Letters on tax lid, oil tax, Darwin Day
Tax lid is unwarranted state interference
As mayor of Maize, I support Wichita Mayor Jeff Longwell’s position on the proposed property tax lid legislation.
This bill would create a crippling, unwarranted state intervention that would only serve to complicate, interfere with and stifle the proven growth pattern for Maize and other cities around the state.
I can’t speak for the other cities in Sedgwick County, but the tax bill legislation will be a topic of discussion at the next meeting of the Sedgwick County Association of Cities at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at Goddard City Hall. The League of Kansas Municipalities also strongly opposes legislation containing a tax lid.
Clair Donnelly, Maize
Don’t tax domestic oil
President Obama has proposed a $10 tax on a barrel of oil. If it were on imported oil, I would support this. But the last thing we need to do is tax domestic production.
Domestic producers are already struggling to survive. We need to do everything we can to become energy independent.
We fought wars to guarantee access to a substance that destroys our environment. And in the process, we eliminated good-paying oil field jobs. That wasn’t a well-thought-out foreign or domestic policy. It seems to help our enemies more than us.
Mike Hubbell, Kingman
Discussing Darwin
Happy (early) birthday, Abe Lincoln and Charles Darwin. Both men were born Feb. 12, 1809. One man liberated millions of people from bondage while the other liberated the human mind. Both men had epic beards, but the similarities in their lives ended there.
Nationally, we honor the birthday of Honest Abe but not of Darwin, who provided us with great insight into our past and revolutionized the scientific theories, enabling us to study how things evolve.
Man is a finite animal. What separates man from other animals is our ability to dream of an afterlife. Darwin’s theory explains that we are a part of all that exists, and it all doesn’t just exist for our pleasure.
Was Darwin a Christian? That question remains debatable, but Darwin withheld, for quite some time, the publication of his theory out of respect and fear of the consequences he faced.
Kansas has at least one group, the Great Plains Chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, that is continuing this critical discussion by celebrating Darwin Day on Friday. Visit greatplainsau.org for more information.
Michael Alldaffer, Wichita
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This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Letters on tax lid, oil tax, Darwin Day."