Today’s Supreme Court is the most devastating legacy of the 2016 popular vote loser

The end result

Can you imagine what the Supreme Court would look like if the 2016 presidential election had been decided by popular vote instead of the Electoral College? This is the single most devastating, long-term effect of that election.

Our system desperately needs updating.

- Doug Schlosser, Lee’s Summit

Forced choice

God help the women of America now, because being forced to carry a pregnancy to term or to carry a nonviable pregnancy until you miscarry without medical intervention is its own kind of hell. Babies who are born after forced pregnancies will no doubt endure the psychological effects for decades.

- Charlene Teed, Kansas City

It’s his freedom

Justice Clarence Thomas feels that past Supreme Court decisions on contraception, same-sex marriage and similar topics should now be reconsidered. However, he left out the 1967 decision that permitted people of different races to marry. Is that perhaps because he — a Black man married to a white woman — is afraid of losing his own personal liberties?

- Mark Prellberg, Kansas City

Not by the people

For years, the term used to describe the Supreme Court’s decisions has been “opinion.” The court’s recent opinions should be seen as the religious beliefs of its majority. The personal thoughts of the justices cannot be woven into the bases of laws for all people.

From the very advent of Christian Europeans coming to the New World, there has been a struggle for control between those who want to rule as a singular monarchy backed by a particular set of moral beliefs versus those who accept the diverse rights and wishes of all people.

We are no longer seen as a democracy, but rather an anocracy balanced on the edge of a conflict brought closer by the religious minority now armed by Donald Trump.

- John Nelles, Shawnee

Library’s loss

The Missouri library community is losing a friend and mentor, and an outstanding library director, when Steve Potter leaves the Mid-Continent Public Library on June 30. (June 7, 7A, “Mid-Continent Public Library shutdown ahead?”)

Two things stand out from his tenure as library director: MCPL winning a national award for excellence in library service and passing a much-needed levy increase that allowed the library to update buildings, expand hours and purchase more materials.

Despite all the good work and national recognition MCPL has received, it is going through a difficult time. Some members of the library’s Board of Trustees have made it difficult to be a library director that believes in serving and welcoming all members of the community.

Godspeed to our friend. We hope that members of the board who are interested in serving the interests of all taxpayers within the MCPL district will make their voices heard and give the next director the support that person will need to succeed and try to fill the large gap left by the departure of Steve Potter.

The patrons of the Mid-Continent Public Library deserve nothing less.

- Katie Earnhart, President, Missouri Public Library Directors, Cape Girardeau

Ball dropped

The largest event in college baseball is going on less than three hours away in Omaha. I have seen relatively little about it in The Star’s print edition, apart from scores and listings. In fact, The Star rarely has anything about college baseball. Why?

We make a big deal about getting a World Cup soccer match in the years to come. Omaha draws tens of thousands fans for 10 days every year to watch teams from eight schools play our national pastime.

Nothing against soccer, but if Kansas City is a baseball town, we seem to be missing the boat.

- Jim Martin, Prairie Village

Party left me

As a fourth-generation Kansan and former Republican, I believe in democracy and a strong two-party system. We now do not have that, as the GOP is mired with many extreme members — in other words, the insurgents. If reasonable party members do not disavow these extremists and Donald Trump supporters, I fear not only an end to the Republican Party but to our democracy.

Responsible GOP elected officials need to decide whether democracy is more important than partisanship. They must end their retreat from the Trump gang and stand up for the future of our democracy today.

- Andrea L. Hickerson, Leawood

Forced into war

The talk about guns takes ever-stranger turns today. “How can a teacher carrying a concealed weapon take out a guy with an AR?” I asked a gun rights advocate. “We’ll train them,” he said.

“But who could prevail with those odds?” I persisted. “Oh, I’m not saying it will be easy,” he replied.

I think this gentleman likely meant his strategy might prove fatal to an educator/rescuer. Online, I posted an early news report that up to 13 Texas State Troopers possibly lingered in the hall awaiting backup during the Robb School shooting.

“But just imagine if an armed good guy had been in that hall, who wasn’t afraid,” a man responded.

I explained that teachers had to hide and lock down their students. How many concealed-carrying custodians, cooks or curriculum coordinators would this man have urged into harm’s way at Uvalde? “Imagination” doesn’t win deadly battles.

Officer Aaron Salter Jr. sacrificed his life while facing a more heavily armed, racist attacker at a grocery store in Buffalo, New York. Doctors gave their lives in Tulsa this month.

We aren’t at war, fellow Americans. Let’s not buy, nor sell, weapons of war.

- Janice Jean Stallings, Kansas City