Unfettered Letters

Flood brings out people’s best

The recent events that played out along the Red River between Fargo, N.D., and Moorhead, Minn., should give us all a reality check on what this country is about. Thousands of volunteers came from far and wide to help prevent fellow Americans from losing their homes and businesses in any way they could. It was a profound example of American spirit and community at its best.

At a time when we’re inundated with critics and doomsayers in print and on TV, these events in North Dakota and Minnesota have made much of what is currently in the media about where this country is headed seem trivial, if not irrelevant.

Most important, what we’ve witnessed along that river symbolizes hope by example.

Larry Bowser
Kansas City

Credit crisis long time coming

Houses must be built on solid foundations. The same is true for housing markets. Unfortunately, the cornerstone of the foundation for the American housing market was slyly removed in 1999.

In 1999 Congress passed and President Clinton signed the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, which repealed the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. This change allowed our banks to speculate in securities rather than forcing them to focus on managing risks.

While some will argue that no one forced banks to speculate, human nature and competitive pressures prevailed over common sense.

This speculation hit a fevered pitch in 2003 and 2004 when Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan held the discount rate far below realistic levels, which shoveled money into the banking system and planted the seeds for the credit crisis we’re seeing today.

This is not a Republican or Democratic problem. It is a total failure on both sides to do what is best for the people of America.

Paul McWilliams
Overland Park

AIG failed because of its investment banking activities, something it wasn’t allowed to do before 1999 under the Glass-Steagall act. Under that act, insurance companies could deal only in insurance, and banks could only be banks. For some $200 million, the banking interests purchased its repeal from our federal legislators.

The Star would doing a great public service by listing prominently the Kansas and Missouri congressman and senators still in office who prostituted themselves back in ’99 — an action our country is paying dearly for now.

Michael Stone
Leawood

Preparing for economic crash

Concerning the article “Survivalists prepare; Believing the world’s economies will crash, some people learn to live off their land” (5/25, A-2): I, too, believe in storing supplies, water and medicines for any type of emergency, local or national. But we all know that unless you are fairly wealthy, we are limited in this matter.

Weapons to defend your supplies are a bad idea. There will always be a bigger gun than yours, and maybe many more people involved. I personally don’t want to take up arms against my neighbor. Will we be able to ignore children crying for food at our door?

I think a better solution is to join together in a community setting and work together for the good of all. Let’s demonstrate to the world, as written, “love thy neighbor as thyself.” This country was formed with values from the Bible and the Constitution that were created for this country’s good.

A house divided against itself will fall, so let’s work together.

R.L. Chapman
Oak Grove

Bridge disaster

Where shall we look for meaning in the wake of the unspeakable tragedy of the bridge collapse?
In The Bridge of San Luis Rey, novelist Thornton Wilder agonizes over the question “Why?” following the collapse of a Peruvian bridge in 1714.
His concluding words, terse yet hope-filled, illumine the murky waters of despair: “There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”
Jeffrey Myers
Lenexa

Support bridges, not war.
Arlene Klein
Overland Park