Letters to the Editor (June 28)

Better options for school playgrounds

The proposal to close school playgrounds is an overreaction to a few acts of vandalism. Wichita is already under-parked, with half as much park land per capita as regional sister cities such as Tulsa. Closing public school playgrounds will only make this problem worse.

The McLean Science and Technology Magnet playground is heavily used in my neighborhood. It would be tragic to see it lie fallow all summer and before and after school.

In the cities I lived in prior to Wichita, the public was not only welcome to use the school playgrounds, but the school tracks, football fields, and on Sunday afternoons even the school gymnasiums. If we want to attract talented, open-minded people to Wichita (and convince them that Wichita schools are a nurturing, safe place for their kids), presenting a collection of caged playgrounds seems like the worst possible solution.

An alternative: Create a partnership with Wichita Park and Recreation to problem-solve solutions. One might be the creation of a community volunteer task force that can augment the school district's efforts at keeping parks safe and repaired. I would certainly volunteer for my local school.

Give golf course its due process

Dear Mayor Longwell, I am a direct descendant of L.W. Clapp, who was my great-grandfather. I am also a published author and historian of the Clapp family.

I am opposed to the closing of Clapp Golf Course without proper public hearings and due process, as I understand is proposed by Park and Recreation Department director Troy Houtman.

As you know, L.W. Clapp was the founder of the city’s park system. His legacies include city parks, the art museum, former airport and air industry, among many others.

I urge city policymakers to consider the matter carefully and thoroughly before making a final decision on closing the golf course that honors Mr. Clapp with its name.

America all alone

The “news” media seems to be attempting to characterize much of the activity on our southern border as a refugee problem involving folks fleeing and seeking asylum from intolerable and violent conditions in several Central America countries.

We’ve recently seen this kind of thing before. Many thousands of Syrian residents fled, and probably continue to flee, their country to seek asylum as refugees in numerous European countries and other safer locations around the world, including the United States.

There seems to be widespread condemnation of how our country is handling the problem but world-wide silence as to how other countries and governments might be of help in absorbing the flow of so-called refugees and asylum-seeker. A stark contrast to most of the world’s response to the Syrian refugee crises.

Back to reality. It is safe to assume that virtually all of the undocumented border-jumpers and asylum-seekers have absolutely no interest in any final destination other than the United States. How many are seeking ultimate asylum and/or residence in Mexico, Canada, South America, let alone Europe or Asia? We all know why.

Wrong is right

Thinking people in this country are worried about the mental as well as the physical health of all those children who have been kidnapped from their parents. It is mass child abuse. We will become aware that this event, one of the most cruel in our history, is going to affect the mental health and therefore spread to the physical health of many people.

We are losing confidence that the three branches of government are going to work as envisioned by our founders. We are wondering if and when we might find ourselves in some group that is going to be the enemy of President Trump.

First it was the Mexicans, Muslims, people who are not lily white, the disabled and in general the weak in any way. He likes people who were not captured in war, people who are physically beautiful and financially successful. He admires leaders in other countries who are strongmen and will kill anyone who gets in their way: journalists, citizens brave enough to speak out against them.

He likes the idea of being “president for life.” Which group could you be a member of that might be next?

Civility takes hit

It’s official, or nearly so. The great civilization called the United States of America is dead. The root word of civilization is “civil,” which means courteous and polite. Civility is sadly lacking now.

When people such as Rep. Maxine Waters encourage accosting all members of the president’s administration, their families or anyone who voted for him, that is sickening.

In an 1838 speech Abraham Lincoln said, “At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time, or die by suicide.”

In order to keep our country, we must maintain politeness and courtesy, not behave as hungry animals with a victim at hand. We cannot throw out the rule of law. Most of the media colludes in the effort to whip voters into a frenzy in every effort to destroy the presidency.

If we go after the bait, we are dying by suicide. Civilization is gone.