Letters on treatment of least of us, Iran deal, religious freedom, mistreatment of gays, storm warning

How state treats the least of us

The true measure of a government is not how it treats its wealthy citizens. Rather, it is how it treats the least of us. By this standard, the current government in Topeka is an abject failure.

▪  Taxes. Our state has created a huge revenue shortfall by rewarding the wealthiest among us and shifting the tax burden to the middle- and low-income residents of the state. All solutions the state is considering involve shifting more of the burden to the citizens less able to pay – whether it is through increased sales taxes or increased tobacco and alcohol taxes.

▪  Education. The current war on public education serves only to further the divide between the wealthy and the middle and lower incomes in the state. Private education is the winner in this war. Those who cannot afford private schools are stuck in a public school system being starved of funds. And all you small-town rural residents? Look out, because the Legislature is coming for your school next.

▪  Health and welfare. The state has refused to expand KanCare, which would provide health coverage for about 150,000 low-income Kansans. The limitation of allowing people to withdraw only $25 daily from their welfare account goes beyond prudence and into punishment.

There will be a reckoning.

Dog may talk

Remember the fable about an evil king who demanded his dog be taught to talk? He would execute one man every day until someone could work this miracle. A brave man came forward and claimed he could do it, but it would take a year. The evil king granted him a year.

People asked the man how he planned to accomplish this impossible task. He replied: “Within a year, many things could happen. I may die. The dog may die. The king may die. Or – the dog may talk.”

Any nuclear deal with Iran backed by President Obama will naturally be met with criticism from Republicans who say it’s a “bad deal” without offering an alternative. The status quo is good enough. They don’t seem to realize that during the next decade, when Iran scales back its nuclear enrichment to an acceptable level and agrees to inspections, much additional progress will also be made.

The Iranians will get relief from crippling economic sanctions, be able to participate in the world economy, and communicate more freely with the West. Because of that, they will see that the democracy they once had is again within reach. In other words, the dog may talk.

Open for business

Anyone who has a business should be required to serve anyone who is not breaking the law. However, the government should not be allowed to require any individual or business to participate in any religious ritual or religious activity that is against their religious beliefs. That is freedom of religion. It is a right provided by our Constitution.

Whether you have judged the individual or business to be bigoted is a moot question. Being a bigot is not against the law, or we would all be in jail.

The only thing we need to have businesses address is their dress code (no shirt, no shoes, must wear a tie, jacket, etc.) to receive service. This appears to be unfair discrimination.

Mistreating gays

What is wrong with many Christians? Why do they keep messing with gay people? It is none of their business whom gay people marry or what they do.

No, I am not gay, but I am black, so I know how they feel. At one time, blacks and whites could not marry. Blacks could not eat where we wanted to, and we were turned down for jobs and places to live. I cannot believe we are doing the same thing to another group.

I thought Jesus said to show love for your fellow man and woman, feed the hungry and care for the sick. It looks like a lot of Republicans do not want to do that. They should be ashamed to call themselves Christians.

I think if Jesus came back today he would disown many Christians for their behavior toward gays. Just remember – you should treat people the way you would like to be treated.

Failed to notify

It is unacceptable that public safety officials, weather services and media were so casual about the expected high winds and rainstorm early April 3. They collectively endangered our state residents by not aggressively warning the public.

KAKE, Channel 10, took the time to stay on the air and warn the public. Most other stations ran a small ribbon of information at the bottom of the television screen that “hail and high winds of 60-70 mph are possible.”

This was not only absurd, it was negligent. Public officials, weather professionals and local media should be expected to do much better than they did in warning the public.

Weather forecasting has achieved such a level of accuracy that whoever was minding the store as this storm approached populated areas needed to put beeping alarms along with screen information and sirens in the community.

We were very, very fortunate that there were no deaths with this storm.

This story was originally published April 7, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on treatment of least of us, Iran deal, religious freedom, mistreatment of gays, storm warning."