Unfettered Letters

Great libraries, great director

All too often much of what we hear and read about government can make us angry: lack of planning, ineptitude, waste and worse.

And all too often we might assume the truly wonderful programs and services provided by government happen on their own.

My experience tells me otherwise.

Mona Carmack, the Johnson County librarian, has just announced her retirement after 25 years of service. The Johnson County Library system is consistently rated among the best in the entire nation and just received another prestigious national award. The true measure of Carmack’s leadership, vision and perseverance is manifest in each visit we make to one of the outstanding facilities throughout our community.

None of this happened by chance and, as she leaves her hands-on role in libraries, each of us needs to recognize public service at its very best.

Thanks, Mona!

William L. Kostar
Westwood

Garry Baker

The election Aug. 8 will give residents of eastern Jackson County a golden opportunity to elect a candidate who understands their needs.

Garry Baker, raised in Buckner, Mo., knows the struggles and pains of life. He is and has always been people oriented, not politically oriented. That is what sets him apart.

He has served as a municipal judge, mayor and school board member and has dealt with difficult community issues.

These years of dedicated community service have prepared Garry to deal with the growing pains and development in the rural and small communities.

More important, he will be a trusted voice to raise our concerns to a legislature that previously has taken little interest or notice.

Seize the opportunity now to elect Garry Baker to the Jackson County Legislature.

Richard and Doris Thompson
Buckner, Mo.

John Pennell

Next Tuesday, there will be a primary election for a seat on the Jackson County Legislature. I will admit that I am not that familiar with any of the other candidates. However, I am very familiar with one of them. That would be one-time Independence mayoral candidate and city/county activist John Pennell. He is the aide for the current legislator whose seat is being vacated.

I know that John Pennell is very intelligent and learned in regard to the functions of government. He is honest, forthright, incorruptible and extremely reliable. Gosh, that sounds like a wish list for a county legislator, doesn’t it? The only thing that I know John to be short of is special-interest endorsements. Please vote for John Pennell on Aug. 8.

Greg Perry
Independence

Question 1

Kansas City should be grateful to the Parks and Recreation commissioners — Bob Lewellen in particular — and the City Council for their sponsorship of Question 1 on Tuesday’s primary ballot.

If it is approved, the Parks and Recreation Department will sell the building and land parcel at 22nd and Gillham Road. The proceeds will be used to restore the city’s oldest public fountain, located at 9th Street and Paseo Boulevard.

George Kessler and John Van Brunt designed the fountain. It was completed in 1899. The restoration will bring back the fountain’s original magnificence, which has been dormant for decades. Also, it will enhance the redevelopment of the proposed eastern entrance to our revitalized downtown.

Ollie Gates, former Parks and Recreation commissioner, has completed a beautiful jazz sculpture park at 12th and Paseo. The 12th Street Heritage Association has developed a Paseo Boulevard Corridor Plan, which will increase tourism and display some of the city’s African-American history.

My best friend, Barbara Pendleton, who died two years ago, led a Central Exchange committee to name this fountain the Women’s Leadership Fountain. We raised money to repair it, but much more restoration is needed.

I ask all Kansas Citians to support Question 1 on Aug. 8.

Joanne M. Collins
Kansas City

Power & Light District

Seeing the long-awaited Power & Light District come to life through the Cordish Company’s colorful renderings of the project on The Star’s Web site (7/27, A-1) gave me goose bumps as I stared out my office window toward the future location of our city’s new entertainment destination.

I couldn’t be happier to see such progressive thinking morph into such progressive action.

Our skyline is unique, compact and displays a strong blend of old and new architecture.

If the drawings are any indication of what things will look like come fall 2007, our city will have much more to be proud of than the normal notoriety that comes with the Country Club Plaza and our famed barbecue joints.

Our skyline from the north will take on a new life. It will create an impression that will constantly promote our downtown to visitors and locals alike.

Teamed with the construction of the Sprint Center and highlighted by popular restaurants, bars, the Lucky Strike bowling center, and the AMC theaters, the Power & Light District will give Kansas City a much-needed boost.

But come fall 2007, it will be up to us, as citizens of the Kansas City metropolitan area, to make sure that it prospers.

Joshua Brewster
Kansas City

Jolie Justus

During his state Senate campaign, Jason Klumb has suggested that LGBT (lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender) groups are satisfied with his excuse for sponsoring legislation in the Missouri House that denied access to marriage rights for gays and lesbians. He has pointed to a past endorsement by our groups in his failed bid for state treasurer as tacit approval from the LGBT community. As the leading LGBT political advocacy groups in the area, we feel it is important to clarify our position.

We have screened the candidates and decided that Jolie Justus is the best person to represent the 10th District. Her steadfast support of LGBT equality and other progressive causes will bring a much-needed voice to the debate in the Missouri Senate.

Endorsements are based on the candidates and the office being sought. The state treasurer is an executive position with little power to make policy affecting LGBT equality and basic human rights and, while his record was not perfect, we felt Klumb was the preferred candidate in that race. This is a different race — a race to elect one of only a handful of legislators who will profoundly affect the everyday lives of all Missourians.

In this race, Jolie Justus has our support.

Jim MacDonald
Kansas City
On behalf of Four Freedoms Democratic Club and PROMO PAC

Homicides in KC

Several more senseless acts of violence have occurred recently on our city streets. Innocent bystanders have been killed and people wounded, family members are grieving their losses, and unfortunately the homicide numbers are steadily rising. Numerous groups and individuals speak out in earnest to stop the violence, yet it continues.

While we try to explain it away by citing joblessness, lack of educational opportunities, poverty, etc., in reality doesn’t it just come down to doing what is right? Doesn’t it come down to knowing where our kids are, what they’re doing, and who they’re with? (Uh-oh, that means actually parenting them!)

How about obeying the laws of our society and truly saying no to drugs and to weapons? How about cooperating with the authorities whose job it is to solve these crimes?

A wise man once said, “We must be the change we wish to see.” The responsibility for stemming the bloodshed lies with each of us — regardless of race, economic status, political beliefs or any of the other social barriers we conveniently choose to hide behind when the going gets tough.

Jennifer Miller
Kansas City

No to breed bans

The fatal mauling by any dog is a tragedy. However, banning a breed of dog is a knee-jerk reaction that fails to protect the public.

The main factors in fatal attacks need to be addressed by cities and states.

Last year there were 27 fatal dog attacks; 89 percent of those cases involved dogs that had not been spayed or neutered.

In 81 percent of those cases, the dogs were not family pets but were used as guard dogs or for fighting.

In 59 percent of those cases, owner irresponsibility was the main factor: dogs allowed to roam, tethered dogs, or abuse and neglect cases.

The Kansas City area should follow Illinois’ lead and focus on these factors.

From the video footage of the recent attack in Kansas City, Kan., it is clear that at least one of the dogs involved in the latest fatality was an unneutered male dog.

According to the American Veterinary Medical Association, unneutered male dogs are responsible for 70 percent of all bite cases.

The communities in Kansas City should protect their citizens from dangerous dogs of all breeds.

Ledy VanKavage Sr.
American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals
Maryville, Ill.

Emanuel Cleaver

Cleaver is wrong

The Rev. Emanuel Cleaver, in “Glory to scientists who reveal God’s miracles” (7/26, Opinion), leaves out one important detail: the acquisition of embryonic stem cells ends the life of a living human being.

That the life of a human being begins at conception or fertilization is an observable, verifiable truth, and all stages of development after that are those of a living human being.

Dr. K.L. Moore, in his text book of embryology for medical students, “The Developing Human” (Saunders, 1988), explains it clearly in his Chapter 1 review questions.

“Q. when does a new human being begin to develop?

“A. The development of a human being begins with fertilization, a process by which a sperm from a male unites with an ovum from a female.

“Q. What is the human organism called at the beginning of its development?

A. A human is called a zygote at the beginning of its development.”

Human embryonic stem cells develop at the blastocyst stage, somewhere between five and nine days after fertilization.

To put it in biblical terms, we are made in the image of God. And we were in the image of God when we were in the zygote stage as well as all developmental stages thereafter.

Eugene W. J. Pearce
Merriam

Research ‘ungodly’

This is in reply to the article by Emanuel Cleaver (“Glory to scientists who reveal God’s miracles”). I have never seen a worse use of big words to try and impress people with something as against God’s will as embryonic stem-cell research. Taking an egg from a clinic or a woman, adding an adult cell and letting the cells multiply just to strip the cells and throw away the egg in about as ungodly as you can get.

Steve Cates
Gladstone

Thank you

There are good people in your city. I met two of them recently, about 3 p.m., on south U.S. 71 close to 39th Street.

My car got hot and quit on me. Barbara stopped and called her boyfriend. I think his name was Tim. She was still on the phone when a motorcycle policeman stopped and thanked her for helping me. He said he would have given me a ride but didn’t have an extra helmet, grinned and took off.

Barbara took me in her car. She turned on 39th and went about a mile, pulled in a driveway and tooted the horn. The garage door went up and guy came running with a tool box. We went to the car first, then to a parts store for a gallon of 50-50 antifreeze. In maybe 30 minutes I was on my way home to Carthage.

Tim could have told her to call a tow truck and come on home. But he came running to help me. Thank you to Barbara and Tim.

James E. Grunst
Carthage, Mo.