SECTION:opinions

Letters to the editor

Readers state their points in letters to the editor.

Font size=+2 Crime, taxes are issues/Font I entered the 6th District city council race without any political ties whatsoever. I knew full well that focusing on taxes and crime, rather than economic development, might lose the votes of business leaders. However, I still contend that when we bring our property taxes under control and reduce our crime rate, our opportunity to attract new families, as well as industry, will be greatly enhanced. I beg our mayor, city council, and county commissioners to please look out for the average householder who may get lost in this political process. We need relief from taxes and crime. Yesterday I received my property reappraisal. The only thing we have done to our home since the last appraisal four years ago was paint the outside. Our valuation increased 50 percent. The assessment process is negative reinforcement to what we say we want, which is to have more homes restored and maintained in the core of our city. I shudder to think what our tax statement will read. The editorial in the paper on this subject is right. Reappraisals are a sneaky way of raising tax dollars without anyone being held accountable for a tax increase. Please reverse this trend before you drive more people out of our city. Our sheriff's department and our city police are housed under the same roof with a joint communications center. Please complete the consolidation of this area. Eliminate duplication in administration and put more officers on the street inside and outside the city limits. We need an integrated community policing structure where officers have their own geographic areas of patrol and are highly visible in those areas. Empower them to do what they initially went into law enforcement to do -- catch criminals and wear white hats in their community. B I -- DEBRA STUFFLEBEAN, Topeka./I /B Font size=+2 Ways to promote peace/Font I would be greatly relieved if the major political parties would discover that much of our future depends upon what happens, and the kind of leadership our country provides, in the international arena. President Clinton ignores the idea that President Franklin Roosevelt conceived to increase the stability among nations. Some may not agree, but we should be sponsoring new roles for the United Nations in the Third World countries. Clinton, like some before him, has been critical of the U.N. leadership; yet our failure to respond to the genocide in mid-Africa was nothing short of immoral. Our desire to reduce the amount of nuclear weapons is all talk and no action. Both the president and the Congress use certain delays which they blame on the Russian parliament to excuse our failure to reduce weapons. In the meantime, the Russians are continuing the destruction of nuclear warheads, as set out in the START II Treaty. Even though Russia has reduced its 3,500 warheads, it still has enough pointed at us to level every city and town in the United States. We should be asking the presidential candidates for their position on reducing our inventory, too. In the meantime, this administration utilizes tremendous military power on Iraq. Do these strikes coincide with times when President Clinton is in the deepest trouble domestically? We should be asking Al Gore, George W. Bush and Elizabeth Dole to provide the leadership for a serious discussion of these problems. Our policy needs modifying, with a promise to not launch the first strike; we should join our Western European allies in promising. The next president will inherit an unstable world, given especially the nuclear ambitions of North Korea, China, India, Pakistan and Iran. The political parties, instead of repeatedly asking for donations, should provide the leadership in getting this issue widely discussed. We need a change in the fundraising activities of both political parties. I have contributed a bit to both of them and have received back a questionnaire and request for more money. All of these questionnaires have been oversimplistic in dealing with what the party thinks are important domestic issues. Until funding for political parties and the excessive cost of running for political office is changed, we cannot expect voters to continue to support either party. B I -- DWIGHT F. METZLER, Topeka./I /B Font size=+2 Beware Iraqi threat/Font We are now accustomed to hearing threats from Iraq and often dismiss the talk as empty bluffs. This is a mistake. The people of Iraq have suffered long under Saddam. But without exposure to Western media, Iraqis are made to believe that their suffering is due to the sanctions and bombings led by the United States. Like any people who endure long periods of hardship, the Iraqis will stand up and fight for Saddam if he promises that this will ease their suffering. It is probable that we will have another major confrontation with Iraq before we inaugurate our next president. This leads to the next major concern. Iraq has been playing a shell game with its weapons of mass destruction since the end of the Gulf War. We don't know what kind or how many weapons Iraq has amassed. Unlike nuclear weapons, which require sophisticated tools and rare materials, chemical and biological weapons can be made using simple, inexpensive materials and equipment. The flexibility and low cost of chemical and biological agents makes them the choice weapons of Iraq. These agents can be delivered by missile or simply released into the atmosphere. Chemical agents cause painful wounds that often result in death. Biological agents are the most terrifying weapons made today. Unlike nuclear and chemical weapons, biological agents can be contagious, and casualties can multiply geometrically. Biological agents enter the body through the skin, eyes and the respiratory system. Once the virus has infiltrated the body, massive organ damage follows. I wholeheartedly support any military action we find necessary in the Middle East. I wish godspeed to our troops in the Gulf. B I -- ANTHONY FLORES, Topeka./I /B Font size=+2 Sharing the outrage/Font I presided over my first meeting of the board of Interfaith of Topeka on the evening of Feb. 25, the day John William King was found guilty of capital murder in the horrendous, racially motivated dragging death of James It was the spontaneous wish of the Interfaith board that we express our sadness and outrage over this unspeakable atrocity. Different though we are in our faith expressions, the Interfaith membership shares belief in a God who is deeply grieved over the inhumanity we too often exhibit one to another. Our efforts to rise above the differences we have in matters of faith and religion have sensitized Interfaith to the challenges diversity presents in matters of race, ethnicity, gender, age and socio-economic status. We are particularly disturbed when hatred, prejudice and discrimination are "justified" by appeals to God and religion. On a personal note, while I understand that the crime cries out for justice, I question whether the death penalty King received will accomplish this end. I see the impending execution as merely perpetuating the misguided notion that violence can solve the problem of violence. B I -- THE REV. JOHN ERICKSON, president, Interfaith of Topeka./I /B Font size=+2 Can't have it both ways/Font If bipartisan politics is to be used, it should be used in a sensible way. I am referring to the aftermath of the Senate vote on the Clinton matter. After the vote was taken and both articles were defeated, the leading Republicans were saying that since the Democrats voted "as one" their was no "bipartisanship." What were the Republicans doing when they were taking their final vote from the House Judiciary Committee? Also, what were the Republicans doing in the House of Representatives, after they had received their reams of information from the House Judiciary Committee? They did the same thing as the House Judiciary Committee -- voted as "one." Political satirist Harry Shearer was at the National Prayer Breakfast the same day the Senate vote was taken. He likened the Democrats and Republicans as both walking up to a vendor and buying a sausage. The Republicans took off the outer skin and examined it carefully while the Democrats looked at the meat. How can the Democrats be blamed for playing partisan politics when all they did was their job -- which was to look at the heart of the matter?B I -- LARRY STECK, Council Grove./I /B Font size=+2 New here? Grab a plate!/Font Welcome to America -- it's all downhill from here. A recent report from the National Research Council shows that arrival in America marks the beginning of gradually worsening health for immigrant families. "McDonaldization," said one of the researchers, "is not necessarily progress when it comes to nutritious diets." Recent immigrants eat more fruits, grains, and vegetables, a pattern soon lost with assimilation. Despite having less access to prenatal care, new immigrants also have lower rates of infant mortality and low-birth-weight babies than U.S. mothers of similar ethnic background and social class, presumably due to healthier diets and less use of tobacco, alcohol, and drugs. The longer they are in America, however, the more they lose these advantages. Mental health problems, including suicide, also increase as new immigrants lose touch with family traditions. The good health of new arrivals is found despite their often being impoverished, or perhaps, in part, because of it. B I -- ROBERT E. RUTKOWSKI, Topeka. /I /B

Copyright 1999
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