Letters on marijuana vote, Brownback, gun bill, Sam Williams, native American, roadside angels

Reasons to vote ‘yes’ on marijuana

Wichita will not become Colorado with a “yes” vote on the marijuana ballot question on April 7. This is a tiny measure, not a gateway. I’m not a “user” (although I do have fond, distant memories). Here are the up-close reasons I’ll vote “yes”:

▪  Imprisonment is expensive for taxpayers ($26,000 a year per person).

▪  It will not apply to anyone under the age of 21 or to second-time offenders.

▪  Marijuana was not a gateway to anything else in my own distant past.

Here are the larger reasons I’ll vote “yes”:

▪  African-Americans are hugely disproportionately arrested and their lives, jobs and families ruined.

▪  Non-marijuana hemp is an environmentally ideal crop, not thirsty for our precious water.

▪  The “war on drugs” has not decreased marijuana use.

▪  The competition – the alcohol and pharmaceutical industries – spends big bucks against it.

Stealing culture

In times past, we have had political machines that pilfered the public till. Today, Gov. Sam Brownback’s political machine is stealing a more precious commodity – public education, pensions of public servants, health care for the poor and aid to the indigent, also denigrating the arts and defacing teaching.

Robbing the till is only money. Robbing our culture and quality of life is destroying society.

We Kansas need to make our voices heard in the Legislature and the Statehouse. We want our culture and quality of life back.

Loose guns

I want to buy a car, but it needs a license (tag).

I want to drive it, but I need a license to show I know how.

I want to own a gun. Does it need a license? No, but I need a “background check” (unless I bought it from “Uncle Fred”).

I want to carry and use, but I don’t know how. No problem. Forcing you to learn would be abridging your rights.

Is that what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they created the Second Amendment?

More ‘political talk’?

After weeks of refusing to reveal how he voted on the sales tax initiative, Wichita mayoral candidate Sam Williams now wants us to believe he voted against it (March 7 Eagle). Really? This is the same candidate who insisted he is a certified public accountant, never mind the fact that he has not been certified since 1990.

Last month, I attended a forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters and Women for Kansas for all of the candidates for mayor. Williams responded to a question from the audience regarding his CPA “political talk” that was featured on at least three campaign mailers that I and other voters received. He issued an apology to anyone who felt misled or lied to by the mailers. But during his remarks on the subject he insisted that he is a CPA.

It seems as if every organization that endorsed Williams for mayor, including The Eagle editorial board, also endorsed a “yes” vote for the sales tax. So, I have to wonder if Williams’ new campaign mailers will contain more “political talk,” informing us that he voted against the sales tax.

I’m a native

I am tired of reading and hearing that the only true “Americans” are those whose ancestors were here before Europeans arrived during the 15th and 16th centuries.

A native is one who was born in a particular country. For me, that is the USA. Therefore, I am a Native American.

The ancestors of those who were here before the Europeans’ arrival (who are now called Native Americans) traveled across a land bridge between Eurasia and the Americas that closed about 12,000 years ago. So these people are no more “native” than I am; they just have ancestors who occupied these areas for a longer period. Some people just pick the time that they begin history in order to suit their politics.

In addition, we hear that the United States stole land from Mexico in the west and should be required to return it. During the occupation of the Americas by the Spanish, civilizations such as the Aztecs and Incas were destroyed, the peoples enslaved or killed by war and disease. Before people worry about returning the west to Mexico, it seems that it would be more justified to have all those of Spanish ancestry return to Spain.

Roadside angels

My grandson was returning to South Haven last week driving his old college car. His car overheated, and two gentlemen stopped to assist him and determined his water pump had seized. My grandson had just enough money on him for the toll road.

These men took him in, fed him, used their trailer to retrieve his car, bought all of the parts and repaired his car. We only knew them at the time as “Dean and Joe” of Wichita. I briefly spoke with Joe on the phone, and he said he was doing this because he had been in the same situation.

Thank you, Dean Crumpler and Joe Schulze with Air Solutions of Wichita, and thank you, God, for sending them. Maybe my grandson should change his major at Cowley College to heating and air. It would be a blessing to work for people like Dean and Joe.

This story was originally published March 11, 2015 at 7:05 PM with the headline "Letters on marijuana vote, Brownback, gun bill, Sam Williams, native American, roadside angels."