Letters to the Editor (Jan. 9)

Read the First Amendment

Regarding “Bible giveaways end at Kansas elementary school” (Thursday’s Eagle): Does anyone even look at the Constitution anymore? There is no constitutional separation of church and state.

This lie has been passed around for so long that most people believe it. The wording of the First Amendment is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” In other words, Congress will not establish a state religion (such as England had done with the Church of England) and people will be free to practice their religions freely, which includes in schools, businesses or anywhere else.

It’s a disgrace that leftist judges have been allowed to distort the plain-sense meaning of the clause. It’s sad that the Herington superintendent caved into a complaint from a single parent, whose child did not have to take a Bible from the table where they were offered. Score another victory for so-called “political correctness,” or should I say socialism?

See it through police eyes

I understand why people are upset about the police shooting involving the prank phone call. But you cannot blame law enforcement for what happened. They received a call stating that the person on the phone had just shot and killed his father and was holding other people hostage and threatened to set the house on fire.

That in itself will bring everyone there and set up a perimeter before anything is done. They are acting on the 911 call, which is supposed to be correct and that is what they were going with. Then a person comes out and drops his hands to his waist and raises them up again fast. Police, from an angle that makes it appear he may have a gun, shoots the person. This is done for everyone’s safety. You do not know if he is going to run back into the house and light it, possibly killing others and even neighbors. If this would have happened, then everyone would be upset that several people were killed and it could have been stopped.

Officers have split seconds to make a call to save lives.

Wind energy stability

On behalf of 102,000 American wind workers, including over 5,000 Kansans, I would like to thank Rep. Roger Marshall for keeping these jobs safe and growing during Congress’s recent tax reform debate.

Wind power is an American success story that added jobs nine times faster than the overall economy last year. Wind turbine technician is one of America’s two fastest growing jobs, along with solar installer.

Kansas is one of America’s wind power leaders, generating nearly 30 percent of our electricity using wind. Wind has also created an important new cash crop for our farming communities, paying more than $10 million in lease payments to Kansas farmers and ranchers every year.

Rep. Marshall worked to preserve the orderly phase-out through 2019 of wind energy tax credits, providing stability companies need to continue hiring more workers and keep investing in U.S factories and rural communities — the very goals Congress wanted to achieve in tax reform. Now we can look forward to adding another 50,000 American jobs to the U.S. wind industry through 2020, including 8,000 factory jobs, according to Navigant Consulting.

Thanks to Rep. Marshall’s efforts, American workers will have more of these opportunities in the years ahead.

Skip the salaciousness

Michael Wolff’s new book, “Fire and Fury,” is the type of tabloid trash that many of President Trump’s supporters have proven themselves willing to believe, if it were written about someone they oppose. Rather than wallowing in gossip, the American people need to stay focused on factually verifiable information about concerns that impact our lives.

Let’s pay attention to issues surrounding education, freedom of the press, health, the environment and climate, international relations, political corruption, corporate greed, and human rights for all.

I plan to skip the book and read our Constitution instead.

This story was originally published January 9, 2018 at 4:01 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Jan. 9)."