Unfettered Letters

Here’s why teens shouldn’t drink

As an 18-year-old, I am now able to sign up to die for the people of my country and vote to elect one of the most powerful leaders in the world. And yet, I am not legally allowed to have a glass of wine with my family at dinner.

But if you will trust me enough to fight for you and elect the president of the U.S., then why should you not trust me to buy and consume an alcoholic beverage?

I’ll tell you why. When you put an already inexperienced driver, who now comes equipped with a cell phone fit for text messaging and a stereo that plays music loud enough to blow an eardrum, who wants to add the extra temptation of driving under the influence of alcohol?

M.E. Tillmon
Kansas City

From drinking to plumbing

Did anyone else notice that in the final presidential debate, “Joe Six-Pack” had morphed into “Joe the Plumber?”

“Joe Six-Pack” was the moniker laid on common, working-class Americans. But I suspect Republicans dropped the six-pack reference after protests from groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving or other folks who don’t see boozing as a healthy lifestyle.

James Mercer
Kansas City

‘Joe Six-Pack’ isn’t funny

I am appalled that the possible next vice president of the United States is making light of the term “Joe Six-Pack” as if it were a badge of honor. Is Sarah Palin suggesting that it is wonderful if males drink a six pack of beer every day?

What message does this send young boys, male teenagers and young male adults? “Hey, it’s OK to drink a six-pack of beer a day, and if you do, you too can join my little group, ‘Joe Six-Pack?’.”

Where are the voices of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Destructive Decisions? Are we supposed to ignore this because simply because Ms. Palin is female, or that she is cute or that she winks at us?

I don’t know any form of media that would support any other mother spewing this garbage without rebuke. What about the children?

Tracy D. Darby
Raytown

Of late we have experienced “Joe Six-Pack” used in GOP speeches by Sarah Palin. This is a terrible phrase to use.

We are experiencing the effects of alcohol abuse in our homes, streets and highways, which can lead to domestic violence, child abuse, injuries and deaths.

Our hospitals, courts, jails, funeral homes and cemeteries are filled with “Joe Six-Packs” and their victims.

Alexis Barlows, R.N.
Kansas City

18 too young to fight and vote?

The most common argument in support of lowering the drinking age is that if society deems 18-year-olds mature enough to vote and to risk their lives defending their country, they should be considered old enough to consume alcohol legally.

To deny there’s a double standard in our current laws would be hypocritical. I propose we eliminate this double standard not by lowering the drinking age to 18, but by raising the minimum age for voting and serving in combat.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving opposes lowering the drinking age because brain development — particularly the area responsible for judgment and impulse — is not complete by age 18.

I find it curious that we give a segment of the population considered immature and prone to impulsive behavior the awesome responsibility of helping elect our officials. Worse yet, I find it abhorrent that a supposedly enlightened and caring society exposes its adolescents to the horrors of combat, turning them into cannon fodder or thrusting them into situations in which they may snap and use lethal force against innocent people.

Pablo La Rosa
Mission

Parents’ drinking sets example

The thrill of sneaking around those who forbid alcohol is a major reason to why minors drink, but it’s not the only one. The drinking habits of the parents, when under stress or celebrating, teach children to use alcohol the same way. So whether drinking is legal or not, youths will mimic their parents.

While lowering the drinking age may prevent instances of alcoholism, it can bring forth more problems. By lowering the age by two years, teenagers drinking for the first time are driving for the first time. Together alcohol and driving is a sure way to cause harm and even death. So while lowering the age may have positive effects, it may not beat the negatives unless other solutions can be reached.

Ben Schario
Overland Park

Raise a glass to the old days

The article “Schlitz becomes more than just a memory” (8/23, Business) led me to reflect back over my 82 years.

My conclusion is that the country was better off when we had more corner taverns than corner drug stores.

John L. Coakley Jr.
Kansas City

Keep teens out of bars

While it does seem unfair to deny an 18-year-old the right to drink at the same time they are allowed to join the military or vote in an election, there are strong arguments against it as well. Most of them are heady and backed by statistics about drunken driving and binge drinking.

My reason for supporting the drinking age at 21 is more selfish. I work in and frequent bars, and I don’t want a bunch of drunken infants ruining my night at work or on the town.

People in their early 20s are bad enough without allowing teenagers to invade the bar scene, too.

Leave the drinking age alone and focus on more important legislation.

Scott Beskow
Westwood

Forbidden booze sweeter?

When I was a child, my parents sold beer in their rural Missouri restaurant. No one ever told me I couldn’t help myself or that it was against the law for me to drink, yet I never did.

Why? Probably because there was no fun in sneaking beer behind my parents’ back since they didn’t seem to care if I did so. I have a hunch this is why I rarely consume alcoholic beverages today.

I wonder if we might experience less alcoholism in our society if the legal drinking age were lowered or possibly eliminated.

Charles Ballew
Kansas City

Police response to DUI

I am very curious and concerned about something I have encountered on many occasions. Local police departments, who freely sit on interstates and enforce speed limits, will not respond to a reported DUI or accident on that same interstate. Why?

I have been told many times by their dispatchers that “it’s not our jurisdiction. Let me forward you to the Highway Patrol.”

I have been behind drunken drivers in Kansas City and been told by the Kansas City Police Department that they could not dispatch officers to stop this vehicle because it was on an interstate and that was the highway patrol’s jurisdiction.

I find it funny that those same officers, who won’t help stop a dangerous drunken driver, sit on that same highway in their cars and on their motorcycles and hand out speeding tickets. If the interstate truly is not their jurisdiction, what are they doing enforcing the speed limit there?

Rick Gile
Independence

I can’t believe that DUI arrests from police “traps” are still supposed to be news.

Any cop, any day, can sit out in front of any bar at closing time and fill up his DUI quota for the month.

Who is fooling whom?

Don Airington
Kansas City

Ban intoxicated bus riders

Recently I was catching one of the buses from the Plaza to an appointment, when an unruly and belligerent passenger refused to leave the bus and walked over to a fellow passenger (a senior citizen) and started yelling, cussing, calling her names and threatening to hit her. The driver told him that the police were on their way. They hadn’t even been called upon.

What the driver should have done was call her supervisor, then the police. The passenger appeared to be under the influence of alcohol.

A week before that I was on a different bus when a teenager boarded who reeked of marijuana. The smell was so overwhelming that a group of us quickly departed.

To protect the public, bus drivers should refuse service to passengers who have been drinking or using drugs.

Diane Aliason
Kansas City

DUI checkpoint

According to The Star (3/30, Local, “DUI arrests”), on March 28 a sobriety checkpoint at Wornall Road and Ward Parkway stopped 286 vehicles and made seven DUI arrests. It’s great that those people were taken off the road, but the manpower expended for five hours to get only 2 1/2 percent return on the cars stopped seems inefficient.

Why not set up closer to Westport, where the supply is much greater and more people could be taken off the road?

Cliff Jones
Raytown

Drunken drivers

The roving police patrol that took place Monday in Overland Park is the most effective way to maximize DUI arrests and save taxpayer money (3/15, Local, “Police will watch for drunk drivers”). Cities nationwide should adopt similar efforts.
Studies on traffic safety confirm that this type of police unit (also known as a “saturation” patrol) is the best way to get the worst drunk drivers off the road. Unlike highly publicized sobriety checkpoints that broadcast their locations in advance, roving patrols cover wide, unannounced areas, so chronic drunk drivers can’t plan ahead to avoid them.
Furthermore, roving patrols are up to ten times more effective than checkpoints for only a fraction of the cost.
Many states disregard this evidence and continue to funnel taxpayer money into ineffective, intrusive roadblocks. However, with its roving police patrols, Overland Park has the right idea.
Sarah Longwell
Managing director, American Beverage Institute
Washington, DC

Kids in bars?

This is in response to "Look who just strolled into the bar; Tykes are tagging along as parents take time out for a toddy" (2/19, FYI).

Smoking is being banned in restaurants and bars. But should we now allow children in?

Bars are no place for children. There are fights, foul language, drunks, drugs and amateur drinkers in these establishments.

A quote from the article: "One woman breast fed her son and then ordered a martini." How many more did she consume? Did she then drive home?

This is a double-edged sword. We are protecting our children and adults from secondhand smoke, but we’re allowing kids in bars. Interesting.

C. Caldwell
Sedalia, Mo.

Alcohol can be deadly

The Star’s editorial board has proclaimed that smoking should be banned from all drinking establishments (1/15). This is all well and good, but the board has failed to recognize the true danger to bar patrons.

I have never heard of anyone spending their entire paycheck on tobacco. I have not read of a person smoking a package of cigarettes and then killing someone with their automobile. Neither have I read a story of someone, after smoking a pipe or cigar, getting into a fight and killing another human being.

Secondhand smoke may be detrimental, but it is not nearly as deadly as the effects of alcohol.

This was a recognized truth 80 years ago, but it now appears to be a big joke. How times have changed.

Robert J. Rose
Lee’s Summit

Vick sentence

Michael Vick was just sentenced to 23 months in federal prison for his dogfighting conviction (12/11, Sports Daily). I in no way justify what he did, but aggressive drivers and drunken drivers can maim and kill people in car crashes and not receive this type of sentence. Our values are all wrong.

Michael L. Walker
Kansas City

DUI checkpoints

The Independence Police Department spent a lot of officers’ time and taxpayers’ money recently to arrest four drivers out of 272 vehicles screened at a sobriety checkpoint,

In the effort to get drunken drivers off the roads, Missouri law enforcement agencies probably would make far more arrests if they spent their available patrol time roaming the streets looking for drunken drivers rather than standing at roadblocks waiting for these drivers to come to them.

Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunken-driving problem.

Conversely, the number of DUI arrests made by roving patrol programs is nearly 10 times the average number made by checkpoint programs, according to testimony by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official. Missouri residents and taxpayers would benefit from employing the most effective tactics to catch drunken drivers: roving police patrols.

Sarah Longwell
Communications director, American Beverage Institute
Washington

Drunk driving threat

On my way to work recently, I encountered an accident that could have resulted in the loss of life. I stopped to render aid to a young woman. Her car was totaled. She was sitting by her car asking what happened. She had no earthly idea.

As we started putting the pieces of the puzzle together, we learned that a man driving a van was going southbound in the northbound lanes of the highway. We also learned he was under the influence of alcohol or some other intoxicant. We think it was alcohol, because beer bottles were falling out of his van.

Medically speaking, it appears that both individuals will be alright. The vehicles, not so much. But, hey, that is what insurance is for. The cost of this incident could surpass $20,000 if you simply factor in the replacement or repair of the vehicles.

I was able to call this young lady’s mother and inform her that her daughter was basically alright. The next time this man decides to drink and drive, we may not be so lucky. The next time, it might be my child.

This must stop, and it must stop now.

Gregory S. Pluimer
Lawrence

‘Tough love’ for DUI

Sandy Rice writes that Missouri drivers are at risk of losing their constitutional rights when legally convicted of a DUI because they have to jump through some hoops to get their suspended licenses back (10/8, As I See It). She also paints a picture that this is a slippery slope that other traffic offenders (e.g. speeders, reckless drivers, etc.) may soon slide down. Her hypothesis and conclusion are absurd.

There is no constitutional right to drive a multi-ton vehicle on a public roadway. Persons convicted of a DUI have shown a wanton disregard not only for their own safety but the safety of the public. They should not automatically get their driver’s license restored once their sentence is served.

Perhaps similar punishments should be meted out to more “minor” offenders.

We could ask the opinion of William K. Johnson who, just 15 days before he allegedly struck and killed Larry and Sierra Gaunt on Raytown Road, was ticketed for going 95 mpg in a 70 mph zone. (His driver’s license was also briefly suspended in 1989.)

The process to restore one’s driving privileges that Ms. Rice describes sounds expensive and humiliating. Good. Maybe a little tough love is what is needed.

Tim Furlong
Independence

To deter drunk driving

I agree with Mike Hendricks’ column “Pay a price for being responsible” (9/21, Local). My husband and I used to live in a city where you could not even park on the city streets after 3 a.m. Bar patrons were being towed or ticketed on a regular basis.

To deter drunk driving and increase business, the local cab companies came up with an effective “Ride and Drive” program. One cab driver would give you a ride while another cabbie would drive your car home. You would always know where your car was the next morning, and it was a lot cheaper than a tow. Something Kansas City cab companies should consider.

Gwen Koski
Kansas City

Drinking age

So the drinking age ought to be 18. The argument has been around for years that if you are old enough to go to war, you should be mature enough to drink responsibly.

Eighteen is not some magic age where you wake up one morning with common sense. Some people never get that. However, I do believe that if someone has the testicular fortitude to join the military and volunteer to serve our country, they absolutely should be allowed to drink.

The drinking, of course would need to be limited to on-base facilities only.

Proud mother of an Air Force/Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran,

P. Bringus
Kansas City

Party Cove

Perhaps the Environmental Protection Agency should administer an environmental impact study on the area known as the Party Cove at Lake of the Ozarks (7/1, A-1, “Debauchery, danger on deck in Party Cove”). With all the consumption of adult beverages reported, there is probably an overabundance of pollution in the water as a natural consequence of that consumption. Making the public aware of the water conditions at that location may do more to solve the problem than previous attempts.

John Myers
Kansas City

Is Party Cove really front page news? Every year there appears to be an attempt to create a public outcry where it doesn’t exist. I understand what the atmosphere is like and simply chose not to go there. “Booze and boobs”: In Missouri it’s dangerous debauchery. In Louisiana, it’s called Mardi Gras.

Tony Bradley
Parkville

Party Cove

Lake has changed

Many years ago, when my children were growing up, we frequented the Lake of the Ozarks every weekend. We lived on our cruiser, which we docked at the Lodge of the Four Seasons. On Sunday, we went to Mass at Our Lady of the Lake.

This time of year was especially memorable with the celebration of July Fourth. Great friends, great fun. Family fun. Sure, we got noisy and rowdy, laughing and having fun.

The Lake of the Ozarks has finally, after all these years, made the front page (7/1, A-1, “Debauchery, danger on deck in Party Cove; Lake patrol is sometimes treading water when monitoring infamous mixture of sun, sex and booze”). However, is it really front-page news to see a naked woman getting tattooed on a cruiser in front of a group of people? And someone in the article referred to it as “good, fun, family entertainment.” Puhleeze! What has happened to my lake?

Patti Davis
Overland Park

Shades of Rome fallen. Your story about Party Cove reminds one of historical accounts about orgies in decadent, ancient Rome before its collapse to a hardier culture. While in our time the fanatics of a diametrically opposed belief system to ours are on the move worldwide.

William H. Finnegan
Independence

Is Party Cove what happens when heterosexuality is allowed to run rampant?

If I were to judge heterosexuals by the same standards many of them use to judge my partner and me, I should therefore assume that all heterosexuals behave like those at Party Cove. And heterosexuals are allowed to raise children? Heaven forbid!

Janice Woolery
Kansas City

Roving patrols better

Kansas City officials spent a lot of officers’ time and taxpayers’ money Saturday to arrest just 15 drunk drivers out of more than 2,500 cars screened at a sobriety checkpoint (6/25, Local, “Fifteen arrested after DUI check”).

In the fight to get drunk drivers off the roads, Missouri law enforcement agencies would likely make far more arrests if they spent their available patrol time roaming the streets looking for drunk drivers, rather than standing at roadblocks waiting for these drivers to come to them.

Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunk driving problem.

Conversely, the number of DUI arrests made by roving patrol programs is nearly 10 times the average number made by checkpoint programs.

Missouri residents and taxpayers would benefit from employing the most effective tactics to catch drunk drivers: roving police patrols.

Sarah Longwell
Communications director, American Beverage Institute
Washington D.C.

Blood tests flap

I find it somewhat disconcerting that you choose to ignore that the Johnson County district attorney’s desire to get hospital workers to draw blood from those likely to be under the influence is just his decision to enforce the law (4/12 editorial, “Kline out of bounds with blood-test plan; Fight drunken driving, but let hospitals follow procedure”). District attorneys do that.

In an on-air radio interview on Thursday, he did not threaten anybody with arrest if they did not comply. Rather, he stated that he was just raising the issue to educate hospitals in his jurisdiction as to what the law was and what was required of them in its enforcement.

If hospital administrators are conflicted, they are right to seek advice from higher authorities.

I trust that the public good will prevail over some supposed right to privacy. Any right to privacy was forfeited when the individual decided to drive on a public street.

It’s time like this when I wish I lived in Johnson County so that I could vote for Phill Kline. Despite The Star’s crusade against him, he appears firm in his conviction that he serves the people and not the press.

J.P. Cummings
Kansas City, Kan.

Address drunken driving

Glenn Audsley’s point (1/5, Letters) is well taken concerning The Star’s agenda in headlining the cumulative war deaths in Iraq and failing to provide the significant focus that is seriously needed concerning deaths caused by drunken driving.

When our soldiers take the field in Iraq, they know they are in harm’s way. When a family member is driving down the road, they believe they are reasonably safe. They are not, and we continue to allow drunken drivers to kill thousands of our family members each year with little comment.

This is unacceptable, and it is partly the sign of a culture that is far too accepting of drunken driving.

The Star could take on this serious issue. It could keep score on something that affects us locally in a significant manner.

How about it, Kansas City Star? Are you up to a continuing campaign against drunken drivers? This would affect not only Kansas City, but the states of Kansas and Missouri as well.

Bob Croft
Leawood

Drunken driving deaths

It is interesting how The Star handles two different stories involving loss of life.

A story in the top upper-right front page of your Jan. 1 paper carried the bold headline “U.S. toll at 3,000 in Iraq.” The text starts with a grim reminder that 3,000 soldiers had lost their lives fighting in Iraq since the war began.

A second story involving death on the same page, at the bottom left corner, is headlined “Technology has goal: Block drunken drivers.” The story says that an estimated 13,000 people are killed every year due to drunken driving.

So over the four-year period that 3,000 soldiers were killed, the nation lost 52,000 people due to drunken driving.

The subject of this story tells of a device attached to a car that could prevent many deaths if it were mandated by law.

What is The Star’s agenda? Where is the outrage from the media that drunken drivers are tolerated when a promising solution is available?

Glenn L. Audsley
Lexington, Mo.

Ignition interlocks

What the story on alcohol ignition interlocks failed to mention is that unlike the Saab device, which is triggered by an unlawful level of alcohol on the breath, the devices advocated by MADD will not allow a car to start if a fraction of the legal blood-alcohol content is detected (1/1, A-1, “Technology has goal: Block drunken drivers”).

This is a flawed approach supported by people with flawed reasoning. Americans deserve a better approach.

Tom Ciccateri
Kansas City

Drunken-driving problem

When is the justice system going to take all the people off the roads who continually break the law and drive under the influence of alcohol and drugs?

When a person has been arrested three times, this should be enough to tell the judges they are not going to change.

For lawyers to be able to get them off and put them back on the road and risk taking lives of innocent people is wrong.

Our legislators should take action to see that the laws are changed to keep habitual drunken drivers from behind the wheel of a “weapon of mass destruction,” an automobile.

Please write your legislators.

Richard Stroud
Greenwood

Help with alcohol

“Looking for a magic cure,” an article from the Detroit Free Press, appeared in last week’s FYI section (12/14). It was about avoiding hangovers.

Hangovers occur only when someone is drinking immoderately. The article had some very good rules for drinking alcohol in a safe manner, as well as information on avoiding unpleasant after-effects if someone drinks too much.

I think that readers who seek this kind of advice should also be told that they can find help if their drinking is out of control.

In the Kansas City area, the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence is the first call to make for help, day or night. Callers can maintain anonymity and speak with certified counselors about any alcoholism or addiction concerns.

We offer this service to the community at no charge. The reward we get is hearing people say, “You saved my life.”

Jean Roth Jacobs
President and chief executive officer
National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence of Greater Kansas City
www.recoverycentral.org
Kansas City

Parents, be careful

A recent article promoting the Holiday Wild Nights at the Kansas City Zoo (12/8, Local, “Sticky and wild fun”) immediately raised a red flag.

The statement that the activities would include “... fire-barrels where kids can make s’mores over an open flame” initially indicated clean family fun. The next sentence, however, was shocking. The notation that there also would be “a bar for Mom and Dad” was a recipe for disaster.

Let’s just load all the kids in the car, drop them off at the fire pit, then proceed to tank up on alcoholic beverages — only to hit the highways a short time later.

The assumption that people will drink responsibly is absurd.

The zoo should rethink this promotion for next year or provide free cab rides to those who choose to participate.

Randy Stallings
Independence

Have wine with dinner

Thanks for your helpful tips on preventing illnesses from E. coli (12/7, A-1, “Add onions to food scares”). One other tip should be added to the list — perhaps the oldest and one of the most reliable of all: Drink a glass of wine with your meal.

A 1995 study by Dr. Martin Weisse, researcher at West Virginia University, found that both red and white wine were effective in wiping out bacteria responsible for food-related stomach ailments. He and his colleagues found that wine was effective in eradicating three types of bacteria that commonly cause food poisoning, dysentery and diarrhea.

“For thousands of years people have been saying that wine with dinner aids digestion; here we have an explanation why,” Weisse wrote.

Armies from before Caesar’s time took wine with them as they invaded other lands to make sure they were not taken down by strange food or polluted water (which we now know contained E. coli, salmonella and other microorganisms.)

The simple precaution of having a glass of wine with food can be a lifesaving act, not to mention that it can provide additional health benefits derived from the resveratrol in wine that counteracts heart disease caused by LDL cholesterol.

Vernon Reed
Liberty

Alcohol is dangerous

Beverage alcohol is a dangerous, highly addictive substance, and I think those who market it are greedy opportunists. These second cousins of drug dealers dress up their product and try to take the focus off its negative aspects, just like the tobacco merchants of old used to.

The letter sent by Megan McDonald on behalf of the American Beverage Institute (11/22) discussing roving police patrols and drunken drivers is a good example of this.

Every holiday season we get this same kind of high-toned lecture from these slicks, trying to pin the blame for the inevitable tragedies that result from drinking on anyone except themselves.

If people are going to drink, they should drink responsibly. Her letter is correct in that regard. But a great number of drinkers cannot or will not drink responsibly, and any advice about this coming as a PR statement is cynical and hypocritical.

If those in the liquor industry are so concerned about the public’s well-being and safety, why don’t they just get out of the business?

Robert Wilshire
Kansas City, Kan.

Sobriety checkpoints

DWI checkpoints are not the answer to drunken driving in Independence (11/17, Local, "Public safety, Sobriety checkpoint coming”). Because they are highly visible by design and well publicized in advance (in these pages, no less), roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunk drivers.

Conversely, roving patrols, which roam the roads in search of the erratic drivers, are considerably more effective at getting drunks off the road. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) study found that “the number of DWI arrests made by the roving patrol program was nearly three times the average number of DWIs made by the checkpoint programs.”

By using scarce law enforcement resources on roadblocks, there are fewer left to deploy on roving patrols, which — unlike roadblocks — have proved effective at catching drunkEN drivers.

Megan McDonald
Executive director, American Beverage Institute
Washington, D.C.

Tax and restrict alcohol

The hypocrites are at it again. More nonsmoking ordinances, attempts to raise taxes on tobacco, etc. Most of it in the name of health.

Why don't these folks look the effects of alcohol?

Check out the information at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Alcohol is the No. 1 cause of workplace accidents and the single-highest contributor to domestic violence, and we won't even begin to talk about those injured and/or killed by drunk drivers. And what about other crimes, including assaults, that are alcohol related?

How many billions are spent each year on the victims of alcohol abuse?

These hypocrites are worried about secondhand smoke in a bar. I'd be more concerned about the idiot sitting on the next stool who might kill or permanently injure you when you leave.

Prohibition won't work. Tighter controls might, such as higher taxes on alcohol products, reduced hours that establishments can serve alcoholic beverages. Maybe even a "ration card" restricting the number of drinks a person can purchase in one night or the number of products that can be purchased at a liquor store.

Ray Erlichman
Shawnee

The alcohol excuse

As I read Leonard Pitts' commentary "A loser's excuse: It was just the alcohol talking" (11/7, Opinion), describing how many politicians today are using alcohol abuse as an excuse for their bad behavior, I was reminded of an old saying: Things said while drunk were thought out while sober.

Randy Dudley
Kansas City

Increase alcohol taxes

In order to be truly fair on the issue of health care and generate literally millions of dollars for Missouri’s new “Healthy Future Trust Fund” needed to provide funding for health care access and treatment for eligible low-income uninsured Missourians and Medicaid recipients (9/17, Local, “Groups want cigarette tax boost of 80 cents per pack in Missouri”), it’s time to start taxing the booze.

As a smoker, I’ve already been taxed to death, and I’ve had enough. At least I am only hurting myself and not getting behind the wheel of a car driving drunk and killing others. You want money for this program? Tax the booze.

Judy Bestor
Kansas City

Wine purchase, shipping

Kudos to Doug Frost for “Hubris doesn’t change flawed law” (9/20, Food).

We couldn’t agree more: Adult consumers should be able to purchase wines directly from any U.S. winery. But a confusing law is not a step in the right direction. It’s a step backward.

Here’s why.

Confusing and overly burdensome state regulations, like the one in Kansas, are tactics of the wine wholesaler cartel to prevent direct shipping. These unworkable laws are promoted in other states as “solutions” by wholesalers, and legislators may not have time to confirm whether the laws actually work for consumers or merely protect wholesaler turf.

We also agree that creating a relationship with a local retailer is a terrific way to get great wine recommendations. But retailers are not going out of business because of direct shipping from wineries, as Frost alleges.

Wineries now have the option of selling directly into 33 states, but retailers can only ship to 12, at most, depending on their location. Retailers want a level playing field, too. Consumers will benefit.

Retailers and consumers can join the fight for consumer choice in wine by contacting www.specialtywineretailers.org or www.freethegrapes.org, respectively.

Jeremy Benson
Executive director
Free the Grapes
Napa, Calif.

Editor’s note: Free the Grapes describes itself as a national, grass-roots coalition of consumers, wineries and retailers who seek to remove restrictions in states that prohibit consumers from purchasing wines directly from wineries and retailers.

Costly alcohol abuse

Diane Stafford wrote a good column on the effects of alcohol abuse by employees (9/7, Business, “A costly, tragic problem”).

While not a teetotaler, I know the gravity of the situation we now face, particularly the binge drinking and guzzling contests prevalent in the young.

As a father of eight, a retired middle manager of a major industrial facility, and past chairman of Clay County’s Health Department, I can attest to the fact that her article understates the seriousness of the problem (don’t forget social disruptions, automobile accidents and domestic disputes).

Many people are hopped up on the tobacco issue, and it is important, but it pales in comparison to the alcohol consumption patterns evident in our society.

Why does the city have such an apparent desire to continually increase the number of bars and other liquor-serving facilities? Only one answer makes sense: Alcohol sales provide tax revenue, and producers have such a strong and well-funded lobby, no one will touch the issue.

I am glad to see someone with the courage to “open Pandora’s Box” on this issue. Keep up the good work, Diane.

Jay R. Stock
Kansas City

Alcohol messages

Competing alcohol messages

I was trying to concentrate as I read Diane Stafford’s column on alcohol abuse on the Business front (9/7, “A costly, tragic problem”). Very serious problem, I agree. Something should be done.

Wait a minute, Diane. I can’t hear you. There’s seems to be some kind of celebration going on right above you on the page.

It’s the Boulevard Brewery — they’re expanding. Whoo! One-hundred thousand more barrels of beer! Time to party on! Pass me another one....

Oh, sorry, Diane. Were you saying something?

Michael Kennedy
Westwood Hills

Drinking game bad idea

I’m not really a sports enthusiast, but I almost always read Joe Posnanski’s column because I like his writing and I find it informative.

That is why I was disappointed with last Tuesday’s article about baseball player Derek Jeter (9/5, Sports, “Feelings clash about Jeter”).

Joe had a good pitch. Why did he have to introduce it with a drinking “game”?

To get “sloshed” by the fourth inning isn’t funny. It is not smart. Nor is it cool. It’s sick. Like alcoholic sick.

This country is awash in alcohol, and “recreational” drugs aren’t far behind. It doesn’t help to have a leading columnist wrap his writing around it.

Come on Joe, use your head.

Mary K. Meyer
Kansas City, Kan.

Catching drunken drivers

In the fight to get drunken drivers off the roads, Kansas City police probably would make far more arrests if they were roaming the streets looking for drunken drivers rather than standing at roadblocks waiting for these drivers to come to them (8/14, Local, “Midtown sobriety checkpoint scheduled”).

Because they are highly visible by design and publicized in advance, roadblocks are all too easily avoided by the chronic alcohol abusers who comprise the core of today’s drunken-driving problem.

Conversely, “the number of DUI arrests made by the roving patrol program was nearly three times the average number of DUIs made by the checkpoint programs,” according to a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration study.

Kansas City residents and taxpayers would benefit from employing the most effective tactics to keep drunk drivers off the roads: roving police patrols.

John Doyle
Executive director
The American Beverage Institute
Washington

Sobriety checkpoints

Last weekend The Star contained a very brief report concerning a recent “sobriety checkpoint” in Kansas City (8/6, Metro). More than 1,000 people were stopped and inconvenienced. Only two were arrested for DUI.

Those numbers are consistent with prior reported arre