Unfettered Letters

Views on the economy

Millions of dollars but no sense

How is the American taxpayer supposed to make any sense of what is going on now? We have politicians who spend millions, for the head political office maybe close to a billion, for a job that pays a fraction of a million.

We cannot find anyone intelligent enough to run one of our corporations if they don’t demand millions, some even hundreds of millions.

Now we are led to believe this whole thing that threatens the financial solvency of most major countries was derived from your and my neighbors’ inability to pay their mortgages.

Maybe we have bigger problems than what we realize, since this was brought to us by the supposed best and brightest talent that America has to offer.

Jerry Jackson

Liberty

Stimulate the economy

Here are some ideas for an immediate and long-term economic stimulus.

Short term: Immediately increase the federal gasoline tax by 25 cents a gallon and use the money immediately to put people to work on highway and bridge construction. After paying nearly $4 a gallon for gas this summer, I do not think too many folks would have issue with this plan. It would put people to work immediately.

Long term: Institute a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage with a rate the first 10 years at 4.99 percent, the next 10 years at 5.99 percent and 6.99 percent for the last 10 years without any prepayment penalty.

Ed Casey

Kansas City

AM radio doesn’t preach hate

John Meyer (11/24, Letters, “Fairness Doctrine for airwaves”) accuses AM radio talk-show hosts of preaching division and hate. Could it be that said hosts express a conservative worldview diametrically opposed to the liberal views voiced in most other media outlets? The division exists due to two opposing ideologies; the hosts don’t create the division.

Disagreeing, criticizing, exposing otherwise unreported information and questioning political correctness are not hate. As to fair and balanced airwaves, there are no laws prohibiting liberals from airing their views.

As a consistent listener to talk radio, I don’t hear hosts or callers “filled with hate” toward Barack Obama. Do they disagree with his positions and voting record? Yes! They want smaller government, not more bureaucracy; strong military, not appeasement; free market enterprise, not socialism; adhering to our longstanding Constitution, not rewriting it; lower taxes, individual freedom and responsibility.

If Mr. Meyer would listen carefully to sound conservative principles, he might realize the ignorance of which he speaks of lies in the minds of many liberals.

Antoinette Sluga

Paola, Kan.

Cure KC of its Funk

After viewing the recent expose on the predatory practices of area tow companies in the Power & Light District, and reading The Star’s reporting on Mayor Funkhouser holing up in his house as he launches lawsuits against the City Council for less-than-important issues while payments are made to city employees for actions his wife has taken, I am reminded of the story of Nero playing his fiddle while Rome burns.

Time and again The Star’s Opinion section includes comments by people rescinding their past support for Funkhouser and asking for his recall. If people would aggressively begin to put up signs in conspicuous places demanding that action, he might get the message and quit.

My wife and I will not patronize the Power & Light District until someone takes some responsibility for the anarchy that rules that area via the tow truck drivers, and I hope we’re not alone.

Kansas City, take back your town. It appears to be in a serious Funk.

Tommy Fagan

Leawood

Here’s what should be done regarding Mayor Funkhouser’s insistence on having his wife work in his office.

Let’s send him the message that he does not have our support in this situation. The reason he persists in this irrational behavior is that he believes he has the support of the people.

Let’s deliver this message through a letter signed by all of our community’s leaders from across the city, and let’s have our leaders pledge to organize a recall drive if the mayor refuses to heed the letter’s message.

Granted, such a recall effort would be the largest in our city’s history, but with grassroots support from all quarters we can do it.

Finally, let’s not forget the mayor is acting so irresponsibly because he not only believes he has our support, but he also thinks we lack the will to recall him. Let’s prove him wrong, and make our mayor realize that he is supposed to serve the will of the people and not his own self-interest.

John Kelley

Kansas City

A festive way to help fight hunger

With the current economic conditions, the food pantries are overburdened and undersupplied.

We recently held a 50th birthday celebration for a dear friend. His request was to bring a food item rather than a gift. We had a large table with birthday-wrapped empty boxes, which were soon brimming with all kinds of staples. The result was a very nice contribution to the Village Presbyterian Food Pantry.

There will be many social and family gatherings in the days ahead. I hope others will take the cue. It is a very simple way to help and adds a new dimension to a holiday gathering.

Barbara Alley

Leawood

Business ethics education

W. Waite Welker Jr. (11/26, Letters) was insightful to question the ethics education of CEOs in the wake of the recent financial crisis.

The short answer to Mr. Welker’s question is that most CEOs get little to no solid ethics training. This is because the agency that accredits MBA programs does not require stand-alone ethics coursework. Hence, many business schools opt to scatter ethics topics thinly across the curriculum, claiming that this constitutes ethics education. In most cases, it does not.

Kansas State University does not buy into this lax model. Instead, we require our MBAs to take a capstone ethics course while also offering an elective in professional ethics and covering ethics in other courses. I’m proud to say that our model of ethics education has been recognized internationally.

We utilize this model because we, as educators, have a duty to society to arm future managers with knowledge of ethics and corporate social responsibility.

Diane L. Swanson

Professor of management, Kansas State University

Manhattan, Kan.

Peace in Middle East

Allan Abrams of Brit Tzedek v’Shalom rightly calls on President-elect Obama to make peace between Israel and Palestine a priority (11/25, Opinion, “Peace should be one of the top priorities for Obama”). It’s time for both peoples to join the community of nations, to have trade and travel with each other and the rest of the world, and to live in peace. All this has been offered to Israel twice since 2002 by the entire Arab League, but partly because of settlers who are politically powerful, Israel has thus far refused the Arab Peace Initiative.

Settlers raid Palestinian villages, kill their animals, send untreated sewage into fields, beat up farmers and throw stones at school children. They prevent peace for Israelis and Palestinians at the expense and safety of all, including unwitting American taxpayers who send millions per day to support their outrageous behavior.

Andrea Whitmore

Fairway

Joe the Blunderer

It’s incredible how dumb Sarah Palin is. You think you already know, you haven’t heard the full extent yet. At a rally, she told Missouri Sen. Chuck Graham, who uses a wheelchair, to “stand up, Chuck. Let the people see you.”

When discussing the great Depression with a reporter, she stated that FDR (wrong president) went on TV (not in widespread use till the ’50s) to explain what happened.

No wonder she’s considered quite an idiot.

Oh, wait. That was Joe Biden who said those things, not Palin. Never mind.

Chad Kincham

Liberty

Economic woes

Bail out hardworking consumers

If we are planning another stimulus package, how about bailing out the hardworking consumers this economy depends on?

This new $700 billion stimulus package could be broken into $14,000 no-interest loans to 50 million households to be used exclusively to pay down their household debt. This loan would be paid back from future tax refunds or Social Security benefits.

To qualify, the household would have to owe no current taxes, have a good work history and good credit as well as a to-be-determined qualifying debt-to-income ratio. The money would be paid directly to the creditor to pay down debt principle.

The government should also encourage the creditors to renegotiate the interest rates on the remainder of the debt, thereby giving the families more money to inject into the economy while providing the institutions and companies holding the debt an infusion of cash.

Craig Colbert

Prairie Village

What happened to sacrifice?

I have a problem when I see CEOs of large corporations sitting before Congress begging for a piece of the $700 billion pie. Especially when these same people flew in on corporate jets they refuse to get rid of and refuse to take a cut in their high-dollar salaries.

In 1982 when the oil bust came, my husband had a radiator and air conditioning shop in Oklahoma City. We did a lot of oil field work. My husband gave his employees a choice: He would let some go, or lower their salaries and quit paying their health insurance. They chose. He kept everyone on and gave them a little bonus whenever he could. Half the time he didn’t draw a salary for himself.

I had just given birth to our second child, and we had bought a new car. Luckily I worked for Ma Bell and made a decent salary, but I still had to supplement bill-paying with our small savings account.

Our new baby sat with me at the county health department, not the pediatrician’s office, for her wellness visits and I used cloth diapers.

We sacrificed and we made it. Why can’t they?

Linda I. Schill

Paola, Kan.

Dear teen, please stop smoking

Dear 18-year-old Sarah Rocco (11/25, Letters, “Smoking bans hurt business”),

I’m sure you are a very bright and intelligent college student. So stop fretting about your right to smoke in a designated smoking area and about bars losing business because of smoking bans. Use that energy to kick your habit.

One of my biggest regrets is the smoking habit t I acquired in high school and college. Fortunately, after several unsuccessful attempts, I finally quit at age 40.

Sarah, you know that cigarettes are addictive, expensive and destructive to your health. Do yourself a big favor. Empower yourself and stop smoking now. You will never regret it.

Vicki L Smith

Lenexa

It’s time for Robert Gates to go

I am very concerned about the notion of Bush’s Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, staying on at the Pentagon. Gates has vocally opposed Barack Obama’s withdrawal plan for Iraq. Gates has also become the leading voice in the Bush administration pushing for an aggressive nuclear weapons posture. And even many conservatives have argued he has a habit of skewing intelligence to fit his predetermined policy preferences.

Obama’s desire for a diversity of views around the cabinet table is refreshing. But Gates’ support for the policies of the past makes him the wrong person to lead U.S. military and foreign policies in a new direction.

Vic Burton

Kansas City