Letters on building wall, Clinton, Trump’s tax returns, mental health bill, sports physicals

Another great wall is not the answer

From Jericho to China, history is littered with walls that have failed and are now monuments to oppression. The one exception might be the Berlin Wall, which was two walls with a minefield between them and guards who used lethal force.

Is this what America wants? Does America want to join the ranks of China and the former Soviet Union in using lethal force to control the movement of people?

The use of lethal force is an all-or-nothing proposition. Border Patrol officers will have no way of distinguishing between a terrorist and a refugee. Terrorists come in many forms, women and children included.

Do you support the use of lethal force against refugees, women and children? If your answer is “no,” then the proposed wall will fail and another solution should be sought.

If ISIS in Mexico is your concern, keep in mind that Mexico is one of the most Catholic nations on the planet. You would have better luck finding Elvis in Guadalajara than finding an Islamic terrorist cell in Mexico.

If preventing drug trafficking is your justification for a wall, then let’s mine the entire southern tip of Florida, too.

Requires respect

Enough with the “Hillary Clinton needs to be more likable” bit already. I want someone with good ideas who has the ability to turn those ideas into a workable policy or program that benefits us all.

For me, that requires respect, not “like.” And, yes, I respect Clinton despite all her flaws.

Has she made some boneheaded moves? Oh, yeah. But tell me someone who hasn’t had a few of those in nearly 70 years on this Earth.

How is it Donald Trump can switch party affiliation multiple times, marry three times – once to his mistress – file bankruptcy four times, and talk the kind of racist and sexist trash that would get any other guy ridden out of town on a rail? Yet the people who support him will turn a blind eye to all of that while shouting “lock her up” over Clinton’s e-mails. E-mails, people. Really? Is that all you got?

Clinton has some baggage; we all do. But when it’s all said and done, she’s the smartest person in the room and knows her way around Washington, D.C. The last thing we need in her stead is a bombastic novice who has his own “unlikability” issues.

Show tax returns

If all the network and cable news agencies would demand Donald Trump’s tax returns as a condition of further interview opportunities from now to November, we’d either finally see his tax returns or we’d see a lot less of him on TV.

Trump has an opportunity right now. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett said he’d be glad to go head-to-head with Trump. Buffett said he’d bring his tax return, which he acknowledged is under IRS audit, if Trump would bring his.

I wonder if Trump will attack my wife and me the way he attacked the Khan family because I’ve dared to criticize him.

Important exam

Back-to-school time inches ever closer, and so too does the need to get your child’s sports physical form completed. The appointment it requires is also one of the most important visits for you and your child to see your primary care provider.

There are a growing number of immediate care clinics in our community that, in addition to being available for after-hours care, are willing to provide a sports physical for your child. The American Academy of Pediatrics has stated that urgent-care facilities “should not routinely provide continuity care to children.”

Height and weight records, medical history, and medication and vaccination records are most accessible at your primary care provider’s office. This is also a visit during which your child’s or adolescent’s questions should be answered by someone he or she knows and trusts.

As a specialist in pediatric and adolescent health care, I strongly encourage people to call their primary care provider’s office to schedule a sports physical, which includes comprehensive and ongoing care.

I look forward to seeing my patients every year for their physical exams, and together we build the kind of personal relationships that foster the best medical care possible.

Thankful to Pompeo

Mental health legislation (known as the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act) passed the U.S. House nearly unanimously recently, and I would like to thank Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, for his leadership for helping remove a few really bad provisions from the bill.

Through his leadership, several provisions that would have harmed people with mental illness were removed or fixed. This protected an important federal program called the Protection and Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness (PAIMI) program.

These changes will ensure that people with disabilities (especially people with mental illness) will still have access to this important program, which provides free, legally based advocacy to protect the rights of people with mental illness.

Even though the bill is not perfect, the protections offered through the PAIMI program will at least be protected.

The PAIMI program was incredibly helpful for me personally in the aftermath of the Kaufman House in Newton. I am pleased the program will be able to continue to help other Kansans as well, thanks to those important changes Pompeo helped make.

This story was originally published August 10, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Letters on building wall, Clinton, Trump’s tax returns, mental health bill, sports physicals."