Letters on amending constitution, Masterson, guns, Muslims

Other amendments to state constitution

The anti-equity, anti-student, anti-teacher, anti-intelligence wing of the Republican Party that has a death grip on the future of Kansas wants to take away the power of the Kansas Supreme Court to force equitable and adequate school funding. Its latest strategy is to amend the state constitution to strip the court of its only real hammer to force action: issuing an injunction of the school-finance system.

I have two constitutional amendments that would better serve Kansas and its kids:

▪  If the Supreme Court determines that the Legislature and governor have failed to adequately and equitably fund public schools, the court may order an immediate recall election for every member of the Legislature and the governor.

▪  If the Supreme Court determines that the Legislature and governor have failed to adequately and equitably fund public schools, the court may propose a constitutionally acceptable school-funding plan and submit it to a vote of the people for approval.

I believe these amendments will provide enough motivation to the Legislature to do its constitutional duty that the courts would no longer need to threaten shutting down the system to get Kansas kids a system that adequately and equitably funds their education.

Need Masterson

Thank you, Sen. Ty Masterson, R-Andover, and other legislators, for again standing up to ludicrous bureaucracy. They boldly represent those of us who think it is ridiculous that K-12 education already receives one-half of our state budget. Throwing money at inefficient administrative costs does nothing to benefit the quality of education our children are receiving.

According to the Kansas State Department of Education’s website, the average USD 259 teacher salary (with benefits) is $60,000; the average administrator’s salary is more than $100,000. The average per-pupil expenditure is $13,600. When is it going to be enough?

Masterson is courageously holding the line, despite all the liberal media attacks. We need more commonsense leaders like him.

Too many guns

Who cares if the guys who have shot up America in the past few decades were Christian, Muslim, mad at someone or just nuts? The deed is done. It’s done because in this country there are more guns than people, and a private citizen can own anything just this side of a rocket launcher (and if the National Rifle Association had its way, you could buy one of those, too).

And, no, it is unlikely the Florida shooting would have been stopped by a bartender with a pistol. He would have died, long before he could have squeezed off a shot, from the hail of bullets coming out of that AR-15-style assault weapon Omar Mateen had legally purchased.

Banning Muslims or building walls won’t help – all these guys are citizens. And quit cluck-clucking about the fact President Obama won’t say “Muslim terrorist,” as if that would change anything. Nope, change should have happened with a clarification that “a well regulated militia” does not mean an individual can own anything besides a single-shot rifle, the only thing a deer hunter needs.

So stop with the candlelight vigils already and live with it. That is until you’re the next person caught in the crossfire.

We can change

For many years I lived in a Chicago suburb. The Italian population was very heavy in some areas of Cook County early on, but eventually they would no longer be clustered together but integrated throughout the region.

I saw firsthand some of the early feelings among many people who would not trust a person who had an Italian name. There were some thugs who immigrated to America and immediately set up their criminal groups to take advantage of unwitting folks. I knew one state representative of Italian heritage who dedicated his life to improve the public image of people of Italian descent. Many people had a hard time changing their opinion for years.

I see a very similar thing happening in our country toward Muslims. I feel a personal obligation to change my attitudes, but it will require a very strong effort on the part of peace-loving Muslims to make a change in our society. I pray that as a peace-loving nation, we will all see the change soon.

This story was originally published June 15, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Letters on amending constitution, Masterson, guns, Muslims."