Praise for Rep. Yoder

I am a middle class taxpayer in Johnson County. I was delighted to see Rep. Kevin Yoder vote against the fiscal cliff bill.

Why? Because it is insane for a country that is $16.4 trillion in debt to have a bill with only $15 billion in spending cuts. That is the fast track to bankruptcy.

I do not want to saddle by children and grandchildren with the enormous debt this administration is forcing upon us.

Dennis Tabel

Overland Park

Thanks for support

The Blue Valley Optimist Club would like to thank Queen’s Price Chopper (151st Street and Metcalf Avenue) and Manager Dan Daugherty for their continued support of our Christmas tree sale each year.

We will be providing one high school senior in each of the five Blue Valley high schools and the Blue Valley Academy with a $1,000 scholarship along with a $500 scholarship for the C.A.P.S. Program.

We would also like to thank our loyal customers who have helped us to reach our goal for the last 35 years and thank the many Blue Valley West students and staff who have volunteered countless hours of service to this project.

John Laurie

President

Overland Park

Don DeGeer

Project Coordinator

Overland Park

Government waste

It takes a tow truck and a crane to move a garden statue instead of two Prairie Village workers — on the clock — and a pickup? Thanks.

My high tax dollars at work. Next time you have an emergency like this, call me.

I’ll save everyone some cash.

Jim Mitchell

Prairie Village

Steve Rose column

I look forward to and usually read Steve Rose’s columns with respect for the way he articulates his views. However, in the Jan. 2 913 column, “Thoughts of the good life gone by crowd one man’s Memory Lane,” I was stunned by the following statement, “Of course, unlike today, the special needs children were segregated to their own room down the hall, making it far easier for a teacher to handle more children.”

I grew up in schools that failed to serve children with special needs in the same way — segregated to their own room. Then I became a parent to two sons with autism and intellectual delays as the result of Fragile X Syndrome.

I wanted more for my sons than that room down the hall. With a passionate vision, we were pioneers in inclusive education.

Our sons were served in the Shawnee Mission district in our neighborhood schools with their typical peers and academic support through special educators. Was it “easier” for their teachers? No, but it was worth it.

Please consider how your statement does not acknowledge today’s improved educational strategies. With consideration of student dignity and potential, today’s classrooms provide natural opportunities for friendship with typical peers, and exposure to lessons where learning can occur.

Your statement infers that segregation was better because it was easier. It was also easier to ignore the injustice to black people, or remarks that included terms like “jewing down” so shoppers could buy an item cheaper.

Those prejudices were wrong and so is the belief that our family members with special needs should be kept “down the hall.”

I expected better of you than this.

Donna Beauchamp

Co-Leader, Kansas

Fragile X LINKS group

Overland Park

Guns at restaurants

This is in reference to the Jan. 9 article, “Concealed carry goes wrong in restaurant,” about the man accidentally shooting his wife with a concealed weapon in Lenexa. When Kansas passed the law to allow a person to carry a concealed gun into a restaurant, I said I would get up and walk out if I saw anyone but a policeman with a gun.

It appears the time has come for me to quit dining out in Johnson County, even though I’ve lived there for 40 years. A person who is so unhinged that he feels he must have a weapon to go into a restaurant is too incompetent to handle one safely.

I don’t want to be around him or his ilk. From now on my family and I will drive across the state line when we go out to dinner.

Bill Pryor

Overland Park

Guns in wrong hands

How scary is it when we can’t even safely take our children out to dinner in a Johnson County restaurant (1-9, A4, “Concealed carry goes wrong in restaurant”)? No, guns don’t kill people.

Idiots who own guns kill people.

Lisa Bauman

Roeland Park

Al Jazeera TV in U.S.

Al Jazeera is coming to America courtesy of former Vice President Al Gore and entrepreneur Joel Hyatt. The Arab network, funded by Qatar, has bought Current TV, the low-rated, liberal cable station that Gore and Hyatt founded. The deal gives the Arab network access to 40 million homes in the United States.

Beyond bringing propaganda into these new American outlets, Al Jazeera has a long record as the chosen news outlet for al-Qaida and other terrorist cells. It was through Al Jazerra that Osama bin Laden would regularly post videos attacking the West and calling for renewed acts of terror. Having this network available in the U.S. might also afford terrorist groups a new method of communicating with one another.

At the very least, it will help whip up enthusiasm among Islamic viewers in America. To its credit, Time Warner Cable announced that it will cancel its contract with Current TV so it will not have to show Al Jazeera’s propaganda on its system.

Their action keeps the station off 12.5 million homes.

Larry and Cynthia McCallister

Overland Park

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