Print edition: 
Boeing’s move is not surprising
When the National Labor Relations Board filed action against Boeing for putting a new assembly plant in South Carolina, many were outraged that the government and the union could dictate what Boeing could or could not do in the operation of its business. Again now, there is outrage that Boeing will likely ignore commitments to finish the new tanker in Wichita, preferring to do the work elsewhere.
The principle is the same, however: Boeing’s right to conduct business where it sees fit versus the rights of the employees and the community. There should be no surprise that this work will be moved. It is the way business is conducted now.
DARYL BURBACH
Wichita
Harry’s playbook
I would like to believe that Boeing is making this decision based upon on the playbook of former Boeing and McDonnell Douglas CEO Harry C. Stonecipher.
When I work as a contractor for McDonnell Douglas in Southern California on the T-45 Navy jet trainer, this man told Douglas employees that the program would not be moved to St. Louis. I read between the lines and told those Douglas employees to get out their resumes. I told them that by the end of that year, they would be looking for another job. I was lucky enough to take a contract position in Everett, Wash., before the T-45 program left Palmdale, Calif., and was moved to St. Louis.
Guess what? Boeing is doing the same thing that Douglas did to its loyal employees in Palmdale.
Maybe it’s time for Wichitans and the media and the politicians who blindly accept what a large employer says to read between the lines. I don’t want to say “I told you so,” but that is what would be appropriate in this case. If you don’t get it in writing, it probably is not going to come to pass.
RICH BACH
Wichita
Tipping point
Tying the Keystone XL pipeline decision to the extension of the payroll-tax break was just another example of the GOP taking care of the 1 percent rather than the 99 percent. These two issues should have nothing to do with each other. One is for the health of the economy and the working-class families who are struggling to get by. The other is for the benefit of those with an interest in reaping huge profits by raping the land in Canada and risking our only dependable source of water throughout the Midwest.
Why not invest the money planned for the Keystone project into clean energy, such as natural-gas filling stations for over-the-road trucks and other fleets? The biggest part of any oil derived from Keystone will be sold overseas, only adding to foreign countries’ pollution problems.
We have the intelligence and the technology to develop new sources and types of energy. We cannot develop new sources of water.
We are at a tipping point. Will we base our country’s future on dinosaurs or new technology? We cannot allow oil companies to call the shots on a decision this important. Write, e-mail or call your House and Senate members and let them know the aquifer and land through the Midwest are not up for grabs to further the riches of the 1 percent.
DAN GENTRY
Andover
Botched project
The Capitol restoration project has been a mirage of important historical/visual discovery and blatant bureaucratic incompetence (“Architect: Replace Capitol dome, roof,” Dec. 17 Local & State).
I am no architect, but shouldn’t you address the condition of the roof first? After all, what good is a nice floor when the roof may just leak on it?
Am I expected to believe that my state legislators will make good, sound decisions on moving Kansas out of the current economic trouble when they can’t keep their own house dry? How many more millions of dollars is it going to take? They already have blown the renovation budget by more than triple.
I value our state and the impression our Capitol gives. It is too bad – almost criminal – how botched this seemingly uniting project has become. When so many Kansans need serious leadership, why is this what they get?
ANDY PULLEN
El Dorado
Iraqi losses
Many news reports have reflected on the loss of American soldiers and resources from the Iraq War. None that I’ve heard has mentioned the losses to the civilian Iraqi people – the 113,000-plus documented civilian lives lost, the huge numbers of those maimed, the destruction of infrastructure, the hiatus in commerce, the loss of citizens who fled the country for safety. This myopic omission is revealing. Do these losses have no consequence because they are not our losses?
What if cooler heads had prevailed and the Bush administration had not rushed to “do something” in the fury over Sept. 11, and there had not been this ill-advised conflict based on false premises? Perhaps in this year of the Arab Spring, the Iraqi people would have caught the vision and overthrown their dictator of their own volition. Think what that would have prevented in loss of blood and treasure and hatred of America in the Middle East.
AUDREY UNRUH
Wichita
