Letters From the Week of September 11

Letters, August 28

On your August 28 Letters page, Cecilia Albers whines about your paper’s use of the term anti-choice. I find it adequately descriptive and totally appropriate. She pleads for using the label pro-life.

When the Supremes (the old farts on the bench, not the Motown singers) rendered Roe v. Wade, the public debate was framed as pro-abortion and anti-abortion. In a brilliant marketing ploy, those arguing against abortion succeeded in substituting the term pro-life to describe their cause. Subsequently, the term pro-choice came into common usage.

The anti-abortion movement has never shown much concern for anything but the birth of the child. Not the subsequent life of the child, the life of the mother, or the life of the father (unless he could be used as a red herring). If it wants a positive label, it could accurately be called “pro-birth.”

To call the anti-choice movement pro-life is a semantic gift.

Keith Gumowitz, Prairie Village

Janovy: “Give Us a Break,” August 28

Congratulations on doing what newspapers particularly, and news outlets generally, are supposed to do: Call bullshit (speak truth) to power. C.J. Janovy may have done it on the shoulders of Thomas Frank, but she did it. At least a little bit. I realize that she only has a column to work with, but she did it. Now if we could get a front-page-size article on the lies and hypocrisy that the “conservative” (read: neocon) Republicans have embodied for the past seven years, we could begin to flesh it out enough for people to see why the reaction to the values embodied by Barack Obama borders on the messianic.

The hardest truth in Janovy’s piece is that the structure of our government has become so inbred in how powerful interests interact in Washington that only the true messiah could straighten it all out, and I haven’t heard that he’ll be on the ballot in November. But we do have the opportunity to choose a leader who knows the right direction to lead the nation and the wisdom to avoid devastating detours.

I appreciate you doing your duty as much as I appreciate our military, police and firemen doing theirs. They are equally important.

Larry Wright, Independence

Feature, “The Curse of Union Station,” August 28

Regarding Peter Rugg’s story on the precarious future of Union Station: My kids enjoyed Science City. But it’s not something I’d take them to see again for maybe another year or more and then only until they are maybe 10 years old. Any kids older than that would find it boring.

As for Bodies Revealed, no thanks. I think they would do better at finding good exhibits by checking out the little Crown Center museum space. They have had exhibits on The Wizard of Oz, Elvis, puppets, collectibles and many more that were interesting.

Brad Hansen, Overland Park

Feature,” Buy This School,” August 14

Nice investigative work on the part of Eric Barton to call attention to under­used property owned by the Kansas City, Missouri, School District. I would go even further, however, and call into question the ethical implications involved in selling to private owners property that was built and maintained by public money for decades, thus giving even more control to people who do not actually live near the property.

In Overland Park, my grade school was sold to a developer that has been “developing” fully maintenanced condominiums for nearly half a decade, amid rumors of money problems and without a discernible sale yet. That building didn’t have the cool historic architecture of many of the KCMO buildings, but my point is that a public park or community center could do wonders for property values, and securing land for these uses becomes harder and harder, entering future generations of development.

So instead of simply lambasting the district for not selling the buildings, perhaps we should implore it to wait and sell to the right buyer or simply donate them to another government entity, such as parks and recreation or a local community organization that might lease it out.

Ryan Dodd, Overland Park

Correction: Last week, our Burnt Ends page included Los Corrals on its map of downtown restaurants that have closed in the past 11 months (while new restaurants opened in the Power & Light District). Los Corrals is, however, still going strong — and planning to celebrate 60 years in business next year. Owners Chay and Josie Ortega say they still regularly fill the 200-plus-seat restaurant at 408 West Ninth Street, despite the opening of the Power & Light District nearby.

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