Letters: KC Readers discuss Jan. 6 commission, Quinton Lucas and Kevin Strickland
Actual motives?
I have huge concerns about two things happening in Washington, D.C.
1. Partisan politics are destroying our country. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell announced flatly that no Republicans would vote for President Joe Biden’s infrastructure plan. This is not how democracy works. Stonewalling the “opposition” party instead of doing your job and working together in good faith is putting party over country. We do not live in an autocracy.
2. Some Republicans have the sheer audacity to try to spin the Jan. 6 attackers on the Capitol as “tourists.” This is insulting and a flat-out lie. Republicans were present when those insurrectionists stormed the chambers and called for hanging members of our government. To oppose a commission to investigate that is tacit approval of what happened. The dictionary defines sedition as “incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority.” To refuse to investigate those who participated makes one an accessory.
I do not understand this effort to stop a commission to investigate an attack on our democracy — unless those opposed have something to hide.
- Chris Farnsworth, Overland Park
Photo ops?
Will Mayor Quinton Lucas be appearing with the mothers of all murder victims, or just select ones? It almost seems like he has an agenda.
- Bob Berry, Oak Grove, Missouri
Biden’s budget
The president recently released his budget for next year, including how much he would like to spend on federal cancer research. As a cancer survivor, I care deeply about research into this terrible disease, which is why I was heartened to see a significant increase for the National Institutes of Health, including the creation of an agency dedicated to trying to speed delivery of promising research to patients with hard-to-treat cancers and other illnesses. This could be a great accelerator for new treatments.
Yet, I remain concerned that the cornerstone of cancer research — the National Cancer Institute — was not given an appropriate increase to meet the demand. NCI-funded research has led to every major advancement in cancer treatment for the last 50 years, and unlike other NIH institutes, the NCI’s demand for research grants far exceeds its available funding.
The National Cancer Institute could save more lives with increased and sustained funding, which is why I urge Sen. Roy Blunt to increase NCI funding in a final 2022 budget. Increasing the investment now would bear improved results later, as more promising research proposals get funded and improved means of cancer prevention, detection and treatment are developed.
- Allison Johnson, St. Louis
Talk about logic
Gov. Mike Parson’s statement that Kevin Strickland was convicted by a jury of his peers makes total sense, since virtually all defendants subsequently determined to be innocent were convicted by a jury of their peers. (June 9, 1A, “Parson says Strickland pardon not a priority, despite public outcry”)
What a novel concept. Furthermore, he suggested that he is dealing with more recent cases, so the Strickland case shouldn’t jump to the front of the line — hence it is not one of his priorities.
Let me suggest a different quantitative method for determining where that line starts: If a man has been in prison for 43 years and the perpetrators, the witness and the prosecutors all say that the evidence shows he shouldn’t be there, maybe the line should start with him (providing, of course, no one has been incarcerated for 44 or more years for a crime he didn’t commit).
We’ve got an illogical governor here in Texas. Apparently, Missouri has one, too.
- Robert Smith, Wichita Falls, Texas
