Letters on earthquakes, gun deaths, public education, Medicaid expansion, voting, corrupt system

Moratorium needed on wastewater injection

My house wasn’t built to withstand earthquakes and neither was yours. That is because we have rarely had earthquakes in Kansas. One every 100 years or so.

Now we are having earthquakes once a month, or more, that we can feel. There are many more that we cannot feel. We are not as sensitive to the shaking as our houses, which can’t bend when they are shaken to relieve the stress; they crack instead. My house is a victim of this damage, which has cost $14,000 to repair so far. The rest I am going to do only after it stops, so I don’t have to repair it another time.

The Kansas Geological Survey and the U.S. Geological Survey have said that these quakes are being caused by wastewater injection wells used when doing unconventional drilling by hydraulic fracturing (fracking) for oil and natural gas. Millions of gallons of fresh water are mixed with toxic chemicals to frack the wells, then sucked back out and injected at high pressure into other wells, causing the quakes. The only way to make it stop is to put regulations in place so it is done safely and does not cause earthquakes. In Kansas, that can only be done by the Legislature or the Kansas Corporation Commission.

Tell your legislators how you feel about wastewater injection wells. Ask them for a moratorium on wastewater injection until companies can prove they can do this safely.

Killers knew victims

The Eagle’s in-depth analysis of the 31 deaths investigated by the Wichita Police Department in 2015 does not give credence to the argument used by proponents of open carry and few restrictions on gun possession: fear of the unknown and of the strangers among us (Jan. 3 Insight).

Excluding the two men shot by police officers, eight of the other 29 deaths were related to domestic violence. The other 21 deaths were distributed among eight other categories. Though the article didn’t specify, one can reasonably speculate that women were killed in the domestic violence cases. The article did state that “most of the killers used a gun” and that “most perpetrators know their victims.” Domestic violence topped homicides by type two of the past five years.

The article noted that random killings, which tend to incite the most fear, remain rare.

The next time the many fearmongers among us, both locally and nationally, raise a ruckus about the need for more citizens to be armed, set them straight. Most of the homicide victims in Wichita last year knew their killers, and most killers used a gun.

Criticism nothing new

Once again, the Kansas public school system is being criticized by the Kansas governor. He says that changes need to be made, such as a state law that might mandate merit pay for schoolteachers (Jan. 5 Eagle).

This is nothing new. On June 17, 1994, I had a letter to the editor published in The Eagle headlined, “It’s easy to criticize public education.” It appears nothing has really changed since then.

The public school system is doing a great job considering all the obstacles it faces, regardless of what certain Kansas politicians are saying.

If the governor wants merit pay for schoolteachers, then let’s have merit pay for all Kansas public employees, starting with the governor, his staff and members of the Legislature. I would volunteer to be on a committee to decide if the governor and others should receive merit pay increases or other pay increases based on their performance in office. I, of course, would be impartial and fair.

Expand Medicaid

How ridiculous that Republicans are still suffering from a serious case of sour grapes.

They care more about their political agenda against the president than about the people they represent. They are willing to let people die rather than allow them access to health care, because they can’t admit President Obama’s health reform has been a success.

As far as the cost to taxpayers: Kansans are paying taxes to the federal government that our Republican state leaders aren’t allowing us to benefit from. I hope Kansans will remember this the next time they go to the polls. It’s time for conservatives to quit voting against their own interests.

Neither party intelligent

The writer of “Liberals need to vote” (Jan. 5 Letters to the Editor) said liberals need to vote to prevent a slide into anti-intellectualism. But neither party is intelligent enough to govern.

America has been on a slide downward regardless of the party in power since the 1960s. The debt has soared irresponsibly. The educational system is barely rated above those of Third World countries. The military system has been weakened to strengths of pre-World War II levels. I doubt if the political establishment can read the Constitution, much less follow it.

How is the “war on poverty” or the “war on drugs” going? Probably as well as the war on terrorism. The political establishment will certainly succeed in continuing the slide.

The slide could be humorous if it were not so destructive. The Democrats thumb their noses at our system. The Republicans trip over themselves trying to appear important. This mess might be the New World Order that President George H.W. Bush hailed as a great thing during his administration.

If you are going to vote, don’t vote “R” and “D.” Vote for a candidate who has integrity, follows the rule of law and believes in America. Take a hint from the Superman of the past: “Truth, justice and the American way.”

Restore our republic

I’m a public servant. When I deal with you, my clients, I treat you equally regardless of gender, race, religion or economic status. Can you say the same about your politicians?

Our Constitution’s preamble states, “We the people,” meaning our government belongs to all of us. But when we use our right to address the government about our grievances, are we all treated equally?

Under our current system, bribery and prostitution are considered legal under the guise of lobbying. Do your politicians treat you with the same candor or courtesy they offer a wealthy donor, union, political action committee or corporation that makes large donations to their campaign coffers? You already know the answer.

Our system is corrupt. Join one of the many organizations calling for a constitutional convention to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision and restore our republic to one that represents all of us, not just those with the most money.

Sen. Fox, chickens

In the past few days I received four oversize envelopes from different agencies asking me to save Social Security by signing petitions to our legislators and sending money. If they hadn’t dipped into the fund to balance the budget, it wouldn’t be so much at risk.

I have become so hardened that I no longer sign anything unless they pay the postage. When I do return their requests, I demonstrate my hopefulness by adding a note that says:

“Dear Sen. Fox: About 80 years ago, I hired you to guard my henhouse. While doing this, you have been regularly eating some of my chickens. Would you please become a vegetarian and stop eating my chickens while I have some left?”

Does Sen. Fox have any incentive to comply?

This story was originally published January 9, 2016 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Letters on earthquakes, gun deaths, public education, Medicaid expansion, voting, corrupt system."