Letters to the Editor (Aug. 6)

Improvement on trade

The headline of a July 31 Associated Press story claims that Charles Koch said that President Trump’s trade policies could trigger a recession. Typical journalistic hyperbole. Koch actually said that Trump’s approach could cause a recession “if it’s severe enough.”

The United States has been in a trade war for years and losing. Japan, China, Mexico, Canada and the European Union countries have enjoyed huge trade advantages due to poor negotiations by prior administrations. We have suffered billions of dollars in trade deficits and Trump is trying to correct the trade imbalance which would level the playing field. Trump is aggressively trying to end the trade war and perhaps the mainstream media isn’t bright enough to grasp the concept.

It has taken years to arrive at the massive trade deficits the United States now faces. We need to give Trump time to make the necessary moves to achieve equity with our trading partners. Given Trump’s success in his first 18 months in office, it would seem prudent that we should give him what he needs to enact the balance of his programs to make America great again.

Pretend patriotism

The KU flag display censorship is pretend patriotism. Let’s be honest enough to stop pretending America is home of the free and brave.

Even inside private homes, citizens are tracked by their cell phones like barnyard animals. The second we step outside, we are tracked by traffic cameras at every intersection, by plate readers on police cars, and if we own a newer vehicle by the black boxes under our hoods.

If that wasn’t Big Brother enough every shopping center has cameras, with more cameras inside every store.

If we deposit or withdrawal just under $10,000, we can be charged with structuring our transactions allowing bank account seizure with no crime even having to be alleged.

World-renowned leaders in science, medicine, and business are one politically incorrect racial, religious or sexual remark from termination.

If you have a bad credit record, a minor misdemeanor, a job gap of six months, or your job can be done cheaper overseas, you’re likely already unemployed.

We have the largest prison population in the world, and civil forfeiture laws with inadequate due-process protection.

Pretend patriotism aside, America is home of the tracked, unemployed, and imprisoned.

Misinformation about opioids

I am a chronic pain patient who takes opiates to control my pain. Several months ago, my dosage was lowered because of the CDC guidelines. Actually, it’s because my doctor is afraid of losing his license because the Drug Enforcement Agency is arresting doctors for prescribing more then the “recommended” amount on the guidelines.

There are no laws in Kansas or nationally that require that my pain management doctor not prescribe any more the 90 morphine milligram equivalent to any of his patients. The CDC has caused this unsubstantiated witch hunt on any doctor that tries to treat their patient according to what that patient needs.

The current trend to eradicate the opiate crisis in America, by taking away pain medication that the chronically ill person needs, has already shown to be ineffective. That is because the problem is not with the chronic pain patient and their legally prescribed opiates. It is the heroin and illegally manufactured Fentanyl (from China) that are the problem.

Those who are anti-abortion

Republican politicians, from Donald Trump and Mike Pence, to the Republican candidates for political office in Kansas, all male, all commit to end a woman’s right to a legal abortion. They call themselves “pro-life,” as if the woman who decides to end her pregnancy has no life worth considering.

Being “pro-life” for these men is likely a political gambit. They either have little understanding of, or don’t care, about the reasons women choose to have an abortion.

Returning to the pre-Roe v. Wade days will not end abortion. It will make it more dangerous for women who will do what they deem necessary. In the past, women who sought what we call back-alley abortions risked their lives to do so.

Yet, many of those who are anti-choice think this is fitting punishment for a woman who terminates her pregnancy. Some even think doctors who perform abortions should be executed.

Women give many reasons for seeking an abortion. Every woman who has made the decision to have an abortion knows having a baby is not a good thing for her. Women should have the right to make that decision without having to risk their lives to do so.