Print edition: 
CEOs aren't worth exorbitant salaries
Boeing CEO Jim McNerney's pay dipped to $13.7 million (March 16 Business Today). Poor fellow. How is he going to survive on such a pittance?
Maybe the Boeing Co. should lay off more productive employees. If that isn't sufficient, perhaps it should outsource more work. Surely the directors can come up with a solution to return the CEO to a reasonable wage. Notice that I didn't refer to it as earnings, as no CEO is worth such exorbitant salary.
Corporate America has gone amok. Companies are always in a state of frenzy trying to come up with salaries, because they are afraid of losing such talent. Wouldn't it be great if the CEOs and directors would get their heads out of the corporate sand and realize that no one is infallible? They forget that CEOs come and go, but the corporations continue, thanks to the productive employees.
Maybe this ingrained mindset can change and some of this ridiculous salary could go to increasing employment, which would help the economy improve. However, I am not going to hold my breath.
HAROLD ALLEN
Wichita
Shame on us
Shame on our lawmakers, past and present, for raiding the Social Security funds, which America must repay using borrowed money ("Social Security operates in red," March 15 Eagle).
Shame on the Obama administration when it promotes legislation that puts our country in further debt — debt that we will boot to later generations.
Shame on Congress for practicing unethical voting activity and passing it off as "politics as usual." And shame on all of us that we have let our country down by our selfishness and lack of concern.
TED FARMER
El Dorado
Warped logic
Republicans believe that people would rather be "free" to die from lack of health coverage than tax themselves to provide it. Our Republican lawmakers in Topeka are employing the same warped logic to balance the state budget by freezing, cutting pay or laying off people under the banner of keeping money in people's pockets.
How does laying off people or cutting their pay keep money in their pockets? Plus, they will join the other unemployed, elderly, disabled and indigent of this state who will turn to state agencies too underfunded to help them in any way.
I want the lawmakers who worship at the altar of "all taxes are bad" to stop worrying about their political hides and fully fund the schools, agencies and infrastructure that make this state one of the best in the nation.
I punch a clock and my husband is retired. I say that an extra penny of sales tax will not break us, but a decimated state budget just might. And come November, I will be voting for the person who voted to add that 1 cent, not the one who fought against it.
KATHLEEN BUTLER
Wichita
Party of reality
Simplistic letters to the editor have characterized the Republican Party as the party of "no." One went further and said it was the party of denial (refusing to face reality).
If the Republicans are the party of "no," let's carry it to the next step: Democrats are the party of "yes, you may have whatever you want and somebody else will pay for it."
If Republicans are the party of "no," good. Americans need to understand that we cannot have everything we want. If they are the party of denial, it is not because they refuse to acknowledge reality, but because they acknowledge all too well the reality of continually spending into oblivion. Does money grow on trees?
Sadly, those few politicians who have sensibly and sanely stood up and said "Enough!" receive vituperation for stalling instead of congratulations for trying to halt the unrestrained giveaway of money that we simply do not have.
GARRETT JETER
Wichita
Common decency
Access to basic health care is not a right. Rather, it is a responsibility that we owe to our fellow Americans.
Our political system has produced an economic engine that creates great wealth for some, but not for all. However, that economic engine is the product of all our efforts. Over many generations, our ideas, sweat and lives have created a country that provides entrepreneurial opportunities for many of us, but those opportunities do not reach all of us.
I am not asking that we all share equally in that wealth, but we do have a shared responsibility to use that wealth to provide for the collective welfare of all of us, including ensuring education, safety and access to health care.
This is not communism or socialism or any other "ism" that has been demonized by the right. This is simple, common decency for a country that has provided the opportunity for some of us to enjoy great economic success. This is not a country in which someone should have to make a choice between heating bills and antibiotics, between car payments and prenatal care, between rent and dialysis, or between bankruptcy and cancer treatment.
PATRICK ROSS
Winfield
Different rules
Once again, the government (the state government this time) has indicated that there are two sets of rules — one for it and one for its citizens.
There is talk of delaying state tax refunds because of the revenue shortage. So, basically, what the state is saying is that if it doesn't have the money to pay its citizens money they are owed, the state can just put off paying them.
If any Kansan sent a letter to the Kansas Department of Revenue come tax time and said that he didn't have the money right now to pay any underpayment of his taxes, the response would be less than understanding. There would be interest, late fees and penalties that would increase the amount owed significantly. Can any Kansan who has his refund delayed expect those dollars to be increased through the same interest, late fees and penalties?
Our government needs to be held accountable for the money it has available from its taxpayers and learn to do as every citizen must do — which is to live within its means and plan for the future.
KEN BAKER
Sedgwick
Job well done
My thanks to "water wizard" David Warren for the control of the water quality that we have in Wichita. From reading the yearly report and comparing Wichita to other areas, it is clear that we have good, clean, pure water to drink and use.
For those spending their hard-to-come-by cash at the local water jug stations and purchasing bottled water for daily consumption: You are truly the losers.
The price we pay for water is far less than we pay for our other utilities, especially considering the quality. Relatives living in San Diego pay more than $100 per month for normal use, because most of their water is piped in.
Thank you, David Warren, for a job well done over many years. Blessings on your retirement.
FRANCENE SHARP
Wichita
Marriage vows
I read that "covenant marriage" was cut from a bill being considered by the Senate Judiciary Committee in Topeka (March 18 Local & State). Although I support solid, committed marriages in which each of the spouses abides by the solid promises of "until death do us part," I don't believe that Kansas (or any state) should attempt to cement covenants by a special piece of paper costing $25 to obtain.
Making divorce harder to obtain in the courts shouldn't be the objective. Keeping morally faithful and ethical spouses should be the objective.
I believe that civil authorities may have the power to regulate marriage in terms of legal, inheritance and visitation rights. But only clergy members (under the watchful eye of Almighty God) have the right to regulate the sacrament of "holy matrimony" as a Judeo-Christian ecclesiastical covenant that binds.
Whether it is a civil marriage or sacramental marriage, if an honest or holy intent isn't there, the institution inside that household is irreconcilably broken. Complying with vows comes from the conscience.
JAMES A. MARPLES
Esbon
