Rep said Kansans with disabilities ‘can’t do anything.’ My husband disproves that lie | Opinion
Thriving despite
Kansas state Rep. Sean Tarwater said people with disabilities “really can’t do anything” and would “rot at home” without sheltered workshops that are allowed to pay workers less than minimum wage. (Feb. 16, KansasCity.com, “JoCo Republican doubles down as disability rights groups seek apology for ‘hurtful’ comments”)
Tarwater knows not of what he speaks. As an example, may I offer my husband?
After graduating from high school and college in Kansas and being gainfully employed, he developed early onset macular degeneration, making his former profession untenable and forcing him to accept Social Security Disability Insurance. Not to be deterred, he retrained, sought new employment, transitioned off SSDI and recently retired with full benefits after 30-plus years at a major health science center and medical school — not bad for a disabled person who “really can’t do anything.”
Tarwater’s ignorant and insulting comments seem to reflect his misguided notion that disabled people are on a par with toddlers: Keep them taken care of and fed, and they will be happy. If his goal is to drive educated, compassionate and productive people from Kansas, this is a good way to do it.
Disability can strike anyone at any time, showing no exception for older white men.
- Dora Lynn Burke, Hattiesburg, Mississippi
Not an issue
The May 6 front-page story “Majority in MO poll want stricter gun laws, as GOP seeks opposite” states that most Missouri respondents to a new poll from Saint Louis University and YouGov say they support criminal and mental health background checks for gun buyers.
This has been the law for 30 years. The FBI has banks of computers in Wheeling, West Virginia, called the National Instant Criminal Background Check System. For the pollsters to place this non-issue in the poll indicates they were more interested in propaganda than polling.
- Kevin L. Jamison, Gladstone
Wrong side
Once again, insurrectionist Sen. Josh Hawley has come out and lied. After watching Tucker Carlson ludicrously butcher security camera footage from the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, Hawley sided with the Fox News host and admitted liar. (March 8, KansasCity.com, “Full list of Republicans to speak out against Tucker Carlson’s Jan. 6 show”)
We all watched the insurrectionists beat police officers and break into the Capitol, where they defecated and urinated in its great halls. We saw Hawley raise his fist in unison with these traitors. Even after we all saw the video of Hawley running in fear, he still tries to spread the lie that it was not an insurrection.
Hawley does not care about Missourians or how to improve our lives. He wants to hold his seat for power. So, as other senators admit that what Carlson did was wrong and a lie — just as he lied about Dominion Voting Systems — Hawley wants to side with traitors and Carlson.
Never forget that our democracy was nearly destroyed that day. So when you go to vote in 2024, remember Jan. 6 and Hawley running away scared from the mob he provoked. Then vote him out.
- Joe Rhea, Kansas City
Missouri’s best?
Ash Grove, Missouri, has produced some wonderful products, such as the 350 million-year-old limestone panels at the new Kansas City International Airport. (Feb. 26, 1A, “Written in stone”) But it has also produced state Sen. Mike Moon, who is leading the charge in Missouri against transgender kids and their parents. (Feb. 15, 8A, “Kansas, Missouri weigh bills to ban gender-affirming care”)
Sen. Moon might say in his defense that his mind is only 6,000 years old.
- Gordon Risk, Kansas City
Multiple injustices
One of the many tragedies of Alex Murdaugh’s murders of his wife and son is that a South Carolina community allowed itself to be dominated and looted by a maniac with a law degree. It’s not a Stephen King movie.
- Paul G. Comerford, Blue Springs
