Letters to the Editor (March 21)

Strengthen DCF to help children

I work at Spirit Aerosystems with Carlo Brewer and he recounted the frustration he was felt with the Kansas Department for Children and Families as to the welfare of his son, who was killed last year. Out of desperation, he sat outside the house for weeks after work, waiting to get a glimpse of Evan. When he knocked on the front door to ask for his son, he was threatened and when he called the police for help they told him they could do nothing.

What I am sure Carlo and the rest of us following this case want to know is why.

I know the thought of the state having access to a person’s home is an anathema to people who love their freedom and privacy. But you give those things up when you abuse your child, take drugs and refuse to let the other parent see your kid. In a perfect world people don’t act a fool, but in an imperfect one we need the DCF.

Let’s give DCF more tools to do its job, and that means emergency measures that allow the police to demand entry into a home when the custodial parent refuses to produce a child.

Guns in the homes

Do you honestly think getting rid of the guns is going to work? If that happens, then criminals will have a heyday. You hear about mass shootings now, but when all the guns are gone, the criminals and the nut jobs will rob and hurt people because we can't fight back.

Citizens should take a gun safety course. If every household had a hand gun or rifle and everybody knows it, there would be fewer armed robberies and shootings. We didn't have this problem back in the 1950s. Not all families had guns, either. But we were taught respect for weapons and respect for the police, and for our friends and neighbors.

Be proud of these Shockers

Wichita State’s basketball team, especially the six seniors, you should hold your heads high. You are overachievers, not underachievers. Your coach challenged you to complete against more quality players in a better American Athletic Conference, to elevate your skills with expectations that you would play in the NCAA Tournament. You did that and more.

Basketball is an integral part of your lives but it is not the end all be all. Because your time in college is about education and maturation for the game of life. Every Wichitan and sports fans throughout America will remember this program and team. I will remember two seniors in particular: Conner Frankamp, the City League scoring leader, overcoming his college frustration at KU, growing each year at WSU and with his family on senior day, moving ahead, prepared for a wonderful future. And Zach Brown, I will remember as a great ball defender who knows he did his best, who has a wide smile, loves children and is well on his way to a great humanitarian future.

Keeping cat populations under control

There is an overabundance of cats and dogs in society. A small city in Kansas made it a ruling for it to be a crime to feed feral cats. Too many cats were roaming around, making a nuisance in the community. There are several precautions to be met here, including the following.

Make certain it is a feral cat and not someone’s pet. Be sure to fine the offender. Make sure the city hires licensed, qualified veterinarians to humanely neuter eligible cats.

Cats need to have proper care of food, habitation, and cleanliness. Neglecting cats is inhumane and unethical.

Taking lives of others

We have been protesting this culture of death for decades. Is it any wonder that people see nothing wrong with taking the lives of others?

Now that the consequences have gotten your attention, you want to blame those that have tried to warn you. Down on your knees. It’s going to take a higher power to change this.

This story was originally published March 21, 2018 at 10:01 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (March 21)."