Letters on growing hemp, campus group bill, fire help, I-235 aid

Kansas is missing out by not growing hemp

A new era of agriculture is emerging, and Kansas is not among the states embracing it.

Under a provision in the 2014 farm bill, states are authorized to grow hemp for research purposes. More than half of all states have implemented legislation allowing universities to conduct research, but Kansas has not. A bill to create a research program in Kansas recently died in committee.

Other states have passed hemp bills unanimously. The Pennsylvania Senate approved a bill for hemp 49-0, and Virginia’s General Assembly legalized the manufacturing of industrial hemp 138-0. The overwhelming bipartisan support in other states should indicate to Kansas legislators that industrial hemp is common sense.

Unlike marijuana, hemp doesn’t contain the psychoactive ingredient THC. Hemp grows with less water and pesticide than crops like cotton, and would be beneficial to our farmers as a rotation crop. Many eco-friendly products can be made with hemp, ranging from paper to biodiesel. It may fight our carbon problem.

If the acclaimed benefits of hemp are only half true, wouldn’t it still be worth growing?

Bill discriminates

“Constitution protects religious groups” (March 26 Letters to the Editor) defended Senate Bill 175 as a bill that only protects campus religious groups. It argued that the dictionary interpretation of “discrimination” does not make that word necessarily bad, and that those who oppose the bill “have the burden of demonstrating that it permits unjust discrimination.”

Given what the governor and his followers have tried in the recent past with another bill that would have allowed businesses to discriminate against gays, one wonders if this letter writer even lives in Kansas.

SB 175 is just another beachhead by those who do favor discrimination but disguise it as religious freedom. If this bill stands (and there will be a court challenge), then it will establish a legal precedent, and from that, more restrictive laws can be passed.

As the German pastor Martin Niemoller once warned, if you don’t speak out about injustice against others, there eventually will be no one left to speak out for you.

Help during, after fire

Several weeks ago our family experienced a life-changing event when our home was destroyed in a fire. Words cannot express the amount of gratitude we have for the Wichita Fire Department and first responders. These men and women worked tirelessly and through several shifts to try to save our home and neighboring houses. Their quick response and professionalism are a testimony to their training.

Our sincere thanks go out to our friends and neighbors in Reflection Ridge and the northwest Wichita community. In moving to Wichita 13 years ago, we never could have dreamed that we would have been adopted into such a compassionate and accepting group of people. Through their generosity, physical and moral support, they have helped us establish and regain a sense of normalcy.

Wichita is and forever will be a place that we can call home.

Came to my aid

I wanted to say “thank you” to the gentleman who came to my aid on March 23. I was driving on I-235 when the hard shell bed cover on my pickup was blown off and was about to become a Frisbee. He passed me as I was struggling in the wind to put it up on the truck and then came back. He took a strap he had with him, helped me hold down the top, and put the strap on it. I tried to get his name so I could return the strap to him, but he said to keep it.

I am sure the situation could have become much more dangerous if he had not helped me. I thank him very much, and hope he sees this.

This story was originally published April 1, 2016 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on growing hemp, campus group bill, fire help, I-235 aid."