Yellow and black on license plates aren’t Kansas colors? Tell that to the WSU Shockers | Opinion
A WSU look
The yellow and black in the initially proposed new regular Kansas license plate do not represent Mizzou. Kansas has three NCAA Division I universities. Wichita State University’s colors are yellow and black. Its mascot is the proudly yellow-and-black-garbed WuShock. For more than a decade, Kansas license plates had the slogan “The Wheat State.”
- Jim Gillespie, Overland Park
Draw a line
Without any citizen input, the land of Oz revealed an “improved” hideous license plate whose design and colors would blend with few cars. There’s nothing wrong with expressing a state’s flattering feature, as Colorado has continuously done with the Rockies.
For Kansas, an appropriate straight line with the words, “Ah, Kansas” would be more descriptive.
- John S. Savella Jr., Overland Park
Editor’s note: After public objection to the new license plates, Gov. Laura Kelly announced this week that the state will hold a vote on a new design.
Christ’s example
Let’s be honest: When the Nazis marched through the streets of Germany, many people who called themselves Christians threw flowers to welcome them. Adolf Hitler called unwanted people “vermin.”
Donald Trump has used “vermin” to describe unwanted people in our country. How many people who call themselves Christians today will support this same evil?
Evil will always exist until Christ returns, but we should not let it rule our lives.
- Thomas Krause, Kansas City
Ukraine promise
In the Republican presidential debate earlier this month, former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said assurances were given to Ukraine in the 1990s. That was the first time I heard the Budapest Memorandum mentioned in the media since Russia invaded in February 2022. Although Christie got the year and other specifics wrong, his larger point was correct.
Before the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, Russia had deployed nuclear weapons to Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine. The three subsequently became independent countries. In the interest of nonproliferation of nuclear weapons and to reduce the number of countries with them, Russia, the U.K. and the U.S. requested that the weapons be returned to Russia. Ukraine, in particular, balked, stating that the nukes were important to its self-defense.
Negotiations resulted in the Budapest Memorandum of 1994. It stipulated that Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine return the weapons to Russia. Russia, the U.K. and the U.S., in turn, agreed to refrain from any threat or use of force or economic coercion against the three. Moreover, they agreed to provide assistance should Belarus, Kazakhstan or Ukraine become a victim of aggression. The memorandum was signed by then-President Bill Clinton.
Russia violated the memorandum by invading Ukraine. Therefore, in any discussion on whether the U.S. should support Ukraine, you should simply say, “We promised.”
- Graham Marcott, Fairway
Become beloved
My dream of a beloved community includes a United States where there is no need for Medicaid expansion because our country takes care of everyone with universal heath care for all.
But until we get there, Kansas should work for a beloved community where there are no gaps in health care coverage; no one needs to choose between working and keeping Medicaid coverage; rural hospitals can stay open; and no one needs to use emergency rooms for routine medical care because they have no insurance.
In that beloved community, Kansas legislators would not refuse an offer of 90% matching funds from the federal government — money that Kansans could use to improve their health care system with better wages, accessibility and open hospitals.
In my beloved community, legislators who refuse those matching funds and refuse to provide health care coverage to 150,000 Kansans would lose their jobs in the next election. What would your beloved community look like?
- Angela J. Ferguson Allard, Raytown
