Letters to the editor on jail, YMCA, Obama doublespeak, right-wing noise machine

Better to lock up fewer people

There seems to be a mindset that says the best way to combat jail overcrowding is to lock up more people — or at least to increase our ability to lock up more people. As it is, the United States locks up a larger proportion of its citizens than any other country in the world.

It likely would be cheaper, and more effective in the long run, to lock up fewer people and, when we do lock them up, to do so for shorter periods of time.

Locking people up destroys lives and families. Children of incarcerated parents are very likely to end up incarcerated themselves. It's a cycle that needs to be broken if we're serious about solving our jail overcrowding problems.

There are two immediate things that Sedgwick County can do to reduce overcrowding.

It can expand the use of recognizance bonds for detainees. This would have the immediate effect of releasing from jail people who have not been convicted of anything.

It can fully fund the Sedgwick County Public Defender's Office. Delays in trials caused by funding shortfalls in the office cause an increase in the amount of time people are held in the jail.

GARY CARSON

Wichita

Open to all

As a YMCA member since 1991, I was surprised to learn that the central branch YMCA I regularly attend is a "businessmen's club" ("YMCA spin," Oct. 12 Letters to the Editor). There may have been a time when the downtown YMCA was exclusively male, while next door there was the YWCA for women, but that was then and this is now.

This YMCA is for the surrounding area and open to all.

MARLENE COKER

Wichita

Doublespeak

What is this habit President Obama has of saying one thing and then doing just the opposite? He said he didn't want to buy the banks and the car companies, and yet he moved swiftly to do just that. While he promoted policies that caused the national deficit to soar into trillions of dollars (with more spending plans on the drawing board), he preached that we should be fiscally responsible.

The ambivalent proclamations Obama makes are on the rise, as he continues to surround himself with so many questionable people who have extreme radical views.

Polls are showing Americans do not like this kind of doublespeak. It has caused considerable distrust of Obama and his promises, especially on the health care bill. He spoke adamantly and convincingly that there would be transparency in his administration, yet health care "reform" is done behind closed doors and no Republicans are allowed to participate.

Will he once again get away with words like "I tried" or "this is the change Americans want"?

EVELYN DAMORE

Wichita

Noise machine

What's the matter with Wichita? The Eagle is a fine newspaper, but the level of willful ignorance reflected on the Opinion page is stunning. From afar, I hear about my hometown occasionally in the news as the epicenter of rabid, sometimes murderous anti-abortion groups and parrots of the Limbaugh/Hannity/Fox News party line.

During the past eight years, there was not a peep from those people about losing their freedoms when our phones and computers were tapped, people were subjected to extraordinarily rendition and torture, and trillions of dollars were transferred from our Treasury into the pockets of war profiteers. Anyone who disagreed was labeled "unpatriotic."

Now we have a brilliant president who actually was elected and who wants to try to dig us out of the smoldering mess the right wing made of our country and the Middle East. Out-of-power politicians have teamed up with racists, bigots, hateful "Christians" and nattering low-information citizens to crank up the volume of the noise machine to block his every move.

JULIE LANGSTON

Nevada City, Calif.