Good grief, why all the grumbling, Kansas City? Impressive new KCI Airport is a breeze | Opinion
Grumble, grumble
Good grief. There is a lot of negativity in the United States. However, I thought the opening of our new world-class airport, on time and on budget, would give us cause to celebrate.
We toured the facility before the opening and were very impressed. This includes the baggage claim and pickup area. When I fly to St. Louis, I go down the escalator to baggage claim, pick up my bag, call my sister in the cellphone parking lot, wait for her car, get in and off we go. We now have that same convenience at KCI.
Why is this easy process causing so much negativity? (March 10, 7A, Letters)
- Susie Rawlings, Leawood
Bit by bit
This moment in time calls for serious thinking and action. Many of us have felt the shock of House Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s release of 40,000-plus hours of video from the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on our democracy to Fox News host Tucker Carlson. This action allowed Carlson to craft truly false propaganda that hides the vast majority of the tragedies of that horrific day in our country’s history.
Unfortunately, many of our elected national leaders are not speaking out against Carlson and McCarthy’s actions.
I am troubled by a seemingly low interest among a portion of our American population regarding history’s stories of when authoritarian regimes have risen to power. Even in Kansas City and Missouri, we have in recent years seen our elected officials overturn the majority vote of the people.
Some of these actions may not seem to matter, but when they continue to build, or even multiply, we could awaken one morning and find our beloved democracy replaced by a dictatorship or some form of totalitarian control.
Surely, we the people do not want or deserve that fate.
- Ron J. Hoffman, Grandview
Standard objection
Do you remember federal legislation that tried out year-round daylight saving time in 1974? I do. (March 12, 16A, “Changing the clocks twice a year is an idea that belongs in the past”)
I was one year out of college, supervising multigenerational factory workers for a Midwest food company. After several months, everyone at the company and their families hated constant DST. Federal representatives realized their bipartisan mistake and quickly reversed the legislation that same year.
At that time, consultants stated there were two types of people in the world: math people and word people. Math people favored daylight saving time because it optimizes the hours of daylight in the evenings. Word people favored standard time because it optimizes people time all year in all time zones.
Year-round DST was a gross mistake in 1974 and would repeat itself if enacted again.
Refer to research articles regarding standard time. You will better understand needs versus wants for workers, students, utilities, safety, health and transportation, rural or urban. All information leans toward switching to permanent standard time for you, your extended group and your elected officials
- James Svoboda, Kansas City
Critical thinking
The headline on a March 3 front-page story tells us “Kansas may ban outdoor sleeping for homeless, as Mo. did.” This legislation is the product of a conservative Texas think tank, the Cicero Institute.
From what I’ve read, there are several common reasons for homelessness: Already-poor people encounter an unexpected large expense, for which they have no cushion. Our mental institutions of the past were frightful, so we closed them — but some people with mental illness are unable to fend for themselves. And then there are those addicted to alcohol or drugs.
Are our Kansas and Missouri legislators unable to think of human measures to address a problem? If they’re so lacking in effective reasoning, they have no place in a legislative body.
I’m going to contact my Kansas representative and senator to ask for thoughtful, compassionate measures, and I hope others will do the same.
- Marilyn Bynum, Leavenworth
