Letters to the Editor (Feb. 1)

Keep intellectually developmentally disabled funding

Every year, the Arc of Sedgwick County puts on one amazing event called the Miss Unstoppable Pageant. Since 2014, organizers to the event gather girls and women in the special needs community to interview and dress up, to show off their talents and their unstoppable attitudes. The message is clear: No matter who you are, you are able to achieve.

There is only one problem. In Kansas, members of the intellectually developmentally disabled (IDD) community have been stopped. They are stopped by a waiting list that is years long before they can receive such services as residential housing support, appropriate day programs, and respite care.

Now, with the introduction of Senate Bill 332, legislators want to reduce IDD funding even more in order to cover the gap in school spending. Our IDD community has enough obstacles to deal with every day without having to fight the state for services. Please contact your representatives to support our unstoppable IDD community.

Cancer awareness

Nearly all families are affected by cancer. Recently our congregation lost a dear mother of two, leaving daughters and friends who loved her.

I want to thank the Wichita State men’s basketball program for helping in this effort to increase awareness. These young men are using their celebrity in an unselfish way, to promote the need for research and development to stop this killer disease.

To everyone who has lost loved ones to cancer, there is hope. Above all, there is God above who cares and hears our prayers. Thank you to everyone who is working selflessly to find a cure for cancer.

Dennis worth the support

I am a retired 40-year educator, 32 years as an administrator. I always got the truth from Dale Dennis, when all I ever got from the politicans were the run-around or outright lies to protect themselves. And still am, I might add.

I may not have liked the answer from Dale, but I always knew or found it to be the truth. Honesty and integrity have always been Dale’s mantra.

This appears to be a copy of what is happening in Washington. “Don’t like what is happening? Create a diversion.” Anyone in Topeka with a long history of strongly supporting public education will be subject to such attacks.

If the Department of Post Audit just found the “scandal,” where have they been the last 45 years? Only now, when the Legislature has its back against the wall, they have manipulated this attack.

It should not surprise anyone who has followed educational funding and the lawsuit that this would happen. But it is unbelievable that they would attack such an icon of education.

A republic worth keeping

We have been blessed to live under a representative form of government, beautifully crafted by our forefathers more than 240 years ago. Nevertheless, when asked what form of government have you given us, Benjamin Franklin replied “A republic, if you can keep it.”

Donald Trump once said he can do anything he wishes in the Justice Department, or words to that effect. More recently, it is said he is frustrated by inability to do so. However, he keeps trying and has managed by hook or by crook to have his way on occasion, having fired an FBI director and persuaded an assistant FBI director to resign.

And he has shown little regard for the Constitution with its separation of powers, emoluments clause, etc.

The net result of this and much more has been a chaotic administration having little in common with the representative form of government envisioned by our forefathers. Obviously Ben Franklin was aware that a strong man, although democratically elected, might attempt to control the levers of power. And as we have seen in recent history, when successful, this can have a horrific global effect.

This story was originally published February 1, 2018 at 4:00 AM with the headline "Letters to the Editor (Feb. 1)."