Unfettered Letters

Views on Obama’s ex-preacher

I am a white woman, and I have been to primarily black churches on and off for about 10 years. I also frequently watch black pastors on TV, because they are so passionate about Christ, but I have never seen or heard anyone talk the hate that came out of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s mouth.

I am a firm Barack Obama supporter and will remain one, but I find it very hard to believe that he has never heard the Rev. Wright express those views before. One does not become a racist overnight. If it were a white pastor spewing that hate, I can’t even imagine the consequences.

The Rev. Wright is the worst kind of bigot, using the word of God to divide this country. I know God is shaking his head in disgust and bewilderment. Too bad it’s not all of America doing the same thing. We need to stop defending people like him of any color and get back to doing the right thing to bring this country together.

I feel strongly that in the coming days we are going to need each other very, very much.

M.E. Cromwell
Blue Springs

Before we pass too much judgment on the Rev. Wright, we need to take a look at his personal history. He grew up in a time when the government sponsored the Tuskegee experiment, injecting 399 poor, unknowing black men with syphilis for 40 years (1932 to 1972). It was years later when President Clinton offered a formal apology for what the government did.

To the Rev. Wright, believing the government had a role in the AIDS crisis isn’t so far-fetched. The Rev. Wright grew up in a time when blacks were lynched, denied education and seats on a public bus they paid to ride.

As a black American myself, I can’t imagine the horrors the Rev. Wright must have witnessed as a young black man living in a segregated and racist America. And although it’s not my past, I can hardly say he’s wrong for being so skeptical and angry about the U.S. and the mistreatment and neglect it has shown toward people of color.

April Ward
Kansas City

Presidential election

A senior for Obama

In Steve Kraske’s article “Clinton has no reverse gear” (5/8, A-1), he says “In Clinton’s case it’s a base of millions of women, blue-collar types, older voters whose shift to Obama still needs to be seen.”

I am a senior, and I support Obama. Many of my “older voter” friends and co-workers feel as strongly as I do about Obama.

We are tired of being classified in the Clinton camp. We encourage all seniors to join us and applaud the younger voters who already have.

Wayne Conery
Kansas City

Hillary is the only go-getter

To the voters in Kansas City: Quit listening to the news and vote with your own mind. Get on a computer and look up both candidates to see what they stand for.

The pundits have been saying for eight weeks that Sen. Clinton should drop out of the race. I would like to know why. She is the only go-getter of the two candidates. Some people say she will do anything to win. Well, I would say she will do anything within reason to win, and that’s the kind of person I would like to see in the White House.

She speaks with a whole lot more confidence than Obama, who calls for “Change We Can Believe In.” I notice Obama doesn’t say what kind of change. It could very well be change for the worse.

J.A. Adams
Kansas City

This Republican wants change

I am a registered Republican. Looking back eight years, I believe it would be impossible for America to be in worse shape internationally and economically if Al Gore had been elected president.

Maybe at least we would not be protecting corporate interests worldwide under the umbrella of shoving democracy down the throats of other countries. How much worse can change be?

Jerry Jackson
Liberty

Scooter user encounters rudeness

I use to be able to walk through Independence Center people-watching and shopping without any difficulty. I would occasionally encounter someone rude, but usually people were polite. I saw Independence Center from a different perspective last Friday.

This was my first time out at a mall using a mobility scooter. Shoppers apparently couldn’t see me. I had to back down aisles that were very narrow. I had to wait for the elevator longer because people wouldn’t shift to let me on, and I had trouble getting off because of people trying to get on as I exited. One person actually told me to get out of the way in the pet store. I also found that many items were out of my reach. It was so frustrating.

The trip really opened my eyes and heart to all of us who are mobility-challenged and aren’t eye-level with the rest of the world. We, too, have eyes, thoughts and feelings. I don’t expect any special treatment. I do expect to be treated with the same courtesy and dignity as others.

Annette Briggs
Odessa, Mo.

Buy a weather radio

I was in the Brookridge neighborhood tornado that hit at 2:02 am. There was no siren going off. We had two sirens going off earlier in the evening.

I have now learned that you don’t want to put your life in the hands of any TV meteorologist. After what we went through, I know the only hope of staying alive is owning a weather radio. Please buy one! When you are asleep at 2 a.m., it will likely be your only chance of survival.

We went to bed at 9:30 p.m. after the local weather said the risk of tornadoes was over.

Ann Sims
Kansas City

Wreck victim thanks helpers

I was involved in a hit-and-run accident last Tuesday on 87th Street in Overland Park. I would like to thank all of the kind people who stopped to help and gave witness statements to the police. In this day and age, we often hear only the bad stories, but the many people who stopped, the police and the paramedics were all very kind and conscientious.

A few days after the accident, I learned that four vehicles followed the driver who hit my vehicle and blocked him in so he couldn’t escape. One witness even chased and tackled the driver when he tried to flee on foot!

I wish I knew the names of everyone who helped, but I’d especially like to thank Darla, Sarah, William, Albert, Elizabeth, Dara, Jeffrey and Michael.

I am very thankful that no other vehicles or pedestrians were involved.

Again, thank you to all of the people who assisted. Your concern and help meant more than you can know.

As a reminder, please, please, please don’t drink and drive.

Marilyn Taylor
Olathe

KC 7, St. Louis 0

I was a first-time visitor to your town this past weekend. Here is what I noted.

1. KC is much cleaner than St. Louis.
2. KC is much easier to get around in than St. Louis.
3. KC’s City Market is unlike anything in St. Louis.
4. KC’s race relations are better than St Louis’.
5. KC is less congested than St Louis.
6. KC felt safer than St Louis.
7. KC’s Country Club Plaza has no equal in St. Louis.

Scorecard. KC 7, St. Louis 0.

Only suggestion: Improve the weather. Of course, it is no better in St. Louis.

Kerry Schumacher
St. Charles, Mo.

Shortage of police recruits

I read with interest David Knopf’s article on shortages of police academy cadets (5/11, Local, “Shortage of recruits challenges area police”). The article was good, but it did not tell the whole story.

My son got discharged from the Marines in early 2006. He was an M.P. He applied at several police academies. He even took time off from work to go to Springfield to interview. He also applied with State Highway Patrol and the State Water Patrol.

He was turned down on all counts because he has one tattoo that is visible when dressed. It’s highly objectionable: “USMC.”

In late 2007 he was called back in the Marines: military police again.

Bruce D. Pasley
Laddonia, Mo.

Spending money on pets

Why is it Margaret James’ (5/10, Voices) or anyone else’s business how people spend their money? If the couple wants to pay for their dog’s funeral (5/7, FYI, “For whom the bell tolls: Rover”), it’s their business. I read the article twice and did not see where they were asking for donations.

I hope the money Ms. James sends to “hungry children” gets to them and not the government.

Shirley Johns
Bonner Springs

To Margaret James, I would say M.Y.O.B., as I doubt seriously that she was asked to contribute. Perhaps she should focus on the hundreds of billions of dollars spent on this war and the food and health care that could have been provided to those in need here in our own country.

David Vaughn
Kansas City

Blue Parkway bridge

Michael Foster (5/11, Letters) hit the nail on the head about the bridge over Blue Parkway taking too long to complete. The bridge has been out of commission for nearly two years, and rarely are workers seen at the site (at least not during prime commuting hours).

Adding to the frustration of having a single lane in each direction is the poor traffic control employed on the eastbound side of the bridge. Blocking the center lane east of Cleveland Avenue would be a far better method of forcing cars to choose to turn into a business on the south side of Blue Parkway or be in the correct lane to cross the bridge. Instead, there are three lanes of traffic trying to merge at the last minute.

Since the same traffic crew has blocked the center lane on the westbound approach, it would seem logical to employ it on the eastbound side as well.

Gail Metcalf Schartel
Independence

Mother’s day bargain

This Mother’s Day my son called ahead from Illinois, telling his dad he had a great gift for me. After he arrived, he excitedly led me to the backyard, where it was all set up. It was a large, heavy slab of polished redwood, seated on two logs, the kind folks around here proudly display in their front yards. In big black letters it said “SMITH.”

How precious! How sweet! Except that that’s my maiden name.

He said he got a “good deal” on it.

Candace Osborne
Bates City, Mo.

Thanks, KC, for fighting MS

The National Multiple Sclerosis Society would like to thank the entire Kansas City community for supporting Walk MS on April 12 and 19. This year, more than 1,900 participants raised nearly $250,000. Those contributions will help thousands of local people with multiple sclerosis through programs and services, as well as support research for a cure. And it’s not too late to donate. Just go to www.MSmidamerica.org. Every dollar counts.

Multiple sclerosis interrupts the flow of information from the brain to the body and can stop people from moving. Every hour in the United States, someone is newly diagnosed with MS, an unpredictable, often disabling disease of the central nervous system. Symptoms range from numbness and tingling to blindness and paralysis.

If you would like more information, contact us at info@nmsskc.org, call 1-800-344-4867 or go to www.MSmidamerica.org.

Nicole Long
Marketing and communications manager, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, Mid America Chapter
Kansas City

Archbishop’s rebuke of Sebelius

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann is demanding that Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius not receive Communion (5/10, A-1, “Sebelius draws a church leader’s rebuke”). Where was the church with these demands when priests all over the country were sexually abusing children? They were enabling them to continue the abuse, and allowing them to partake in communion.

As a former Catholic I’m saddened that the church continues this kind of hypocrisy. It is this hypocrisy that drove me away from the church, but not my faith. As a woman, one can only wonder if the church would have protected the abusive priests had they been women.

Gov. Sebelius was elected to represent the people of Kansas, not the Catholic Church. I’m thankful that she can separate her faith from government. And I’m grateful that there are many faiths that value women and value the separation of church and state.

Kathy Cook
Shawnee

Archbishop Naumann is to be praised for his efforts to pastorally counsel Gov. Sebelius in regard to her unwavering support for abortion rights. He sees clearly that such actions conflict with her claimed Catholic faith.

His decision to publicly request that she abstain from Holy Communion is not a political one but a spiritual one. Gov. Sebelius is free to advocate any policy she wants as a chief executive of the Sunflower State. However, she is not also free to claim to be Catholic when such policies so pointedly contradict the fundamental teachings of Catholicism.

That some, perhaps most, bishops lack the wherewithal to act as Archbishop Naumann finally has done is no discredit to him. The inaction of other shepherds discredits them and leads others to the never-never land of faith without conviction — the same place the governor seems to reside — until now, when she is forced to choose between a timeless teaching or an expedient political path.

Michael Lehr
Holt, Mo.

As a lifelong Catholic I am sad when I see my archbishop attacking Gov. Sebelius and asking her not to take Communion until she publicly repudiates her support for pro-choice rights. I am against abortion, but I am also against the archbishop publicly attacking Catholic political leaders.

Most Catholics go to church to be close to God and not to hear a political sermon.

Dan Lykins
Topeka

Archbishop Naumann’s attack on Gov. Sebelius is scandalous. Naumann’s inability to differentiate support for safe abortions being legal, under certain conditions, from support for abortion itself is unbelievable in the context of a tradition that counted angels on the head of a pin.

Surely his political bullying disqualifies his organization from tax-exempt status.

Tom Gould
Kansas City

Wright’s remarks on AIDS

The Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s supposed damage to Barack Obama has been eclipsed by his misinformation about HIV and AIDS. His statement that the high incidence of AIDS in the black community is due to a conspiracy by our government to wipe them out by mysteriously infecting them with the HIV virus is a lie.

As a white, HIV-positive person, I have heard this conspiracy theory many times from my HIV-positive black associates. I believe it is rooted in the “black church” denial that there are many gay and bisexual black people, and the fear of being stereotyped as promiscuous. I know this stereotype is not true.

It is clear that it has been historically difficult for many African-Americans to receive adequate medical coverage and that most of the medical doctors are white. It is no wonder African-Americans distrust the medical community.

I believe that improving medical coverage and education is a better solution to the HIV problem than conspiracy theories spouted by a previously unknown minister.

Richard Adams
Kansas City

Writing letters to politicians

Anyone who writes the president, senators, representatives or, for that matter, any high-level politician should know how their message is handled.

Your letter is handled by a low-level clerk who opens it, looks for a check and, if he doesn’t “round file” it, he will select a subject to comment on. The clerks have hundreds of pre-written comments on the computer. The clerk will select a subject, type in your name and address and punch “print.” There are gaps in the text where your name will automatically be added to make it seem personal.

Unless your name comes up as a high-level contributor, your comments will never reach the addressee.

Don A. Eberle
Freeman, Mo.

Medical marijuana in Missouri

qFor the second year in a row, House Speaker Rod Jetton has ignored repeated requests from patients, doctors, nurses and fellow Missourians to give medical cannabis legislation the attention it needs and deserves.

Like last year, Jetton waited until House committees are only hearing bills that have passed through the Senate to assign HB 1830 to the House Crime Prevention and Public Policy Committee, ensuring that it will not be scheduled for a hearing. This is unfortunate because this particular committee could have examined how medical cannabis legalization might enhance public welfare and address patients’ needs.

Legitimate medical cannabis patients must now live with the fear of being criminally persecuted, and doctors who would safely recommend this therapeutic herb are forced to remain silent for at least another year.

Shame on Jetton for abusing this bill as he has abused patients.

Jacqueline Patterson
Bolinas, Calif.

Legalizing medical marijuana would allow seriously ill patients to have safe access to cannabis. As a nurse I have seen how much difference cannabis can make to a patient. Believe it or not, doctors sometimes recommend it on the DL.

Polls have shown that a majority of people in the U.S. want medical cannabis to be available to seriously ill patients

John Schneider
Harrisonville