Let’s face it, Kansas City: We’ve let the old terminals at KCI Airport turn into dumps

What a wreck

It surprises me that it has taken this long for The Star to highlight woes at Kansas City International Airport’s existing terminals. (Dec. 6, 1A, “Holiday travelers left waiting for KCI shuttle buses”)

I’ve been a frequent flyer for business and pleasure through our airport for a quarter century. I still regard it as the best layout I’ve experienced among the dozens of airports I’ve traveled through in this country and beyond. However, I also realize that security issues now dictate a different (if less accommodating) kind of architecture.

For years, the city has failed to maintain the airport. My thoughts initially were that such neglect was simply trying to convince locals that a new terminal would be better. Since we are getting that new terminal, the neglect has been magnified: broken elevators, toilets out of order, inadequate signage for arrivals to find the exits and more.

Tens of thousands of travelers have been left with a terrible taste of Kansas City. Basic standards should always be met, even just a few months from the new terminal’s opening.

- Jimmy Mohler, Liberty

‘They got to fix this’: Holiday travelers left waiting for buses to KCI economy parking

Thanks, Sen. Blunt

I appreciate Sen. Roy Blunt’s comments about bipartisanship. (Dec. 8, 1A, “Blunt stresses importance of bipartisanship in farewell”) I’m grateful for all the years he worked with colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support programs to fight global infectious diseases.

Blunt said goodbye on the Senate floor, yet there are still two significant ways he can still support people struggling in poverty. First, he can help restore an expanded child tax credit so parents can provide necessities for families. A recent Washington University study reported the most common uses of child tax credit payments among Missouri families were buying food, purchasing clothing and paying bills.

Second, he can sign onto the End TB Now Act, S.3386/H.R.8654, directing the U.S. Agency for International Development to set bold targets to reach and treat the most vulnerable populations for all forms of tuberculosis.

In the remaining weeks of 2022, Blunt and Sen. Josh Hawley should include an expanded, monthly CTC for all low-income families in an end-of-year tax bill and co-sign the End TB Now Act.

- Cynthia Changyit Levin, Town and Country, Missouri

Collier for KCPS

The Kansas City Public Schools board should immediately select Jennifer Collier as the permanent superintendent to lead the district into the future.

For decades, we’ve watched KCPS superintendents hired from outside the region reach a milestone then make their exit for greener pastures, leaving the district in leadership free fall and constant redirection. Mark Bedell held the longest tenure — a historic six years.

Born and raised in Kansas City, Kansas, Collier has roots firmly planted in this community. She knows KCPS intimately — as a teacher for 10 years, an assistant principal for two, a principal for three and chief human resource officer for six, then as deputy superintendent for a year. She is currently interim superintendent.

Earning her doctorate in educational leadership, Collier values improving outcomes for children and adults alike. When it comes to the long-term commitment required to raise district education expectations, I believe she has the leadership, experience and vision to get KCPS on the right trajectory, given the time necessary to do so.

By all accounts, Jennifer Collier is prepared to be the next and hopefully long-lasting superintendent for many years to come.

- Elaine Hamilton-Bruner, Kansas City

Science fiction

There was a time in the Middle Ages when scientists thought male adults deposited a tiny human into female adults, who then incubated the tiny human for birth. I mention this today only because a significant number of non-scientists seem to have made this thought law by marketing the rights of the “unborn.”

- Joyce Keyd, Olathe

That’s organization

I have heard on-air commentators speak about the role and success of young people in the past election. I have had experience with a marvelous example. Her name is Peyton Browning, and she might develop into the Kansas version of Stacey Abrams.

Browning is certainly all about voter turnout and coalition building. This past year, her organization Prairie Roots organized 500 volunteers to reach out to 90,000 Kansans who had not voted in the past decade. Prairie Roots works year-round to educate voters and turn them out to vote.

We have seen a number of disturbing elements in our politics these past few years, and people like Browning are getting Kansans up to speed on the issues and encouraging them to vote. When I heard the words, “The people have spoken,” I credited Browning and Prairie Roots for helping many people speak up through the ballot box.

We may tire of politics from time to time, but we would certainly tire of living under a failed democracy.

- Judith L. Zillner, Merriam

Followed rules

On Friday, an asylum seeker from Congo who has been living with us in Kansas City, Kansas, received a decision from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services regarding his authorization for employment. He followed all the rules, submitted with five months remaining on humanitarian parole and had the assistance of an attorney.

He was denied, being told that his “parole had expired and is no longer valid.” By the time USCIS reviewed his case 17 months after he sent it, even a one-year extension on his parole would have been denied on the same grounds.

We expect immigrants to work hard and follow the rules, with no expectation that our federal institutions do the same. Even when immigrants do everything “the right way,” they face a litany of bureaucratic impossibilities.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Sens. Jerry Moran and Roy Blunt have the power during this lame duck session to finally bring peace and stability to some of the most amazing immigrant residents of their states, such as the Dreamers and temporary protected-status holders.

They can make our immigration system work as hard and play as fairly as these immigrants have. Our leaders could take a page out of immigrants’ playbook and finish the job other American politicians have been unwilling to do.

- Kurt Rietema, Kansas City, Kansas

No state first

No state ought to be first for primary elections. If one goes before the others, we all suffer because scammers know how to focus their aim.

So New Hampshire, then Iowa and possibly South Carolina may offer an advantage to candidates, so the thinking goes. But why should any state have a priority over the other 49?

So let’s get rid of primaries altogether. Or, if necessary, have a lottery each election year to see which state goes first.

- Raymond Coveney, Kansas City