Letters on wasteful state budget, Alzheimer’s, Hiroshima
State budgeting a wasteful system
Gov. Sam Brownback and the Legislature would improve the budget if reshuffling or borrowing from different sources would be eliminated and the needed monies coming from state income taxes restored. The present system is wasteful in the following ways:
▪ Borrowed money from the public employees pension fund has to be replaced, with money added sequentially, to meet state requirements.
▪ Money from state funds needed to fight court cases is wasteful, and much of this could be avoided with fair and equitable taxation.
▪ Shuffling state monies from one fund to the next is wasteful and unproductive.
▪ Special sessions to solve budget problems waste taxpayer money.
▪ Cutting funding for public schools violates the state’s duty to provide a quality education for each pupil.
▪ Reducing funding for universities will mean, among other things, later having to rebuild the faculty and staff.
Why not, instead, improve on what exists for even greater support of education as the years move forward?
There is more to life than favoring a few segments in society when giving breaks in taxation. Kansas needs to move forward and sequentially in providing the best in education and in general infrastructure and, above all, quit fighting the state Supreme Court.
Marlow Ediger, North Newton
Everyone at risk
Alzheimer’s disease is the most expensive disease in the United States. About 51,000 people in Kansas have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
June is Alzheimer’s and Brain Awareness Month. Everyone is at risk to develop Alzheimer’s. During the month of June, you can help by raising awareness and taking action. Early detection matters.
I urge Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., and Reps. Mike Pompeo, R-Wichita, and Tim Huelskamp, R-Fowler/Hutchinson, to help raise awareness of Alzheimer’s disease.
For more information, please visit alz.org/abam.
Breana Jones, Wichita
Program director, Alzheimer’s Association of Central and Western Kansas
Bombs not needed
President Obama recently visited Hiroshima, where about 140,000 people died immediately and tens of thousands died later due to radiation from the first atomic bomb. The second bomb killed at least 50,000 residents of Nagasaki.
The Truman administration justified these bombings by stating that they would save up to 1 million lives if Japan did not have to be invaded to end the war. This number was a gross exaggeration. Because the Allies had broken the Japanese code, the administration must have known that the Japanese wanted peace and were negotiating a settlement with the Russians.
America’s insistence that the emperor had to go (unconditional surrender) was insensitive to the fact that he was the highest authority of the Shinto religion and believed to be a direct descendant of the sun goddess.
In addition, the Russians had planned to declare war with Japan shortly, which would have reduced America’s power as the victor and increased President Truman’s fear of the Russian threat.
The Australians have a “National Sorry Day” to apologize to the Aborigines for a lifetime of repression.
In contrast, Obama said “death fell from the sky,” as if it were an act of God. Japanese lives did not matter.
Don Anderson, Winfield
Letters to the Editor
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This story was originally published June 11, 2016 at 12:05 AM with the headline "Letters on wasteful state budget, Alzheimer’s, Hiroshima."