Opinion Line (Jan. 9)

The Wichita Police Department claims its latest shooting victim was “belligerent” and may have been reaching for his waistband. Those descriptions fit 90 percent of the young men in Old Town every weekend. Officers need to re-examine their shooting criteria.

As a retired veteran law enforcement officer, I have noticed the numerous officer-involved shootings in Wichita over the past several years. “Protect and serve” needs to come back to America instead of “persecute and prosecute.” The Patriot Act turned us all into the enemy who has no constitutional rights.

Do exactly what a police officer tells you to do and live to see another day. Duh.

Supporting the public schools is important, as I don’t want to live in a community with stupid people. That said, how much is enough? If you give them a billion dollars, they wouldn’t thank you; they’d want $2 billion. Live within your means. I do.

If raising the minimum wage is so good and does not cause inflation and does not cause other economic problems or hardships on employers, let’s just go ahead and raise it. How about $20 or maybe even $30 an hour?

As long as we have extremists on both sides of the aisle, we will continue to flip-flop back and forth between Democrats and Republicans every eight years. It has become the American way. Is there any way back to the center?

You wonder why neither Gov. Sam Brownback nor the Legislature plans to do anything about strip clubs? Maybe they want them open? They certainly do. Where else would we get the next generation of flawed Democrats?

Hey, KAKE – you are a free channel. If I want your programming, I can just use an antenna. Please keep that in mind as you gouge the cable company and make my bill go up.

On New Year’s Day I decided to go the store. The streets looked like they were painted white. There was brine from curb to curb. I understand that you need to use salt brine at times, but this was overkill.

For the past two winters, this part of the country has had extreme low temperatures, and last year was the warmest on record. Yet our electric and gas companies want higher rates. It is just a case of greed.

Want see how honest and customer-friendly a company or service is? Dig out a bill from a year ago and compare the fuel charges. If it didn’t change, guess what? You have been selected to participate in the “pay my corporate bonus” program.

This story was originally published January 8, 2015 at 6:04 PM with the headline "Opinion Line (Jan. 9)."