Kansas City loves Mahomes and the Chiefs. Our kids didn’t need to see them swill beer | Opinion

Lose the booze

I am not opposed to drinking nor naive enough to think our football players don’t drink. However, it is completely unnecessary to let Chiefs players drink during the Super Bowl parade. It should not have been allowed by coach Andy Reid and the team’s ownership for some very good reasons.

The main reason is that a drinking Chief is not a good role model for young fans who are there to see their heroes. Second, even the adult fans don’t want to see drunken players at this important celebration. Third, tragic things happen when drinking is involved.

If the Chiefs cannot go a few hours without alcohol, the organization has a problem. I, for one, was sickened to see this for the second time.

Some Chiefs even bragged through social media about how drunk they were afterward. I am ashamed that players I cheered for could barely walk after they got off the bus. No doubt this spectacle made the news in other cities.

I wish the Chiefs would take pride in their reputation and forgo drinking next time. The parade is a citywide party. You don’t represent this die-hard fan when you make the parade look like a college fraternity beer bust.

- Janet Elaine Hensel, Liberty

Not in public

Big kudos on a big second half last Sunday, Kansas City Chiefs. While viewing your parade on Wednesday, however, I was surprised and dismayed to see that Patrick Mahomes and other players were drinking alcohol again.

I felt that way three years ago, and I thought there would have been enough negative feedback from the parents of children and teenagers voicing their concerns to the Chiefs’ administration that it wouldn’t be repeated.

Next time there’s a victory parade, please imbibe your alcohol privately and discreetly. Impressionable young people deserve better role models than what you’ve displayed twice.

- Skip Stogsdill, Overland Park

Just don’t chop

Wednesday’s Chiefs celebration was fun and joyful — but then Mitch had to rain on the parade.

I was super embarrassed for my city and the Chiefs organization when announcer Mitch Holthus stood onstage with the players and insisted that everyone join in the “Arrowhead chop” to cap off the celebration.

I’m not saying I don’t participate in the chop sometimes — it’s knee-jerk for Chiefs fans. But I know better, and I know how inappropriate and disrespectful it is.

The Chiefs should be making every effort to protect its awesome brand by getting rid of the chop. Instead, all appearances Wednesday were that they still actively encourage it.

Millions of eyes and ears will be focused on our city in a few weeks for the NFL Draft. We need a new move for the fans, and who better to introduce one than our creative Super Bowl-winning players? Can I get an Awhhhhhh? Can I get a NaNaNaNa?

- Michele McCue, Kansas City

That’s some pop

As we’ve seen in the news, the U.S. Air Force recently shot down a Chinese spy balloon. This was accomplished by one of our F-22 fighter jets using a Sidewinder missile, which cost an estimated $400,000 each. This plane also has a Gatling gun-type weapon that fires 20 mm shells at a cost of $20-$30 per round. I assume Sidewinders were used to down a couple other balloons as well.

This sure does seem to be a case of overkill to me, bringing to mind an old Chinese proverb: Do not use a hatchet to remove a fly from your friend’s forehead.

- Thomas Moran, Raymore

Deeper focus

I’d like to express my support for H.R. 61, the Leading Against White Supremacy Act of 2023 now in Congress. This bill would expand the legal definition of hate speech to include white supremacy, which is increasingly becoming a problem in our country as shown by recent attacks on power stations and the mass shooting in Buffalo.

We need to address this now before more people are hurt and killed. I realize this bill would not stop white supremacy by itself. But it is my hope that it would be the start of an increased focus by the federal government on white supremacy and domestic terror.

- Christopher Peters, Kansas City

I never knew

Teaching history in our schools about how America’s different races have interacted since 1619 is being challenged or even outright banned by many politicians who don’t seem to want to know the truth that they never learned when they went to school.

As a student, I never knew that Harriet Tubman was an American social activist who rescued many slaves using the Underground Railroad. I never heard of Emmett Till and or learned why he was abducted, tortured and lynched in Mississippi. I had never heard about the Tulsa Race Massacre of 1921 that destroyed more than 1,400 homes and businesses in the Greenwood District and killed 300 or more African Americans. I was never taught about America’s ignorant internment of more than 120,000 Japanese Americans after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

I wonder whether these same politicians who don’t want to know the full story of our history objected to the musical and theatrical play “Deep Greenwood — The Hidden Truth of Black Wall Street,” which was staged Friday at the Music Hall? I hope not, and I hope schools will have another chance in the near future to take their students to see this important production.

- Larry Miller, Overland Park