Josh Hawley calls overturning Roe a ‘watershed.’ Probably so — but not how he thinks

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Yes, a watershed

Sen. Josh Hawley is right: This is a watershed moment in American politics. (June 24, KansasCity.com, “Josh Hawley says abortion ruling will push people to move states, strengthening the GOP”) He’s just not right in the way he thinks he is.

I am a proud resident of Kansas City, Missouri, and I’m not going anywhere. The pernicious manipulation of administrative and procedural rules by an ethically bankrupt cabal of corporatist sycophants installed by the most corrupt administration ever to manage our federal government has galvanized me, and should energize so many others, to stay and be a voice against the semantic thuggery that they and their regressive, philosophically weak cohort have forced on the citizens of this great nation.

No longer will I sit back and listen to the forked tongues of so many bigots pretending to be the good guys while robbing and enabling violence against the poor and disenfranchised in the heartland. I, for one, am staying right here to be an ally to those people this man has so heartily victimized with his fatuous arrogance and irrational fanaticism for dusty ideas promulgated by the moneyed elite who so desperately want to deceive us into believing they aren’t thieves and liars, and that the mistakes of history are actually our keys to freedom.

- John LaPointe Navarre, Kansas City

Not our issue

On overturning Roe v. Wade, it seems to me that the Supreme Court simply applied the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which reserves the rights of the states to resolve this issue.

- William Wesemann, Leawood

Case closed

There is nothing supreme about this court any longer.

- Shirley Lewis, Overland Park

True compassion

The Roman Catholic Church was organized in the year 313 under the Emperor Constantine, by men for the benefit of men. It is an organization of rules and regulations established by a hierarchy to manage its members. Its establishment was not based upon the teachings of Jesus Christ, but upon the political culture at the time, loosely incorporating prior Christian and Jewish religious practices.

I’m a Catholic who practices my faith in a parish that understands that abortion is a complicated issue, not a black-and-white political cause. We are a community that practices compassion, love, understanding and forgiveness. These are the teachings of Jesus Christ. Orchestrated condemnation and judgmental declarations by the self-righteous clergy fly in the face of Christ’s true teachings.

These men turned a blind eye toward decades of child abuse by their peers, but they condemn all women who have had or seek an abortion without knowing or caring about their reasons.

Today, local Bishops Joseph Naumann and James Johnston may believe they need to answer to conservative political forces, but some day they will have to answer to a God who puts love and compassion ahead of politics.

- Patrick Riha, Kansas City

Critical care

With the prevalence of violence across our nation, is it reasonable to consider that each classroom of every school should have a first aid kit that includes tourniquets specific for controlling a hemorrhage? The debate is not whether they should exist — it’s about whether they should be in every classroom, and who should be trained to use them.

Missouri House Bill 1722, the “Stop the Bleed Act,” specifies where these kits should be placed within our local schools. The original version of the legislation said they should be in every classroom. However, the bill’s latest revised version would put them only in common areas. That would make the kits easily accessible to the school nurse and perhaps a few others, but not everyone in the school.

As a registered nurse in a local trauma center, I understand the necessity of controlling hemorrhages. Those minutes before the arrival of emergency medical services make the difference between life and death. If the bleeding is controlled before arriving at a hospital, patients’ outcomes are improved.

I propose that the measures in the Stop the Bleed Act should be part of teaching basic life support and that every school staff member who is required to understand CPR or the Heimlich maneuver should also be able to provide hemorrhage control.

- Sabrina Knoch, Blue Springs