Opinion Line (March 15)

I cannot believe we are unable to have even a supposedly nonpartisan mayoral election without accusations, sniping and mudslinging. I didn’t vote for either man in the primary. Now I will be voting for the candidate who is being the most maligned. Negative campaigning will not win my vote.

Since Rep. Ron Ryckman Jr. says he thinks local districts know better than legislators how to educate our children when it comes to school funding, surely we can expect him to oppose the Senate bill placing the Legislature in charge of determining what teachers can and cannot teach.

Why are the politicians in such a mad rush to redesign school funding? Do they think we won’t see the elephant in the room if they blow enough smoke? Do we really believe the system is broken? What’s broken is their promise to support the education of our kids.

If officials like Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett and Reno County Sheriff Randy Henderson can’t support the constitutional rights of the people, as other states’ officials do, instead of spreading fear, uncertainty and doubt they should just resign. Because their credibility is trash.

Would it be unconstitutional to restrict an unlicensed, one-eyed, one-eared, psychotic dimwit driving an unregistered car with bald tires, bad brakes and broken lights? Licenses and registration for drivers and cars are a matter of commonsense public safety, and the same applies to shooters and guns.

Police risk their lives every day to protect us. How pleasant it must be to be spit upon, cursed and shot at just for showing up to work. Remember that without them, it would be the Wild, Wild West all over again.

Ironically, the government can track your every movement on your phone, but didn’t notice Hillary Clinton did not use a “.gov” e-mail account to send and receive sensitive State Department documents and messages.

Clinton said she ignored a federal communication record-keeping law because it was inconvenient to comply. Surely this gives all Americans the green light to ignore inconvenient federal laws.

Republicans already hate Hillary Clinton because of her husband. But they are more than willing to let Jeb Bush “be his own man.”

Iran schooled our Senate. If that’s not embarrassing, I don’t know what is. The act of 47 senators degrades the American leadership, making America look weak. The letter is a violation of the Logan Act, and it is a crime.

The cliche: Give them an inch, and they’ll take a mile. The local ordinance decriminalizing marijuana. Need I say more?

Thank you, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, for standing up for state law and for voters against marijuana. That group had a stack of papers, but our side has a lot of “no” voters. We want lawbreakers to go to jail.

The weather has been so nice that kids can now play outside. Remember that and slow down through residential areas or anyplace there may be children. Spring has sprung, thankfully.

This story was originally published March 14, 2015 at 7:02 PM with the headline "Opinion Line (March 15)."