Inform, then act
It is shocking to see how much National Rifle Association money goes into the campaign coffers of state and federal representatives.
Google “NRA” plus the names of your senators, representatives and state legislators to see the extent of financial pressure the organization exerts on so many of them.
After each school shooting, parents beg legislators to do something. Legislators are afraid of the NRA. We can’t even get common-sense laws passed.
I am asking you to call and email your federal and state legislators and demand they donate recent donations from the NRA to charity and refuse to accept any more of this blood money.
Children are dying.
Dorothy Buchholz
Olathe
Old habits die hard
The existence of stupid and criminal behavior in KU’s fraternities is hardly news. (March 13, 1A, “Fraternity social activities halted for now at KU”) Anyone who has gone to college or been around a college or university campus knows all of these stories. It’s the norm and has been forever.
The Greek system is tolerated because most wealthy alumni were in frats and still support them, and because most children from affluent families would not choose a school without Greek houses.
The university administrations are frat-complicit. They look the other way until an incident becomes public.
But the problem extends beyond the frats.
Virtually all student housing features rowdy, drunken or stoned behavior. Off campus, there is no worse neighbor than a student apartment complex.
A local handyman told me that much of his work is repairing ransacked student apartments. Apparently, the owners of student apartments provide little security or supervision.
For all the grandiose claims by schools about their “fine facilities,” none has come up with sensible ways to house thousands of students.
These adolescent ghettos are not manageable. Most of these institutions have become much too large to maintain safe, secure learning environments. Is there an app for that?
Bob Campbell
Lawrence
ID realities
I’m going to surmise that the author of a March 11 letter to the editor who fails to understand how one can exist without identification has never been poor. (18A)
If you’re too poor to own a car, you don’t go get your driver’s license at 16. You don’t have the luxury of spare funds to get an ID unless and until it becomes essential to employment.
And if your wallet is lost or stolen, you can’t obtain replacement anything without a notarized document stating who you are — which isn’t free.
Getting a copy of your birth certificate costs money. A Social Security card is free, but you need proof of identity for it. Then getting time off work and a ride to the DMV — it all costs money.
Sit down and add it up. Then consider whether you might not find an ID something less than a sine qua non if you had to decide between it and getting groceries. Or paying the rent.
Suddenly, you might understand how it is quite possible.
Laura
Jackson-Radford
Warrenburg
Do some people obtain IDs specifically for voting? Yes, of course, but some people don’t.
My father never had a birth certificate from Missouri. He was born premature and at home with no doctor in attendance, so there was no birth certificate.
This did not prevent him from joining the Army and being sent to Germany in 1945 or later to Korea in 1951.
Today it would stop him from registering to vote in Kansas. This is not a problem now, because he passed away a few years ago and his remains are at Leavenworth National Cemetery.
He earned this honor because of his service, but some people believe that he should never have been permitted to cast a ballot.
Wes Durham
Kansas City
Not in lockstep
President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson for having “a different mindset, a different thinking.” (March 14, 1A, “Tillerson ousted, replaced by Pompeo”)
This is alarming. A mindset different from your own is a very good thing to have in the room, especially when managing a country.
President Abraham Lincoln appointed political rivals to his Cabinet for this very reason.
At a time when the country was divided over the definition of what it means to be free, Lincoln needed men who disagreed with him, because he knew they would hold the country together. Only united could Americans liberate themselves from what had previously held them back.
This was settled on the suffering of slaves and the blood of young men fighting for their home.
If Trump valued patriotism and the greatness this country really stands for, he would welcome that different mindset. He does not.
Maci Branch
Kansas City