Readers sound off on Labor Day, President Obama, Donald Trump
Labor Day hopes
If you ask enough people in our community whether they’re able to sustain their families and make ends meet, you’ll quickly find out that too many aren’t getting a fair shake.
Even as the economy has turned around, most Americans haven’t seen improvement in their pay.
It’s just plain wrong that companies pay the people who make our food, care for our loved ones, teach our children and stock the shelves at the stores where we shop so little they can’t afford the basics. The bottom line is that we all are worth more than chief executives say.
How do we get back on track? It’s vital, but not enough, to demand that profitable corporations create jobs that allow our community to thrive.
We must continue to press our elected officials to boost the minimum wage and enact standards that value families. This Labor Day, let’s remember that every person should be able to earn a fair return on his or her work.
Cristen Huntz
Kansas City
Great president
President Barack Obama, in my opinion, has been one of our country’s greatest presidents.
Against unyielding opposition from the Republican Party, he helped restore our economy to health after a generational crisis brought on by the policies of the previous administration.
He was able to lead our country to adopt a health-care plan that expands affordable care to most of our citizens, a policy that almost every civilized country in the world had already instituted.
I can understand honest differences of opinion on matters of policy and the role of government in the affairs of our country but I believe that the degree of personal animus and vitriol directed at this good man can be attributed in large measure to thinly disguised racism.
Larry Knecht
Kansas City
Unlikely to change
I was taught many years ago that “past behavior is a predictor of future behavior.” Does anyone think 70-year-old Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump would change his rude comments and poor judgment if elected president?
Betty Harrison
Overland Park
Steel industry jobs
Well, I just watched an ad for the Republican presidential ticket telling us that this is the party to rescue the steel industry by returning jobs sent overseas.
The message stresses that steel built this country’s bridges and infrastructure.
How many bridge-building jobs have gone overseas?
Honestly, I don’t know the answer to that question. However, I do know that President Barack Obama’s quest to build infrastructure to add jobs was shot down. I do know that virtually Kansas’ whole fund to build highways and bridges has been stolen.
So now we are to trust Republicans to provide jobs through building our infrastructure?
Please.
Karen Booth
Roeland Park
Ban cigarettes
To suggest that any one — or any thing — is damned by God is a serious indictment, offensive to many, including non-believers.
Such a statement is considered a blaspheme to the faithful.
That said, if there is anything on this planet that is truly cursed by God, it is tobacco, processed then ignited — in all its noxious forms.
It does nothing positive for humankind. It burns the eyes, is loathsome to the nose, is filthy and is expensive.
It robs millions of their money, their health and their lives.
If there is anything on our Earth that has truly been damned by God, it has to be tobacco.
So, when you light up next to me and blow your acrid, hideous smoke in my face at a Kansas City area casino, know that I am not swearing, but speaking truth when I rail against your tobacco.
It is past time for the legislatures in all states to do the right thing by casino patrons and employees and ban smoking, as they have in all other public places.
It is way past time.
Gary K. Bradley
Leawood
This story was originally published September 3, 2016 at 4:05 PM with the headline "Readers sound off on Labor Day, President Obama, Donald Trump."