Unfettered Letters

$25,000 for ‘walking bus?’

The Star reported on a “walking bus” program for elementary school pupils (3/31, Local, “The wheels on the bus don’t go round and round ... but the kids still get to school; Local effort mirrors national trend encouraging students to walk in groups to and from school”). It was reported that 28 kids have joined the program.

The idea is to foster exercise, cut down on traffic and support community development. It is an idea that is easy to support. What I find amazing is that the program requires $25,000 in grants from Overland Park and the Kansas Department of Transportation.

If it requires $25,000 to get 28 children to occasionally walk to school, we are all too rich, too careless with our tax dollars or just simply crazy. It makes you wonder how the rest of our tax money is being spent.

John Crowe
Kansas City

Child pornography

Could the present scourge of child pornography have reached epidemic proportions because we have ignored other aspects of sexual exploitation? (3/29, A-1, “Big gains in finding little victims”)

Author and sex-addiction expert Mark Laaser and others note the phenomenon of escalation with regard to pornographic material. A viewer who was once stimulated by “tame” material becomes bored with that material, needing more graphic or deviant material to reach previous arousal. Applied to the deviance of child porn, one has to wonder if we would be where we are if obscenity laws had been enforced over the last six decades.

Since 1953, when Playboy crawled out of the gutter and into the living room, the pattern of escalation toward more deviant material is undeniable. What will follow child pornography as this cycle continues?

Doug Burford
Mission

I wish the child porn sleuths would put as much emphasis on eliminating the access to this stuff on the Internet as they do finding and prosecuting the guys who produce, promote and download the images.

International law enforcement should put their efforts into getting worldwide cooperation to eliminate child porn on the Web, much like the Federal Communications Commission does to enforce proprietary and moral issues over the U.S. public airways.

Eliminate the child porn Web sites so there are none available for Internet users. This way there would be no cyberspace sources for child porn.

John Boyer
 Leavenworth

All kids deserve health care

Charron Townsend (3/25, Opinion, “As I see it: General Assembly falling short on children’s health”) makes the case for expanding the State Children’s Health Insurance Program so more Missouri children can have access to medical care.
 
The Partnership for Children reports that uninsured children are much more likely to have unmet health needs than insured children. The uninsured are less likely to get the medicines they need. They are more likely to be hospitalized for conditions that, if treated earlier, would not have resulted in a hospital stay.
 
Their untreated health problems can become chronic conditions with lifelong consequences, even affecting their productivity as workers.
 
All children deserve a healthy start in life. Increasing eligibility for the state children’s program is a smart way to achieve that goal.

David Oliver
Kansas City

Sympathies to family and driver

My thoughts are with the fire truck driver going on a call, as well as the family of Obarimomoya Nkani, the boy who was killed as he tried to run across the street (3/3, Local, “Tragedy on student’s walk home”).

Any driver is subject to this chilling prospect. Children have to learn to avoid unsafe acts. But no matter how often they are cautioned to “be careful,” they are tempted to try to beat their better judgment.

Anyone who has watched “America’s Funniest Home Videos” on TV knows adults also lapse into childish thinking and bad examples. Only experience, instruction and example in being cautious are learned as one grows older.

To kill an animal running into traffic is a soul gripper, but to kill a child must be almost beyond solace.

Marvin Goodman
Lenexa

Genetic trait selection

Regarding the issue of trait selection (3/4, A-1, “Special delivery: Baby blue eyes; A California fertility doctor’s offer prompts ethical questions”), it has taken millions of years of natural selection for us humans to become as intelligent, adaptable and good-looking as we are today. How much should we be tinkering with the blueprints? We still know too little about how genetics work and cannot know the effects thousands of years into the future.

Besides, think of all the teenagers unhappy with their physical images, such as the lay of their hair or the shape of their nose. Then they really could blame everything on their parents.

Jeremy Ruzich
Kansas City, Kan.

Boy + dog = Smile

Thank you for the delightful picture on the front of 3/6 Local section of the boy and the spaniel playing in the park. No matter how depressing the news, this picture will brighten any day.

Kudos to Keith Myers for the photo and The Star for publishing it.

Carol Shomin
Overland Park

Brownback’s vote on children’s health bill

Shame on Sen. Sam Brownback of Kansas for voting against the bill that authorizes expansion of Kansas’ HealthWave program providing health care to uninsured children.

A letter I recently received explained that Brownback’s main concern was the number of childless adults included in the bill. Upon further investigation, I learned that this bill allows but does not mandate states to include pregnant women. Is there a better way to “protect the unborn” (one of Brownback’s main campaign goals) than to provide health care to their pregnant mothers?

Brownback expressed concern that coverage would be expanded to families earning $88,000 per year. The federal bill leaves income guidelines up to the states. HealthWave takes into account the number of children along with family income. Does Brownback object to large families being eligible?

Sen. Brownback, as you begin your campaign for Kansas governor, please rethink your commitment to Kansas children. Your vote against this bill raises huge concerns.

Kay Heley
Overland Park

Many gay couples are great parents

Christie Jessee (2/24, Letters, “Same-sex unions”) cites a lack of masculine or feminine parental influence for children of gay couples as justification for gay marriage bans. However, even if it were true that fatherless or motherless families are less than ideal, that is no reason to deny gay couples equal marriage rights.

If only those who would be ideal parents could marry, no one would be married. We don’t grant or deny heterosexual couples the right to marry based on their presumed level of fitness as parents. Why make an exception for gay couples?

Many gay couples already have children, and many make excellent parents despite whatever challenges such families must face. The welfare of these children is better served if their parents have the right to marry than if they do not. We are doing these children no favors by treating their parents as second-class citizens.

Chad Inman
Kansas City

Cigarette taxes and kids’ health

We have now banned smoking in restaurants and public places. So now the secondhand smoke has been banned, and our health is saved!

If smoking is so bad for us, ban it. Tell our government to stop subsidizing tobacco growers. Now we are imposing a 62 cents a pack tax on cigarettes to take care of our children’s health care (2/16, A-1, “Will cigarettes end up a lifesaver?”). Can you believe that a “health hazard” will pay for children’s health care?

What if every smoker quits, lives longer and puts a bigger burden on Social Security, which is broke, by living longer?

My solution? Everyone should smoke, pay high taxes, die sooner and save our Social Security. Should this be part of our “stimulus” package? What a country.

Al Ward
Kansas City

Being one of your senior citizens who has smoked for the past 50 years of his life, I find it quite humorous that once again we smokers have been targeted for the cure- alls of the world.

Once again I am told that it is a win-win situation. How, I haven’t quite figured out, for if all of us smokers quit like they say we will, then where will the money come from to help the poor needy children?

Big Brother seems to be looking over my shoulder again and telling me what is good for me. Trouble is, who will be watching him when he starts looking elsewhere for this cure-all?

Loyd Byfield
Kansas City

Say no to Elmo

“Kids are in the know with Elmo” (2/16, FYI) demonstrates expressly why I’d rather not have my children watch today’s dumbed-down talk on “Sesame Street.”

Elmo’s third-person, baby-talk semantics when conversing with fellow characters and those watching him is a complete disservice to young viewers. Developing minds deserve proper talk when learning about everyday activities.

Having loved “Sesame Street” when I was growing up, I looked forward to sharing such a classic with my own children. But one viewing as a new mom caused me to click off the tube and go to Amazon.com for the old-school DVDs.

Many of the show’s benefits extolled by columnist Jeneé Osterheldt still exist. Numbers, colors, and cultures are all explored in creative ways. I believe in the educational benefits of such programming, but not at the expense of diction and comprehension.

Moreover, I find it especially offensive that in its push to introduce young viewers to new languages, “Sesame Street” does not give equal consideration to proper English when scripting much of Elmo’s content.

With a modest investment in DVDs or rentals, you can share the “Sesame Street” quality of your growing years, when the characters talked to children and not down to them.

Mary Catherine Newman
Kansas City