Letters to the Editor (Nov. 14)

What Tyson gets from Kansas

Tyson does not want to locate in Kansas because of our market for the products. It is wanting access to our water, land, and hard-working residents on family farms. All will be used and abused.

A 100-mile diameter of land around the plant will be inundated with trucks bringing chicks to giant chicken barns (that farmers have to pay for), pumper trucks delivering feed, semis with stacked wire cages of live birds going to slaughter (1.35 million per week), and trucks delivering packaged products to market.

Tyson will expect a major tax abatement. Taxpayers will pay for road repairs. Tyson wants access to a sewer system owned by another entity, generally a city, so the taxpayers will pay for any pollution cleanup.

Sedgwick County and the city of Wichita were recently in a severe drought situation, and that could happen again at any time. It only takes a few months without rain. The slaughterhouse will require 1 million gallons of water per day.

Please research, educate yourselves about what effects this slaughterhouse will have, and send Tyson elsewhere. This is a very bad idea.

College president right to make stand

As our traditions are being slowly taken away in this country, Dr. Jerry Davis of College of the Ozarks is giving me hope.

For the past 15 years, the School of the Ozarks in Branson, Mo., hosts the NAIA Division II men’s basketball tournament. With what is happening in the NFL, where some players don’t stand for the anthem while protesting oppression of people of color, this president of the university decided to get out in front of this year’s tournament and announced that everyone will stand for the anthem or they won’t play. Wow, sign me up.

He says that when people come to Branson to play, it’s their house. When you go into someone else’s house, you follow their rules. At School of the Ozarks, patriotism is practiced.

The NAIA decided to move the tournament to another location where standards won’t require those to stand for the anthem. Perfect time for the NAIA to stand for our country, but no. We all need the guts of this president. Thank you Dr. Davis for standing up. Our country needs more men and women like you.

More factors than tax cuts

Sunday’s Opinion page article “Congressional Republicans repeat mistake” makes the all-too-common human mistake assuming that only one dominant factor determines outcomes of given economic concerns — in this case that taxes, particularly income taxes, control economic growth and that this relationship applies equally to state and national economies.

But isn’t it likely that other factors have an impact, pro or con, on what the effect of income tax changes have on the existing economy? These come to mind: the state of the existing economy, the current income tax rate, the level of all taxes imposed, level of inflation, unemployment rate, workforce capability and wage levels, availability of credit, debt levels, investment opportunities, natural resources, and supportive infrastructure and competition from other states or nations.

I don’t think you can just conclude that what was bad for the Brownback goose wouldn’t be good for the American gander.

Kansas leaders quiet on candidate

Every day, I wait to hear that one of our elected federal officials from Kansas has taken a stand against Alabama senate candidate Roy Moore. Why do good people not come forward?

Politics aside, this is the right thing to do. Coming forward as a victim of sexual assault is painful. Why do you think Moore’s victim waited so long? She obviously overcame her fears for the good of this country.

I am still hoping that our elected Kansans can speak out. We elected you to be our voice. Please let this country know what we stand for in Kansas.

This has nothing to do with political views and everything to do with human dignity.

This story was originally published November 14, 2017 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Nov. 14)."