Kansas City Chiefs fans giving Kadarius Toney a hard time must have short memories | Opinion

Cheers for Toney

I absolutely love Chiefs wide receiver Kadarius Toney. His athleticism is off the charts. He’s so shifty. There’s a reason he’s been called “the human joystick.”

He needs to know that some of us really do watch the games and know what’s what. I haven’t rewatched the Lions game to confirm exactly what happened in each case, but I believe Richie James cut in front of Toney on his last drop. I’m sure that’s not the way the play was designed. And the pass that hit Toney on his hands and ended up in the wrong end zone seemed a little bit hot. I’m sure everyone will still say he should’ve caught it.

Toney missed most of training camp, so I’m not sure how many times he’s even caught that pass from Patrick Mahomes. The end-around he ran was zero blocking or, put another way, was defended well.

I loved Toney when he was drafted in the first round by the Giants, and I loved we got him for only third- and sixth-round draft picks.

So-called “fans” who are being so rough on him now really don’t know what they’re talking about, or at least have very short memories.

- Jim Ehrenreich, Chicago

Stop the chop

Chiefs fans, it’s time to lose the chop and the chant.

The “Arrowhead chop” is evocative of the practice of scalping, which was not exclusive to Indigenous people. European settlers in North America fatally scalped Native people, offering a bounty for every male “Indian” killed. When a white colonist murdered a Native, the scalp was taken to prove his kill.

The chant is an infantile tune invented by Hollywood in the early 20th century to accompany the hundreds of racist movies about supposed “bloodthirsty savages” roaming the West, terrorizing and murdering innocent white settlers. You can see these lying myth films, one after another, on television channels such as Grit.

White settlers coveted the land owned by Native people and resented their presence. They spent years stealing this land, including using the U.S. Army. In the 19th century, thousands of Native Americans from the South were rounded up and forcibly marched, in the dead of winter, to reservations in Oklahoma territory — infamously known as “the Trail of Tears.”

When Florida State University selected as its mascot the Seminoles — a tribe who bravely and successfully avoided the roundup — the university embraced the chant. Its popularity, unfortunately, expanded to Chiefs fans.

These symbols of racism need to be gone.

- Bruce Ramsey, Lenexa

Proven to help

This past week in Washington, D.C., was a tale of two worlds: In the first, House leaders announced they would begin an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden with no evidence of wrongdoing. In the second, the U.S. Census released new data showing that child poverty more than doubled in 2022. More than 5 million children fell back into poverty last year, primarily because Republicans in the House and Senate refused to expand the child tax credit.

In 2021, we learned how to end child poverty. After Congress expanded the credit and sent it in monthly payments, child poverty dropped to a historically low 5.2%. These modest child tax credit payments gave millions of parents the resources and freedom to afford rent, groceries, child care and other basic needs. But the GOP (with help from Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema) blocked legislation that would have extended the payments another year. Five million children forced back into poverty is the result.

If House leaders care about the American people as they claim, they’d wake up from their fantasy world and come into the real world, where kids are needlessly suffering. It’s not too late. Expand the child tax credit now.

- Jos Linn, Kansas City

Crucial Wheeler

The Star’s Aug. 20 front-page story “Turbulence over downtown airport” minimizes the significant downside from closing Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport.

Although the airport cannot be closed for decades because of federal obligations, doing so at any future date would be folly. For starters, the move would prompt the loss of about 700 jobs and nearly $84 million in yearly economic impact, according to recent estimates.

The airport also provides essential infrastructure for medical and other humanitarian flights, military exercises and more, while serving as a reliever for Kansas City International Airport, which already accommodates a full airline schedule.

As the story notes, the airport is near the city’s economic center — an ideal destination for local businesses relying on air travel to reach other markets, and to bring clients, employees and others to their facilities for product demonstrations, professional training and other priorities.

In short, Wheeler airport has long offered a host of benefits that far outweigh any short-term gains provided by high-rise development. The city should protect its future, in part by working with developers and others to support the economic success of the downtown area.

- Ed Bolen, President and CEO, National Business Aviation Association, Washington, D.C.

Not just ‘a few’

Why would The Star print a verifiably false statement from a reader? In a Sept. 6 letter to the editor (10A), a reader stated that President Joe Biden gave only “a few million dollars” to help Americans in Maui who lost their homes and more in recent wildfires. In fact, a week before, the president pledged $95 million for rebuilding the island’s electrical grid and more.

You should not perpetuate false narratives.

- Don Bendetti, Kansas City