Letters on school funding, death penalty, common good

Don’t lock schools; lock up lawmakers

Regarding school funding: Instead of closing the schools and punishing the teachers and children, how about holding those responsible who failed to follow the law and protect Kansas’ citizens? Our children are also citizens, but without voting rights, so they are ignored. I’m betting some jail time for those legislators and the governor would solve our budget crisis and school funding rather quickly.

Repeal death penalty

Rep. Steven Becker, R-Buhler, along with 10 other Republicans and six Democratic House members, has introduced House Bill 2515, which calls for repeal of the death penalty in Kansas and would replace it with a maximum sentence of life without parole.

According to the Kansas Coalition Against the Death Penalty, the bill has a good chance of passing if it can get a committee hearing. Rep. John Rubin, R-Shawnee, chairman of the House Corrections and Juvenile Justice Committee, has requested that the bill be assigned to his committee for a hearing.

The important action at this time is to ask House Speaker Ray Merrick, R-Stilwell, to give HB 2515 a hearing. This bill deserves discussion and debate, which is only possible with a hearing. Contact Merrick at ray.merrick@house.ks.gov or 785-296-2302.

Repealing the death penalty is too important of a moral as well as financial issue to let this opportunity pass.

Serve common good

I think some politicians’ idea of not having one of our three branches of government operating at full capacity for more than a year shows a real lack of understanding of just how tired the American public is of partisan politics.

You can’t have a country as large and diverse as ours without compromise. I believe people are tired of this kind of partisanship being wielded for self-serving ideology as well as self-preservation among politicians. You must have elected leaders who can and will work together for the good of our country, not just for their next job as a well-paid lobbyist.

Here’s what you can do: Call your senators and representatives and insist they do their jobs by working together for the common good. Then elect the people who can bring people together.

Elect deal-makers. Elect stateswomen and statesmen. Elect people who can get things done with people who don’t think exactly the way they do.

This story was originally published February 16, 2016 at 6:05 PM with the headline "Letters on school funding, death penalty, common good."