Unfettered Letters

Revising U.S. history

Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren were acknowledged to be the founders of the Democrat Party as we know it today. Andrew Jackson and Martin Van Buren were both slave-owning plantation owners and continued to own slaves while they served as president.

President Andrew Jackson authorized the “Trail of Tears” during which the Cherokee were forcibly moved from Georgia to Oklahoma. Was this genocide?

The Republican Party was founded in 1852, and President Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican president. The Republican Party was also known as the Abolitionist Party. The 11 Southern states that seceded from the Union were all Democrat states with Democratic governors and Democratic legislatures. In effect, the Democrats fought a war in an effort to perpetuate and expand slavery.

After the War Between the States, the Republicans passed the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, the 14th Amendment granting citizenship to all non-whites and the 15th Amendment allowing all non-whites to vote. President Lincoln selected Democrat Andrew Johnson as his vice president for his second term.

As a result, when President Lincoln was assassinated, the Democrats took over the presidency. But, let’s revise history and blame the Republicans.

Glenn Cherry

Kansas City

Holier than thou Kansas

Here is the original text of the “Sermon on the Kansas Capitol Steps”: “Blessed are those with prosperity, for their parents or in-laws were prosperous.

“Blessed are they who lost their state jobs, for their suffering will balance the budget. Blessed are the powerful, for they can tell others to eat cake.

“Blessed are they who dine at Cedar Crest, for they shall be exempt from the Kansas Open Meetings Act. Blessed are those who oppose contraception and same gender marriage, for our Christian tradition tells us that sex is evil if it does not result in the conception of a baby. (But the sin can be forgiven if it is between a married man and woman.)

“Blessed are the abortion foes, for they will foster or adopt all the babies that are born into unhealthy and unsafe homes. Blessed are native Kansans, for they weren’t born anyplace else.”

Rejoice and be exceedingly glad all you Kansans that you live in a state led by holy politicians.

Donald H. Daniels

Topeka

Sad UMKC demolition

The tragedy is not the demolition of the house, but the discovery that University of Missouri-Kansas City Chancellor Leo Morton lives in Leawood (4-4, A1, “UMKC’s progress topples a Tudor”). As a UMKC alumna and Missouri taxpayer, it’s difficult to believe that commensurate housing for a public university’s leader does not exist on the Missouri side of the metropolitan area.

The chancellor’s choice and the UMKC Board of Trustees’ approval of his residence are disappointing and only reinforce the stereotype that the county of choice for professionals is Johnson County.

Martha Cockerell

Kansas City

Saved old structure

In the April 1 issue of Star Magazine, writer Steve Paul complained about the loss over the years of several old homes in the Southmoreland neighborhood, “Architecture a-z.” He neglected to celebrate the Kansas City Art Institute’s rescue and renovation of the beautiful three-story, red brick Cunningham mansion at 4538 Warwick Blvd., now the home of the college’s Jannes Library and Learning Center.

In 2003, this building won the Historic Kansas City Foundation’s Preservation Award for Rehabilitation.

Mary J. Poehler

Director, Jannes Library

and Learning Center

Kansas City

Senseless homicides

I am pleased at the national attention that the senseless homicide of Trayvon Martin has created. But I’m confused why this one slaying in Florida would be more newsworthy than the countless drive-by shootings we have right here in Kansas City.

These murders are equally senseless. Oh. Wait. I know.

Sharon George

Kansas City

Romney’s uphill climb

According to my calculations, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney will have to get 48 percent to 49 percent of the vote to get 1,144 delegates before the Republican National Convention. If GOP presidential hopefuls Rick Santorum, Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul are able to get 52 percent of the delegates among them, the convention in Tampa, Fla., will be brokered.

Frank Berry

Kansas City

Photo ID hardship

My 86-year-old mother is in a Kansas nursing home and faithfully fills out an absentee ballot to vote in elections. She uses a wheelchair and is unable to walk.

She has not had a driver’s license for many years. I do not think she has a birth certificate to prove who she is.

If she is not allowed to vote in Kansas any longer, then the state of Kansas better figure out a way for the elderly and disabled to prove their existence.

Maybe Kris Kobach needs to go around to nursing centers and take everyone’s picture so they will have a photo ID for voting. The only voter fraud I’ve ever suspected was the election results in the state of Florida in 2000 when Al Gore won the popular vote but George W. Bush won the presidency.

Oh, that’s right, Bush’s brother was the Florida governor. Get busy, Kris, you have a lot of ground to cover before November.

Janet Wright

Bonner Springs

Raymore post office

Raymore should keep its post office. Raymore is one of the faster growing cities in the area.

It would be extremely inconvenient to drive to Belton to mail a package or send metered mail. Then on the return to Raymore, a left turn across a normally busy four-lane Missouri 58 would be required.

There are many senior citizens living in Raymore who would find the effort especially challenging. If Raymore is large enough be divided among three state congressional districts, it certainly is large enough to have its own post office.

Ellen Moore

Raymore

Greece-like debacle

Democrats and lefties monolithically chant “it’s about women’s health.” Nonsense.

For those women who “need” contraception, it’s available at Walmart for $4. This is about President Barack Obama’s “nanny state” dictating its socialistic mandates, trumping and trampling on the U.S. Constitution.

This is just the beginning of Obamacare’s intrusion into every citizen’s life in which the government usurps private rights and constitutional protection. Bureaucratic panels will be presiding over the distribution and rationing of medical services to the detriment of both providers and users of the system.

Ironically, the many Catholics who naively embraced Obamacare now need to have second thoughts. And all Americans who cherish our way of life must take action in November to reverse this Democrat spread of the “entitlement” cancer that is inexorably plunging this nation toward a Greece-like debacle.

Michael T. Murphy

Prairie Village

Transportation fumbles

On energy, President Barack Obama is out of touch, according to Sen. Roy Blunt. Sen. Blunt should consider a new career as a fantasy writer.

We are not going to drill to oil independence. Although we have seen an uptick in oil production the last few years, U.S. oil production is still less than what it was in 1970 while proven reserves have declined by half over the same period (U.S. Energy Information Administration).

Sen. Blunt also mentions the Keystone XL pipeline as a remedy. But this is tapping into tar sands oil. As the name suggests, this is very heavy oil, requiring a lot of processing, and it provides a poor net energy yield.

It is a third-rate oil source that is only economical to produce when oil prices are high.

Meanwhile, the Republicans were trying to pass a transportation bill that excludes money for mass transit, bicycling and walking. Going back to a 1950s transportation policy is what I would call being out of touch.

David Anderson

Kansas City