Letters on Trump ‘facts,’ Planned Parenthood, DeVos, Obama
Trump is clothed in ‘alternative facts’
When I heard senior adviser Kellyanne Conway describe the Trump administration’s false claims about the inauguration crowd as “alternative facts,” I thought of “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” the story in which the emperor’s new suit of clothes is said to be invisible to those who are unfit for their positions, stupid or incompetent. The derogatory terms used to describe people in the fairy tale are eerily similar to the language President Trump regularly uses to describe people with whom he disagrees.
Conway told the “Meet the Press” host: “Your job is not to call things ridiculous that are said by our press secretary and our president. That’s not your job.” Should the press report only what President Trumps says is true (alternative facts)? That sounds like Vladimir Putin’s control of the Russian media.
American citizens have the rights and the responsibilities to exhibit the same level of courage as the child in the fairy tale who cried out, “He isn’t wearing anything at all!”
Trump was elected to be our president, not our emperor. Democracy demands active engagement and dialogue. We cannot let our rights of democracy and free speech be stolen by the “naked emperor.”
Judy Johnston, Wichita
Eliminate funding
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., recently stated that the Republican Congress would follow through on its campaign promise to defund Planned Parenthood.
It is bad enough that Planned Parenthood kills hundreds of thousands of babies a year and pockets the cash from it. It’s disgusting that taxpayers kick in a half billion dollars every year to help fund its operation. That’s more than 40 percent of its annual $1.3 billion budget. And Cecile Richards, president of Planned Parenthood, makes nearly $1 million a year in salary.
There seems to be some discussion about how Planned Parenthood does “a lot of good for women.” That couldn’t be further from the truth.
According to its corporate reports, Planned Parenthood performs more than 320,000 abortions a year. It is easily the country’s biggest abortion chain, responsible for about a third of all abortions performed in the United States every year.
Planned Parenthood makes millions from its abortion business. And as undercover videos exposed, some of its clinics also sell baby body parts.
It performed 174 times more abortions than it made adoption referrals, according to its 2013-14 annual report.
It’s about time Planned Parenthood no longer receives taxpayer funding.
David Gittrich, Wichita
State Development Director
Kansans for Life
Reject DeVos
The U.S. Land Ordinance of 1785 stated: “There shall be reserved the lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the said township.”
The Northwest Ordinance of 1787 stated, “Religion, morality, and knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged.”
U.S. Education secretary nominee Betsy DeVos has never attended public schools and has to be the most unqualified Cabinet nominee in history (Rick Perry included).
When I grew up in the 1950s and ’60s, we loved taking on prep/private school boys, always eating their lunch. Then, only two kinds of kids went to private schools, ne’er-do-wells and rich kids, often times one and the same. DeVos certainly fits the bill.
Public education is what separated and elevated us from the rest of the world. It must be kept strong. DeVos and her Republication ilk must be rejected.
Joe Cassell, Wichita
No need to be quiet
The writer of “Go away quietly” (Jan. 18 Letters to the Editor) lists a number of charges against one of America’s greatest presidents, none of which will bear close scrutiny. In fact, most of the points the writer attempted to make revealed his lack of accurate information.
For example, one has to wonder where this writer has been living that he would chuckle every time President Obama mentioned global warming. According to the National Center for Science Education, “Most U.S. adults believe that the climate is changing, but only about half know that human activities are substantially responsible.”
The writer said that Obama’s “latest whopper is a doozy: that Hillary Clinton’s election got away because of the opposition’s collusion with Russians.” That suggests the writer has not followed the news very closely – or perhaps that his news source is biased. The director of the National Security Agency, Michael Rogers, classified Russian hacking as “a conscious effort by a nation-state to attempt to achieve a specific effect.” That specific effect, of course, was the election of Donald Trump.
The latest polls show that Obama leaves office with a 60 percent approval rating and President Trump enters the office with only a 37 percent approval rating. Clearly, Obama still has the support of the American people and has no need to “go away quietly.”
Carol M. Webb, Wichita
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This story was originally published January 26, 2017 at 5:03 AM with the headline "Letters on Trump ‘facts,’ Planned Parenthood, DeVos, Obama."