Letters: KC readers discuss good police officers, Iran nukes, stopping gun tragedies
The good apples
I come from a long line of police officers. When I was young, I would hear them talking about bad things they did to people. The young officers in my family now tell me that they need to weed out the bad police officers, and I agree.
I don’t understand why The Star focuses on some bad police officers when so many more do so much for our community. (April 6, 1A, “2 KCPD officers accused in 3 police brutality cases”)
There should be stories about all the additional stuff our police officers, firefighters and all other first responders do when they are on and off duty.
You no longer carry stories that make readers feel good and smile, which would be a good start to our day.
- Patti Sourk, Overland Park
Customer care?
When I visited a major grocery chain’s store in Grandview on Saturday, I noticed three or four employees were wearing their masks without covering their noses. My cashier was one of them. He said he has allergies and that is why he does not wear a mask properly. The percentage of people wearing masks properly varies from 100% to less than half in my visits.
I went to the customer service counter and spoke to the person working there. I asked if the company’s management permitted employees not to cover their noses with their masks. She told me I would have to ask the public health department and refused to answer my question.
From my experience at this grocery store, enforcement of proper use of masks is lax, and apparently management does not see it as important.
- Sean J. Clipsham, Kansas City
Iran shell game
I hope President Joe Biden will make nuclear deals with Iran and North Korea. However, I also hope he does not repeat the fatal flaw of the first Iran deal: It imposed a waiting period for the inspection of suspected sites.
This would have allowed the Iranians to move materials for making nuclear weapons — such as enriched uranium — to a second site during the waiting period for the first site. Then, when the second site would come under suspicion, it would have a waiting period during which the material could be moved to a third site, and so on. That is why a future president may cancel the deal again.
- Alvin Blake, Kansas City
Not for today
Politicians are not going to do anything about ending gun violence with commonsense laws. They are afraid they will lose votes.
Sandy Hook. Colorado. Florida. How many more mass murders will it take? I am tired of hearing about the Second Amendment. It does not apply in this day and age.
- Evelyn Wilson, Platte City
Up in the air
Many students continue to learn remotely for a number of reasons. These include schools not being open, students preferring virtual learning, concern for in-person learning still not being safe and unwillingness to send students to schools in masks, not wanting to abide by the quarantine uncertainties if someone in the classroom has been exposed to an individual who’s tested positive.
Some parents simply do not see the current environment as conducive to learning. Some do not want their children to accept the new norm of masks everywhere (even on the recess grounds). Some want their children’s educational environment to be stable — not you’re here today, but tomorrow you may be sent home for two weeks.
Failing to address these reasons time and again when reporting on kids getting back to schools presents a less-than-precise picture.
- Elaine Patterson, Blue Springs
