Letters: KC readers discuss Deshaun Watson, moving the Augusta tournament, NRA power

Oval Office-bound?

Deshaun Watson is facing at least 22 civil lawsuits filed by women accusing the Houston Texans quarterback of varying degrees of sexual assault and misconduct. (April 8, 12A, “Woman says she was terrorized by Texans QB Watson”)

It sounds like Watson is ready for a presidential run.

- Jim Kilen, Kansas City

Health investment

Kidney disease is a public health crisis that affects more than 37 million adults in the United States and puts people at greater risk of developing severe COVID-19 complications.

As a kidney donor, reading the April 6 front-page story, “Missouri Republicans fight voter-approved Medicaid expansion, advance changes to limit initiative petitions,” made me think about how much we spend to treat people with kidney disease versus how little we spend to prevent it.

The Medicare program uses a huge percentage of its total spending on kidney disease patients. Kidney disease affects 15% of adults in the U.S., yet kidney-related research represents less than 0.2% of research at the National Institutes of Health. Even as funding for NIH rose 37% between fiscal years 2015 and 2020, kidney research funding increased only 19%.

Congress is deciding how it will allocate funding. Since kidney health concerns are important to me, as they should be for all of us, I ask Sens. Roger Marshall and Jerry Moran to prioritize the 37 million American adults like me and treat kidney disease as the public health crisis it is by investing in research and early detection at the NIH and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

- Stephanie Meyer, Shawnee

Learn, don’t cancel

The “cancel culture” demand that the Masters golf tournament be moved from Augusta National Golf Course, just as Major League Baseball moved its All-Star Game from Atlanta, is so ridiculous it makes my head hurt. The Masters was founded and has always been played at Augusta. If not played there, it would no longer be the Masters.

Perhaps if they were upset with Indiana, the “cancelers” would want to move the Indianapolis 500 from the Brickyard to, say, Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, Kansas. Just wouldn’t be the same, would it?

Did you know the Roman Empire had slavery? Maybe Italy should tear down its Colosseum, Forum and Pantheon?

The history of Homo sapiens has been replete with both wonderful and horrendous episodes. We should remember and learn from all of them, the good and the bad.

- Graham Marcott, Fairway

What’s enough?

Every day, more 100 Americans are killed through gun violence. This year, there have already been 11,000 firearms-related deaths. In the past three weeks, there have been more than 20 mass shootings by at least one account.

No matter how many, who or where these deaths happen, nothing is done — not even when it was 20 first-graders at the Sandy Hook Elementary School horror.

The sad answer is that our state and federal legislators are owned by the National Rifle Association, an organization originally founded by former Union Army officers who were dismayed that their soldiers could not shoot straight.

The organization is now a lobbying group that uses the Second Amendment as a linchpin to push for more and more gun sales.

Not even our churches and schools are safe from assault weapons and large-capacity magazines.

How many more must be sacrificed on the NRA altar?

- Dorothy Buchholz, Olathe

Let the past be

The Negro Creek issue is a non-issue. (March 23, 1A, “‘It was horrific’: New reason to rename Negro Creek”) If we continue to chase those kinds of matters, we will have to change almost everything in our society that is more than 50 years old.

The fact is that everything in our history has some background that is anti-Black, and that includes our schools and churches. Racism was an acceptable way of life until the great civil rights struggle began, and it is still prominent in our society.

There are many issues that we must all be committed to finding remedies for. The creek is of no consequence relative to our survival today. Political correctness is only worth so much, and that’s generally not very much.

Yes, I am African American and a practicing Catholic. My interest is the well-being of all Americans. History should and must remain history.

We must not let ourselves be trapped by our own anomaly. Instead, we must accept the past for what it is worth and wholeheartedly embrace the future in the best interest of our republic.

- Michael H. Jones, Leavenworth

Princely manner

Having had on three occasions the experience of meeting and conversing with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip, the first on Oct. 29, 1975, I can say that the prince was a quiet, unassuming, gracious and intelligent man.

He was quick to understand and could see beyond the point being discussed. He had a sense of humor and was very perceptive and very deferential to the queen. My conversation with him was one of the great experiences of my life.

- Paul A. Goudy, Kansas City, Kansas