Sure, Kansas City wants a Chiefs Super Bowl win. Don’t jinx it with big parade plans | Opinion

Don’t jinx us

I have been a Chiefs fan for decades, but I think Kansas City publicizing plans for a Super Bowl parade is a bit premature.

Keep the plans quiet until there is actually a reason for a parade. It’s kinda like putting the cart before the horse

- Dan Muldrew, Overland Park

Mama’s boys

How cool is it for the Kelce family to have two sons playing in the Super Bowl? We have all seen Mom Donna in her Chiefs/Eagles shirt and wonder if she secretly has a favorite to win the championship. I don’t know about that, but I do know who her favorite will be after the game: It will be the son who gives his mom his Super Bowl ring.

I’m looking forward to a great game and a Chiefs victory.

- Diana Garcia, Raymore

The name fits

A quick search on burros finds them described by experts as highly intelligent, stubborn animals that will stand their ground. So it wouldn’t be an insult at all for our stadium to be called “Burrowhead.”

- Trish Hayes, Richmond

Chill out

I say this about The Star editorial board’s lengthy comments on the Cincinnati mayor’s quote about who Patrick Mahomes’ father is: Lighten up. It was just a joke. (Jan. 31, 7A, “Cincinnati’s mayor owes Mahomes a big apology”) Obviously, a paternity test would be out of the question because Mahomes was born before Cincy quarterback Joe Burrows.

The editorial board is demonstrating its excessive liberalism as, like most liberals, its members are looking to be offended.

- Austin L. Landreth, Belton

Faraway love

After another classic AFC title game, two thoughts from a lifelong Chiefs fan who has lived on the West Coast for 38 years:

▪ Cincinnati fans are killing me with the “rigged” and “conspiracy”chatter. The intentional grounding call against Joe Burrow and the roughness penalty on the Mahomes scramble were blatant penalties. Other controversial calls could have gone either way. At the end, the Bengals gave the game away.

▪ Likewise, the Chiefs and Kansas City are killing me with the outrage over the Cincinnati mayor’s totally harmless, cute, lame (or whatever adjective you want to use) babble. Instead of playing along, KC got all defensive. A favorite, Travis Kelce, wasted precious time on national TV trashing the mayor rather than lauding Chris Jones, Harrison Butker and others. And The Star published a silly editorial demanding the mayor apologize to Mahomes. The Oscar for best performance in a drama goes to Kelce, the Chiefs, The Star and the whole city. Totally embarrassing.

Our current Chiefs may be the most beloved NFL cast of characters ever. Wear a Chiefs cap or shirt 2,000 miles away, and you get endless positive comments from total strangers. More grace and confidence, please. And less inane, insecure melodrama.

- Mark Ziegler, Los Angeles

Ike’s wisdom

In Joel Mathis’ Jan. 26 commentary “Does Pompeo’s Bible tell him to sneer at murder victims?” (8A) he quotes Mike Pompeo from his new book: “Just as the media spent years trying to drive a wedge between me and President Trump, they spent the ensuing weeks trying to fracture America’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.” Why? Because the “progressive left” hates Saudi leader Mohammed bin Salman.

Can we compare potential presidential candidates with successful past presidents? Dwight D. Eisenhower rates fifth in the 2021 C-SPAN survey of presidential rankings, 422 points higher than Donald Trump’s 41st place.

Pompeo’s statement shows a disdain toward reporters and clearly places importance upon political ideology — and that only his far-right one is acceptable.

Eisenhower, a Kansan and 34th president, was chosen as Supreme Allied Commander in part for his ability to handle criticism and win support from his critics. There was shared respect. Ike disliked rigid ideological and political labels such as “conservative” or “liberal,” instead examining every issue individually and nonideologically, leaving the labels to others. Ike disliked extremists and demagogues, left and right, comparing it all to a bowling alley, with the left and right gutters as undesirable.

Finally, Ike warned about “patronage” — doing others’ bidding — in saying “by itself it could well-nigh defeat democracy.”

- Erwin G. Curry, Missoula, Montana

Speak strongly

I could not believe what I read recently in The Star about lawyers for Kansas City arguing to a court that lying to taxpayers is not illegal. (Jan. 25, 14A, “Are we really going to argue lying isn’t wrong?”) It may not be illegal, but that does not mean it is OK. And if city lawyers have that attitude, they aren’t worthy of representing us.

What do we now know about the moral compass of City Manager Brian Platt? How can we trust someone who thinks it is OK to say the city paved “400 plus” miles of streets while it did far less?

As far as I’ve seen, our mayor and City Council members have not stood up and said definitively that it is wrong to lie to residents. These are the people leading us. Can we trust that any of them are telling us the truth in the future?

City leaders don’t adequately pave our streets and repair damage that winter weather does to our roads. Visitors to our city notice the terrible condition of our streets. Remember that the next time you hit a pothole and damage your vehicle.

- Dale E. Smith, Kansas City