Come on, Kansas City: The Chiefs’ loss to the Bengals wasn’t the end of the world

Just one game

Come on, Kansas City. Did you really think the Chiefs were going to get through the toughest 17-game schedule in the NFL without losing three or four games?

The Chiefs have been a great source of entertainment for 12 games. Let’s relax and enjoy our heroes for the next five.

We can go nuts when the playoffs start.

- Larry Schaffer, Kansas City

Nigro generosity

I recently witnessed, again, the Nigro Brothers Charity Auctioneers tirelessly donating their evening for the benefit of Kansas Citians at an event last month for 501(c)(3) nonprofit the Aidan Project at Studio Dan Meiners.

For more than 40 years, the Nigro Brothers have entertained us with humor and skill, raising hundreds of millions of dollars for Kansas City charities. They have missed countless family events, donating their time an impressive average of 150 nights per year. The Nigro Brothers are an integral part of success stories for a broad variety of Kansas City charities and therefore, success of many area residents.

Kansas City is blessed by the Nigro Brothers. I know of no other city that has such a generous team, not to mention a 40-year history. Their black cowboy hats surely are halos in disguise.

- DeeDee Neary Cooper, Mission Hills

Internet access

Given AT&T’s long history of serving our neighbors in Kansas City and across Missouri, it’s unfortunate The Star chose to resurrect a flawed study that incorrectly identifies race and income as motivating factors in telecom providers’ investment and service-pricing decisions. (Nov. 29, KansasCity.com, “Some in KC’s least-white, lower income neighborhoods pay high prices for slower internet”)

To be clear: Any suggestion that we discriminate in providing internet access is blatantly wrong.

Our 5,000 employees throughout the state are turning our company’s investments — more than $2 billion in Missouri, and nearly $450 million in the Kansas City area from 2019 to 2021 — into critical connectivity for businesses, residents and first responders.

Because of the work and the vision of state and local policymakers, we are one of many broadband providers investing in Kansas City. This is a highly competitive market, and consumers have multiple options for 1 Gig broadband in Kansas City. This competitive landscape influences our investment decisions.

The Star did get one thing right: Closing the digital divide is critical and requires participation from private industry, government and nonprofits to ensure residents have access to and are adopting the connectivity they need.

With billions of dollars in federal grants available to enhance connectivity, instead of making accusations, let’s work together to solve the digital divide.

- Craig Unruh, President, AT&T Missouri, St. Louis

Get him help

Rapper Ye, who formerly went by Kanye West, has recently expressed anti-Jewish views and has been seen in the company of a known antisemite. This recent behavior is both hateful and bizarre. Although he plans to run for president in 2024, he has the support of neither Democrats or Republicans.

Donald Trump described him as “seriously troubled.”

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene has also denounced Ye’s associate Nick Fuentes, a Holocaust denier, after we learned that Ye brought him to a dinner at Trump’s Florida resort. “Of course I denounce Nick Fuentes and his racists anti-semitic ideology,” she tweeted — although she spoke at his American First Political Action Conference and appeared at the podium with him earlier this year.

Unfazed by his critics, Ye has continued to express more smears of Jewish people and appeared on a broadcast of Alex Jones’ “Infowars” with Fuentes, where he even praised history’s most infamous Nazi leader: “I like Hitler.”

It appears that an intervention is needed and that Ye’s mental status needs to be addressed by his friends and family.

- Kevin Lindeman, Kansas City

Historical import

The Lecompton Historical Society was privileged and honored to host Dr. Christian McWhirter, a historian from the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Museum and Library from Springfield, Illinois, on Saturday. McWhirter is a dynamic, energetic and knowledgeable speaker. He discussed the opinions and thoughts Lincoln had about slavery, Lecompton and Kansas. McWhirter said Lecompton was the national and international story for more than four years. If Lecompton was the focus, so was Kansas.

Today, the governor and Legislature are looking for ways to promote our state. Why not tout Kansas with a unique tagline, as Nebraska did last year: “Nebraska: Honestly, it’s not for everyone.” Kansas’ slogan could be “Kansas, the birthplace of the Civil War, not South Carolina.” There were no casualties during the April 12-14, 1861, attack on Fort Sumter, but many dozens died in Kansas before 1861.

Kansas’ history was and is important to the world. Why not let the world have the opportunity to see that history? It is economic development. And while the Kansas Museum of History in Topeka is closed for renovations, come learn about the importance of Kansas’ history and its impact on our country by visiting historic Lecompton.

- Paul Bahnmaier, Lecompton, Kansas

Off the table

Why is it OK to make fun of President Joe Biden’s age, but it is not OK to make fun of President Barack Obama’s race or Vice President Kamala Harris’ race and womanhood?

- Joan Harrison, Kansas City