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Letters: KC readers discuss Chiefs numbers, Kansas unemployment and AG Eric Schmitt

We have to work

What is wrong with our country? Weariness from a persistent pandemic. Hatred for anyone not just like us.

Animosity toward a government trying to save us from ourselves. Tension caused by a virus interrupting or ending our lives.

People, people, people: We need to pull together or we will fall apart.

- Shirley Lewis, Overland Park

Draft pick

I am an 84-year-old female. I would like to apply for the job of placekicker for the Kansas City Chiefs.

- Pat Hogan, Temple, Texas

Add it up

New math — Arrowhead edition:

15 + 00:13 = 7 + 3 = Game tied.

15 + 04:10 = 87 + 6 = Game over.

- Doug Kinney, Kansas City

Needs not met

Last April, I was interning for Sen. Jerry Moran in Washington, D.C. About 6,000 Kansans applied for unemployment that month. One caller cried and said she would be kicked out of her home the next day if she did not receive money from unemployment.

My job was to create referrals to send to the Kansas Department of Labor. The KDOL was so disorganized that it stopped taking our referrals. We were told the department stopped taking calls and stopped making payments because of fear of fraud. The department even logged members of the public out of their accounts, further impeding those in need from receiving payments.

KDOL’s software was from 1970. The computer hardware was outdated, and there were only 33 people answering calls.

I’m not saying that Gov. Laura Kelly is to blame for every Kansan who went hungry or homeless in April. But she and her administration were governing when all of this happened. It was her administration that deemed a 1970s Department of Labor was still good enough. It was her administration that decided the fear of fraud was enough to stop supporting Kansans in need.

Ultimately, the buck stops with her.

- Brett Seaton, Olathe

Working against us

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt is a bully. Several Missouri school districts have dropped mask mandates because of his lawsuits. And he’s at it again with Kansas City Public Schools. Districts are having to use resources and energy to fight these lawsuits when energy needs to be spent educating children and supporting staff.

I am not only a parent of an elementary-aged child, but I am also a social worker at a local hospital. I work with immune-compromised children. I have seen patients directly affected by this virus. They can’t attend school when no one is wearing a mask. Some have become critically ill. Others have died.

And AG Schmitt is directly responsible.

The attorney general needs to listen to public health officials and get out of the way. Our children deserve better.

- Amanda Trout, Kansas City

No more Trump

One year out of office, Donald Trump faces multiple civil and criminal investigations at the state and local level.

In New York, Attorney General Letitia James announced recently that her office has “uncovered significant evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations.” Trump allegedly inflated his assets to serve his needs and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.

Second, the House Select Committee is investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. Trump claimed the election was stolen from him, so his mob of supporters attacked the Capitol in an attempt to overturn the election. To hide his White House records, he requested that the Supreme Court block their release to the committee, but the court denied his request. If he had nothing to hide, why did he want to hide his records?

In Georgia, a special grand jury has been convened to probe Trump’s 2020 election interference. On Jan. 2, 2021, Trump pressured the Georgia secretary of state to “find 11,780 votes” he needed to win the state. Trump’s call was recorded — clear evidence of voter fraud.

This twice-impeached, one-term president is a corrupt, dishonest grifter who should never hold public office again.

- Jane Toliver, Leawood