Letters to the editor (Sept. 20, 2020)
Bar curfew
The Sedgwick County Commission needs to study the concept of behavior reinforcement. They have just guaranteed that any future health mandates will be blissfully ignored, because obviously if enough people ignore them, they will be revoked (“County moves to ease bar and club curfew after weekend of defiant after-hours revelry,” Sept. 16).
As any parent of a willful 2-year-old knows, you cannot issue a rule that you are not willing to enforce absolutely consistently; otherwise you have only issued a challenge and you will lose.
Just because something is not popular does not mean it is not right. If we stop enforcing speed limits, people will start driving faster. If we stop enforcing laws against crimes, they will increase. People are inherently driven to their own self-interest (note how many have stated that it is not THEIR responsibility to look out for others by wearing a mask). Unfortunately, that is not conducive to a civilized society, and therefore we must have rules. And those rules must be enforced.
COVID rates are going down. Success does not mean you end the intervention; it means it is working. Please do not give in to the pressure that will only lead to a rebound in cases; we will see plenty from schools soon enough.
Misplaced blame
What has happened to integrity? Genuine integrity. We, meaning individuals, groups, agencies, corporations, and governments, all play the ultimate “blame game” — i.e., not us, but someone or something else. For example, it’s the president’s fault, it’s climate change, ad nauseum.
Consider the front-page photo and caption in the Sept. 18 issue of The Wall Street Journal. The trees in the background did not burn. Now put in context the caption: “Berry Creek, Calif., worked for nearly two years to get approvals for forest-thinning projects before it was ravaged by a wildfire.” Oh, but blame climate change.
Recently it was noted that about 180 million downed dead trees were left in the forests. It’s clear that ground cover fuels and exacerbates the wildfires. Two years to get permission to clean up the forests? Thank you, extreme environmentalists. Greenies! Let’s assure “integrity” means genuine and honest. Our world will be the better for it.
Climate change
Our drought stricken Pacific states are on fire. The Atlantic and Gulf states are facing hurricanes and catastrophic flooding. And we learn from agro-ecologists at the University of Arizona that we are hitting the temperature limits for growing our food crops. The climate situation can seem hopeless.
But there is hope of a new beginning. On Sept. 15 the nation’s most influential business and trade club, the Business Roundtable, flipped and embraced pricing greenhouse gas emissions that drive global warming. Additionally, they broke with the current administration in support of the Paris Climate Accord goals.
The Energy Innovation and Climate Dividend Act, H.R. 763, puts a price on polluting emissions. It’s currently in Congress with 82 co-sponsors. It is the best first step to quickly minimize the climate-caused disruption of commerce the Business Roundtable fears and the uncertainty we all face in the absence of federal leadership on climate change. The bill is effective, good for our health, revenue neutral and protects American workers and industry. Citizens’ Climate Lobby supports H.R. 763 and welcomes the Business Roundtable’s new beginning in solving the climate crisis.
Century II
To the Wichita city manager, mayor and council members:
Let’s do something really unique for your constituents. Do you want to feel that, irregardless of your level of intelligence or education, that you have no chance of influencing important decisions made for every single citizen of Wichita? Do you want to have to come to the extraordinarily sad conclusion that if you don’t have a certain level of power or money, even at the level of our Wichita city politics, your voice does not matter? Please start listening to the people who elected you, not the few who line your pockets or further your career the best.
Your constituents have about had it. Yes, I’m talking about Century II. Yes, I’m talking about your plan to cut funding from Wichita Animal Services, which is already horribly underfunded. Yes, I have had it. I have letters behind my name and have been a citizen of Wichita my entire life. And still you feel that I am not worth listening to, and you try to placate me. It’s your choice: Do you want to champion us or wait for karma to come around?