Letters on WIC funding, voting machine audit, Hillary Clinton, gas tank arrow

Why did county cut WIC funding?

The League of Women Voters Wichita-Metro is not involved in the recall issue of one of the Sedgwick County commissioners (Oct. 20 Eagle), but we do stand with other groups that are concerned about the cuts to the Women, Infants and Children program and the return of federal money.

The league has studied health care many times over the years. Our position is that all people should have access to health care – especially children. The WIC program has been in place for many years. Why would anyone cut, unnecessarily, a children’s program that works?

The federal money comes from taxpayers here in Kansas. Why would we want to give it to someone else?

Using illegal immigration as a cover to cut a funded, successful program for babies and young children is totally unacceptable to the league. Immigration is a totally separate problem. It is not the health department’s job to identify undocumented people. A child in need is a child in need. It should not make any difference who the parents are. We are not a Third World nation with children starving on the streets.

The League of Women Voters Wichita-Metro urges the County Commission to reconsider its decision.

Inhumane actions

What kind of heathens would vote to reduce cancer screenings and immunizations for Sedgwick County residents and to stop collecting data on health conditions in our county? The same three men who now run the Sedgwick County Commission. And now the same three have voted to deny food to hungry babies in Sedgwick County (Oct. 8 Eagle).

The inhumane actions of Commissioners Richard Ranzau, Karl Peterjohn and Jim Howell are an affront to the good people of our county. Have they ever heard the cries of a hungry baby, or seen the pain and damage caused by preventable diseases? These innocent little children did not ask to be born, nor could they choose their parents, nor where their parents were born. These babies are United States citizens, and these commissioners are willing to let them go hungry. Do they understand the lifelong physical and mental damage done by malnutrition to children?

If an individual behaved as the commissioners are collectively – that is, denying children immunizations, basic health treatment and deliberately withholding food from babies – that individual would be charged with depraved indifference and put in jail. The commissioners should plead guilty to the same charge.

The people of Sedgwick County are not mean, selfish or heartless. We deserve leaders who reflect our caring community.

Release data

The court will soon have to decide what access to voter information is allowed (“Judge sets March trial in voting machine lawsuit,” Oct. 20 Local & State). The claimant wants access to determine statistical data. I propose that the court require all the data be given to the claimant and all data be processed at the claimant’s expense. This will eliminate any politically driven statistical voodoo that comes with sampling.

The court should stop the witch hunt by supporting real, valid, finite data and not an academic, anemic, open-numbers game. Otherwise, there will be a continued unsubstantiated squalling howl that will frighten the uninformed.

Only Clinton

I have decided I’m with Hillary Clinton. Having watched the debates and listened to and read informed analysis, I think it is apparent that she has both of the most important of abilities: domestic and foreign relations.

She has been there and is seasoned in both. She knows reality by experience. Bernie Sanders has an important cause in climate change but is lost on foreign relations, panders to the gun-rights faction and is a Pollyanna in believing he can cause change by bringing more millennials into the political process.

As for the Republican side, Jeb Bush, the only reasonable candidate, is but a neophyte on foreign affairs.

I voted for President Obama, buoyed by his domestic proposals. Now his lack of foreign-relations experience has become an issue with worrisome future impact. We must have a seasoned president in these very troublesome times, both at home and abroad. Only Clinton brings these credentials to the election.

Look at arrow

You’ve all seen people at the gas pump getting back in their cars and turning around because the fuel door was on the other side. That used to be me, too, when driving different cars and not knowing which side to fill up on.

Then a friend several years ago asked me, “What are you doing? The fuel tank is on this side.” I asked how he knew. He showed me that beside the fuel gauge pump symbol there is an arrow that points to the side you fill up on.

I felt pretty stupid not knowing or having even noticed that, so I wanted to pass that along to all the people who haven’t seen that arrow either.

Now, even when in a rental car, you will know which way to pull into the gas station and not face that embarrassing moment.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 7:03 PM with the headline "Letters on WIC funding, voting machine audit, Hillary Clinton, gas tank arrow."