Letters to the Editor (July 6)
Time for renewal of prime property
Recent letters lament the looming loss of Lawrence-Dumont Stadium, and its replacement with a state-of-the-art facility. These letters bring to mind my grandfather’s grocery store.
Located at 515 E. Douglas, grandfather started this business about the same time that Lawrence Stadium (its original name) was built. How I enjoyed visiting the store every Saturday with my mother. If I had been good, grandfather would give me a big dill pickle from the jar atop the meat counter.
But now it’s 2018. I am probably better off with Dillons and Whole Foods. There are many more choices. I can have a meal with sushi or salmon in the store, or take home a rotisserie chicken ready to eat. So it is with baseball.
Lawrence-Dumont Stadium holds countless happy memories, but we have moved on. The best piece of real estate in Wichita deserves a rebirth.
Dwight Oxley, Wichita
Trade wars and tariffs
In 1963, when I was a senior in high school, the statewide high school debate topic was free trade. We debated the pros and cons, but even back then it was always easier for me to make the case for free trade.
Agriculture has greatly benefited from free trade with economies of scale and efficiency. In 2016, Kansas farmers produced 193 million bushels of soybeans paying an average of $9.35 per bushel. Kansas agriculture employs, directly or indirectly, 250,000 people, or about 13 percent of the workforce.
Trade wars and tariffs are not a zero-sum game, as President Trump seems to think. As of June 28, the price of soybeans had plummeted over 50 percent after China, our largest buyer of soybeans, retaliated in response to Trump’s imposed tariffs and sanctions.
I have a vested interest in this current debate; our sixth-generation Kansas family farm produces soybeans. That leads me to ask the proponents of the president’s tariffs and trade wars a question. Do you really believe he knows what he’s doing?
William Skaer, Wichita
Where’s the ambassador?
As detailed in Leonard Pitts’ recent column, President Trump’s newest travel ban is clearly based on his antipathy toward persons of the Muslim faith.
I assume that our Ambassador for Religious Freedom, Sam Brownback, must be positively apoplectic in outrage about it, condemning it at every breath.
Or, maybe not.
Tom Smith, Winfield
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