Letters on Spirit’s anniversary, Brownback’s bizarro world, false religion, myth of race, world cop

Spirit, employees help others

Spirit AeroSystems celebrated its 10-year anniversary as a company Wednesday. On behalf of United Way of the Plains, I want to congratulate Spirit for reaching this milestone and to express our thanks for Spirit’s continued support in our community.

Since 2005, Spirit and its employees have contributed more than $33 million to the greater Wichita community, including $20 million to United Way of the Plains. Many of those contributions were funded through voluntary employee payroll deductions made through Spirit’s Good Neighbor Fund.

United Way and our partner programs have put those gifts to use helping families in need, providing services to the elderly, and supporting Kansans with job training and education.

Spirit employees and their families also have been generous with their time, donating more than 30,000 hours of community service. On weekends all over town, you can spot Spirit employees in their blue volunteer T-shirts cleaning up the riverbank, teaching kids about science, or collecting food for families in need.

Thank you, Spirit AeroSystems, and congratulations on your 10th anniversary.

Bizarro world

In what bizarro world does Gov. Sam Brownback reside? Raising taxes isn’t a tax increase (June 17 Eagle)? The state’s revenue problems are President Obama’s fault, the media’s fault, the fault of the very small minority of Democrats who occupy seats in the Kansas Legislature, but certainly can’t be blamed on the business-friendly tax cuts that he ushered through in 2012?

Independent studies have shown that had these ill-advised cuts not been enacted, the state would not have had a budget deficit, funds wouldn’t have needed to be stolen from the highway fund, cuts to education wouldn’t have been necessary, and the legislative session could have ended on time, saving the state nearly $1 million.

I can’t think of a word to describe anyone living in such a fantasy world other than “delusional.” Sadly, the poor and middle-class residents of Kansas are the ones who will suffer because of the governor’s delusion.

False religion

Gov. Sam Brownback often promotes his righteousness, but I believe he misinterprets Matthew 19:21, understanding that verse to mean: “Buy low, sell high, maximize profits, and you will receive the keys to the kingdom of heaven.” His worship of free-market, unrestrained capitalism is completely at odds with what Jesus Christ taught.

The evidence of these beliefs is Brownback’s willful neglect of what is best for the majority of Kansans while catering to the wishes and whims of the rich, as seen in the policies he supports. He has either willfully perverted his religious views or has had those views subverted by powerful corporate interests in their successful attempt to control him. In either case, Brownback is leading our state on a path to destruction.

Brownback is a charlatan, and the people of Kansas are left to pay the heavy price in his failed attempt to reconcile his political and economic beliefs with his religious beliefs.

Myth of race

In the mid-20th century, scientific studies were made that determined there are no biological differences in human races, and declared there was only a “myth of race.”

Behavior is learned, not inherited. But some minor features and mainly a substance called melanin, which determines our skin color, are what we all “know” as racial differences. Therefore, the social acceptance of race is a powerful and real, if ugly, force among us all.

There are those of us who are of Native American heritage, Asian or European, and then there are those of us who are black. According to the one-drop rule, if there is even one African forebear among all our biological forebears, we are “black.”

What has caused the breadth and depth of media coverage of the woman who was the leader of the NAACP in Spokane, Wash., regarding her parents “revealing” that she is not black? There is an implied suspicion of wrongdoing on her part.

Perhaps she felt so strongly in the value of the work of the NAACP that she caused or allowed the belief that she had that drop of blood to enable her to give some of her life to serve and lead that work.

Not world cop

Enough American sons and daughters have been unjustly sacrificed.

Ukraine’s president warns of Russian invasion, with an underlying plea to the United States for aid. The United States is not meant to be the world police.

Americans are still involved in conflicts with Iraq and Afghanistan, which has brought only death and debt. Adding Ukraine to the list is just another burden for the American people to bear. There is no benefit to feed young men and women into a foreign war machine.

If we were the world police, we would need to utilize our tools of nonlethal diplomacy on the belt of freedom.

There are other ways to solve problems without death and destruction. How many more tears must be shed to realize American lives come first?

This story was originally published June 18, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on Spirit’s anniversary, Brownback’s bizarro world, false religion, myth of race, world cop."