Letters to the editor on offender registry, buying American, abortion, Limbaugh, coliseum

Parents: Check offender registry

Parents, before sending your children out in the coming days, please take the time to check the Kansas Bureau of Investigation Web site for registered offenders in your area. There are more than 1,000 registered offenders in Wichita alone. The crimes for which many of these offenders were convicted are heinous and shouldn't happen to anyone, much less a child. And don't kid yourself — the neighborhood in which some of these ex-felons live and work is yours.

The intent here is only to ensure your child's safety, whether it's Halloween night or walking home from school. Your only role is to protect your child. Use the KBI Web site to identify where these potential threats are, so that you and your child can avoid them.

You may want your children to avoid shopping where registered offenders work as well, particularly if they frequent the store alone.

Please keep your children out of harm's way. Learn where the danger spots are, and take whatever legal safety precautions are needed to ensure that your child doesn't become the next victim.

MICHAEL L. BURGESS

Wichita

Buy American

I'm not sure why we aren't hearing more about how to get jobs back in this country, but one way to start is for the American people to take back control of our economy. We need to take this country back from the big corporations that have shipped our jobs overseas.

We need to start buying products made in America. Don't buy more toys from China for your kids at Christmas. Buy American and — maybe more specifically — local products and toys, and bring the economy back to Main Street and away from Wall Street. Bring back mom-and-pop stores by buying local. Invest in ourselves, not in the robber baron bankers stealing us blind.

CRAIG BATSON

Goddard

Smoke and mirrors

President Obama is correct in stating that "smoke and mirrors" are obscuring an authentic health care debate. However, he need only look at the assertion of his own party's congressional leaders, via Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., that "we have done everything we can to ensure that there will be no federal funds for abortion services" to see where the real chicanery is found. As noble as Waxman's statement sounds, it is dismissive of one pesky detail — the truth.

Current restrictions on federal funding of abortion, specifically those contained in the Hyde Amendment, only apply to Medicaid recipients. They will have no bearing on federally funded subsidies for health care plans that include abortion. Yet amendments offered by Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., that would ensure language similar to Hyde is included in any health care reform bill have been denounced by the leadership of the Democratic Party. This is despite polls that show a majority of Americans do not want tax-funded abortion to be included in health care reform.

Do any of the leading Democrats in Congress have the courage to act in good faith and actually listen to the American people in this crucial area? Or will "smoke and mirrors" override doing what is right?

JEFFREY HAUGE

Wichita

Limbaugh's speech

A letter writer shared his opinion that Rush Limbaugh "loves Jesus, the Son of God, who is Truth," and that therefore he will love Limbaugh ("Limbaugh's truth," Oct. 23 Letters to the Editor). Surely this writer does not seriously believe this. Let's examine a few quotes from Limbaugh, the man who supposedly loves Jesus:

* "The only way to reduce the number of nuclear weapons is to use them."

* "We're not sexists, we're chauvinists — we're male chauvinist pigs, and we're happy to be because we think that's what men were destined to be. We think that's what women want."

* "The NAACP should have riot rehearsal. They should get a liquor store and practice robberies."

* "They're (African-Americans) 12 percent of the population. Who the hell cares?"

Do any of these quotes from Limbaugh in any way even remotely resemble words Jesus might have spoken? I think not.

Perhaps some people can love Limbaugh, but as a Christian and pastor at Pine Valley Christian Church, I am called to love my fellow human beings and follow Jesus' teachings, which clearly are in direct conflict with the wide varieties of hate speech in which Limbaugh engages. So as a practicing Christian, I will love Jesus and ignore Limbaugh, who seems to have nothing good to say about anybody.

LEIGH CARLSON BURGESS

Wichita

Coliseum better

Concerning all these new acts being set up for the new arena, a lot of us out here beyond Wichita would like to ask the Sedgwick County Commission one question: Why weren't you this aggressive in getting these artists to play at the Kansas Coliseum? The Coliseum can seat up to 12,000, and the new arena seats 15,000. All of this for 3,000 more people?

Many of us were happy with the Coliseum. Out there, we didn't have to find parking at 15 different locations. We can just imagine the mess downtown, with everyone running around to the different parking areas hoping that one isn't full, finding that it is and then going to the next and the next and so on. And will there be any security?

Thank goodness for Hartman Arena.

It will be interesting to see how all of this plays out once the downtown arena actually opens.

KENT K. KEENE

Andover