Letters on Piatt crash, women’s march, oil and gas, ACA, Russian influence

Don’t forget the Piatt Street crash

The following letter was submitted by state Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau, D-Wichita, Carla Lee, John Polson, Inga Taylor, Sonya House, James Arbertha, Jamil Moody and Herb Duncan:

Let us not forget the tragedy that struck 52 years ago on Jan. 16, 1965. A KC-135 fuel tanker plane from McConnell Air Force Base crashed into the Wichita neighborhood at 20th and Piatt Street. It killed 30 people, including seven military personnel.

Although this was a very sad day – then and now for survivors and those who lost loved ones – the events of this tragic day united Wichitans in the spirit of helping their fellow citizens. Response teams of emergency workers, medical personnel, ministers and counselors came together to assist the injured and help those in shock.

This huge plane fell from the sky, bursting into flames on a cold Saturday morning while children were watching cartoons and parents were preparing breakfast and making plans for the day. It is the worst aviation disaster in Kansas history.

A monument stands in Piatt Park at 20th and Piatt, where children now play and loved ones can go and reflect knowing that their family members will never be forgotten.

Oil, gas essential

During the give and take of public discourse, few truly stop to think how absolutely essential oil and natural gas are to our lives, to our prosperity and security, and to our future.

Oil and natural gas are the foundation of our energy-dependent economy. They profoundly affect how we live and work. They are key to our mobility, to keeping our homes and businesses warm, to providing us with electric power, and to supplying the raw materials for countless consumer and industrial products.

The energy policy choices our nation makes today are among the most important and far-reaching policy decisions we will make in the 21st century. If we are to continue our nation’s positive energy trends, we must implement energy policies based on current reality and our potential as an energy leader, not political ideologies or the wishes of professional environmental groups.

American energy policy should focus on what’s important: American jobs, American energy security, and American global energy leadership.

President-elect Donald Trump and the new 115th Congress should move forward and build upon our nation’s new era of energy abundance, self-determination and global leadership.

Lives depend on it

As the new Congress commences, many Americans are left wondering what the future entails regarding health insurance. Unfortunately, leaders in Congress have been quick to pursue repealing the Affordable Care Act and dismantling Medicaid expansion.

Moreover, they have not provided the American people with any kind of alternative program. The ACA and Medicaid have provided millions of low-income Americans with health insurance. It is inhumane to dismantle programs people depend on for lifesaving services without providing a replacement plan.

While the ACA has room for improvement, gutting the program with no substitute to follow is simply ludicrous.

I urge Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran and Sen. Pat Roberts to oppose legislation that includes repealing the ACA and Medicaid expansion without proposing a strong alternative plan. The lives of millions of Americans and Kansans depend on it.

Russian influence

The Russians have clearly meddled in our elections, and they allegedly have personal and financial information that could compromise President-elect Donald Trump. The latter claim has not been verified, but it apparently comes from reliable sources and is considered credible enough for intelligence agencies to include as an addendum to the classified report on the Russian hacking. The FBI is continuing to investigate the authenticity of this report.

In typical fashion, Trump has tweeted that it is fake news. This all needs to be thoroughly investigated by an independent, bipartisan commission, not by a partisan select committee of Congress. The integrity of our elections, and indeed our democracy, is at stake.

Until then, the long-awaited healing process from this recent abominable election cannot begin.

Few answers

I listened to President-elect Donald Trump’s press conference Wednesday. He took only a few questions and answered very few of those.

For example, he was asked whether the people who received insurance under Obamacare would still have insurance after Congress and he repealed it. He stated that Obamacare would be repealed and replaced with an excellent plan. He praised himself a few times. But he did not answer the question.

He was asked how he planned to make Mexico pay for his wall. Again, he did not answer, simply saying again that Mexico would pay for it.

He refused to take a question from a CNN reporter because he was miffed that CNN ran the story about Russia allegedly having intelligence information about him. But he then took a question from Breitbart News, which anyone with a brain knows is not a news organization but a right-wing propaganda machine.

If all we are going to get during the next four years are self-congratulatory news conferences, it is going to be a very painful and fear-inducing time.

Join women’s march

I look forward to joining the women’s march in Wichita on Jan. 21, starting at 10 a.m. on the north side of the Keeper of the Plains (Jan. 6 Eagle). I am thrilled that Wichita is going to have our own march for those who cannot make it to the national march in Washington, D.C.

As a woman, I think it is very important to stress that women are people. I also appreciate that march organizer activist Brandi Calvert said this is not just an event for women. This is an event for everyone.

We are marching to educate and empower women, and people who identify as a woman. By making this such an open event, it will bring needed attention to so many different aspects of woman community.

I highly encourage anyone who can and would like to join the march to do so. This will be an amazing opportunity.

This story was originally published January 15, 2017 at 5:04 AM with the headline "Letters on Piatt crash, women’s march, oil and gas, ACA, Russian influence."