Sorry, Roger Marshall: Kansas sees through your attempt to pin inflation on Joe Biden
Marshall’s plan
After reading Sen. Roger Marshall’s “Fight Wall Street banks with credit card competition” in the Aug. 5 Opinion section, (6A) I have to ask: What are The Star’s rules concerning opinion, slurs and facts in the guest commentaries it publishes?
Marshall refers to “Kansans suffering from President Joe Biden’s gas, grocery and rent hikes.” When does an editor disallow statements like this?
Marshall touts the bipartisan bill he cosponsored with Democratic Sen. Dick Durban of Illinois, but then goes into a paranoid rant about imaginary and personal attacks on himself.
I realize that Marshall is trying to set inflation on our kitchen table. I was offended, nonetheless.
- Katie Linder, Prairie Village
Against most of us
Like most Kansans, I voted against the recent proposition that would have removed the right of women in the state to control their own health care. I celebrated this victory and was proud that a majority of Kansans stood up for women.
It is now time to wake up and smell the coffee. If Kansas, which is so often referred to as a “reliably red state,” keeps voting for Republicans in state elections, we can relegate this small victory to footnote status on the path to a complete ban of abortion.
When you paint an entire political party in broad strokes, it tends to limit the effectiveness of the point you’re trying to make. Still, this is the face of the Republican Party today, folks. There is a push to place Republicans in charge of elections so that results can be overturned or even thrown out. This is not right and does not reflect the will of the people.
I believe that if given the chance, Republican lawmakers will continue to cater to a religious base that wants to impose its beliefs on everyone.
- Shane Smith, Olathe
Mark missed
This is an open letter to local businesses that advertise on the MLB Audio internet radio service. As a subscriber, I want you to know that you and your product are being associated with anger and frustration. MLB Audio frequently plays your advertisements instead of the game action I subscribed to hear. In essence I’m paying to listen to your commercials instead of baseball games.
It does not endear me to your company or your product. If I am part of your target demographic, your advertisements are having the opposite of the desired effect.
- David T. Barker, Shawnee
Power retrofit
In his Aug. 7 guest commentary “Evergy needs to help prepare for the future of climate,” (20A) Beto Lugo-Martinez calls for the coal-fired Hawthorn Station plant to be retired eventually. There may be a better solution: Convert it to a heat storage battery.
We need better ways to store energy from renewable sources such as wind and solar for use during peak demand. New technologies can store heat in liquid metals and use it later to generate steam to turn turbines like those in the Hawthorn plant.
It may be possible to retrofit this plant, preserving its turbines and power distribution management but replacing the coal and fireboxes with a storage system for heat from excess wind and solar energy captured during periods of low use. When wind and sun power is low, that captured heat could generate steam and turn the Hawthorn turbines. When sun and wind power are plentiful, the grid energy could reheat the metal.
Two companies now operate commercial-scale units like this: Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy and MGA Thermal. There may be other newer technologies that could upgrade the Hawthorn plant, saving usable parts and preserving employment opportunities in Kansas City.
- Una Creditor, Kansas City
Prayers offered
After a recent computer technical assistance call, the agent asked if I would take a survey. Then he asked if I had any questions. Yes, I had one: “Where are you located?” (I always ask that. I love accents. I am careful. Call centers can be in prisons, as part of pre-release work programs.)
“Ukraine,” he answered with dignity. I asked if I could pray for him and his family. “Yes.” Then he choked up.
Please pray with me for a real Ukrainian with a real family — a young man with more courage than I have.
- Randall Jones, Independence
