers will consider pursuing this pro-market, pro-patient update to our laws.

Patrick Ishmael

Director

Government

Accountability

Show-Me Institute

Kansas City

Averting tragedy

Last month, we had another mass shooting by someone who showed obvious signs of being deeply disturbed in early life but went without mental health care. Could this tragedy have been prevented if he had had the mental health care he needed most of his life?

Would a single-payer health care system have enabled him to get the mental health care he needed? I think better health care is the answer, not more gun control.

Corky Lewis

Lee’s Summit

Legislative action

The Kansas and Missouri legislatures have a lot in common. Neither wants to deal with important issues such as education, infrastructure or ethics. They prefer smoke-and-mirror issues such as voter fraud, defunding Planned Parenthood, enhancing the Second Amendment, providing tax relief for job creators, protecting children from transgender people and winning the war on religion against gay people.

All of these issues are straight from the Republican playbook. Ignore anything that would really make a difference and go straight for the ridiculous and sensational fringe issues.

Bravo, ladies and gentlemen. We used to complain about do-nothing legislative sessions. Now we would welcome one.

Take the next session off, please. We could use a break.

Scott Roby

Lenexa

2nd Amendment

It is time to reconsider the Second Amendment. The stumbling block is the phrase, “A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State ...”

Many say the founders had no concept of assault rifles that fire 800 rounds per minute, but the founders did anticipate progress by using the term “well regulated militia.”

The free state they foresaw was in jeopardy from within. Militias were not standing armies but civilians who banded together in times of threat, and their weapons were kept at home.

The great fear today among conservatives in not a home burglary but federal intrusion into our free state, be that one of the 50 political entities or of one man’s castle. In a sense, as the armaments of the army and the police escalate, so must those of the militia in order to be well regulated.

At some point, a sensible status quo must be found, and that does not fall easily within the phrasing of the current Second Amendment. It is time for a new Second Amendment that is written in clear, modern language that reflects the current state of affairs.

Terry Beckmeyer

New Haven, Mo.

Non-baseball name

The Chicago White Sox home will have a new name (8-25, B4, “White Sox home gets a new name”). The new name, Guaranteed Rate Field is as un-baseball as the previous name, U.S. Cellular Field.

At one time, the Chicago White Sox’s home was at Comiskey Park, named after owner Charles Comiskey. The Chicago White Sox and the name Comiskey were synonymous.

Guaranteed Rate Field is an awful name labeled on the home of a baseball team that for years has brought joy and excitement to millions of loyal fans.

What was that new name again for the home of the Chicago White Sox? I've already forgotten.

Betty Swisher