Letters on Brownback leaving, Planned Parenthood, city pools, Obamacare

Brownback should not abandon ship

I’ve read several Eagle articles – admittedly, all of them with the disclaimer of speculation – about what might happen if Gov. Sam Brownback takes an ambassadorship in Rome or another job and is replaced by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer.

In my view, Brownback’s economic “experiment” has been a colossal failure, and it may take decades for the state to repair all the fiscal damage. Our state is the butt of jokes of late-night comedians. Meanwhile, credit-rating agencies cringe over the budget shortfalls.

Brownback promised us an Office of the Repealer when he himself needs to be repealed.

However, I don’t believe any person sitting in a high-profile state or federal office should “abandon ship” and weasel out by resigning to do another job – unless there is a family or medical crisis. Too many officials want to feather their nests by jumping to a new office or becoming a lobbyist. I think it would be cowardly for Brownback to take the easy way out to save face.

Brownback owns this fiscal crisis. Dropping it in the lap of a successor shows a lack of leadership. A guy who craved the title of governor should take the heat when the going got rough.

Don’t cut funding

I am writing to express my support for Planned Parenthood both nationally and at the local level. Given current political changes, Planned Parenthood is at risk of losing what little funding it has left, which could put it at risk for closing its doors.

Recently, President Trump promised to defund Planned Parenthood. I urge readers to consider the drastically negative implication of eradicating Planned Parenthood.

Planned Parenthood provides essential and comprehensive sex education, life-saving breast exams and Pap smears, and birth control to help prevent unplanned pregnancies. These services are offered in affordable and accessible ways to hundreds of thousands of women and men.

As a nurse in our local community, I know how important and difficult it is to find a trusting place for patients to receive the care they need in order to make good decisions about their sexual and reproductive health.

I encourage readers to advocate for Planned Parenthood by writing to their representative and sharing their personal stories of how Planned Parenthood has helped them in their life.

Kids not worth it?

I grew up in south Wichita just east of the river. We didn’t have much money, so we took advantage of what the city had to offer that didn’t cost anything or at least not very much.

In the summer, we would ride our bikes to the city swimming pool. We spent many afternoons there splashing around for fun, and we also took swimming lessons offered by the pool staff. After we tired of being wet, we dried off and rode to Hamilton Middle School to visit the book mobile. We checked out our books and rode home.

I suspect you can see where I am going with this.

There are numerous children in Wichita who could greatly benefit from a swimming pool, not only for a chance to cool off on a stifling hot day but also to receive life-saving lessons. I am appalled that our local government would decide that the money to fund city pools would be better spent elsewhere.

We say we do things for children, but do we really?

Keep coverage

It truly puzzles me when medical doctors in Congress oppose the Affordable Care Act. The long-time desire of wanting coverage for pre-existing conditions was finally met in the ACA, as was allowing children to stay on the parent’s health care plan until age 26. Also, a patient cannot be dropped due to high cost of treatment of selected illnesses such as cancer.

Are these medical doctors really interested in treating patients or in just having larger mansions? What about dedication to the medial profession and service to the people? Service and helping people are more important than wealth, as teachers know.

If the high cost of insurance is the problem, then let us work in reducing these costs, but not reducing coverage.

This story was originally published March 16, 2017 at 5:03 AM with the headline "Letters on Brownback leaving, Planned Parenthood, city pools, Obamacare."