LJWorld.com stories: Opinion

Editorial: Renew transit tax

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The city’s public transit service is critical infrastructure, and Lawrence residents should vote to renew the sales tax dedicated to funding it.

Opinion: Trump doesn’t want stain of defeat

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Will President Trump’s new Afghanistan strategy alter the dynamics of America’s longest and most frustrating war? Do commanders really have any better chance of succeeding now than when this conflict began 16 years ago?

Your Turn: Stand with us against violence, hate

Wed, 23 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Our hearts and thoughts are with the families and friends of the victims of the Aug. 13 murder-suicide, an act of domestic violence carried out by the victim’s ex-partner.

Opinion: Party of Lincoln or Party of Lee?

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Contrary to Donald Trump's statements, the Hitler Youth wannabes who paraded through Charlottesville are not sincere Republicans falsely accused of being Nazis. They are the real thing. It should have been the most basic act of American civic hygiene to condemn and anathematize them.

Opinion: Conversation always better than censorship

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

We will learn even less from history if we wipe it clean, as some are trying to do by removing statues of Confederate leaders whose beliefs about slavery and race most, including me, find offensive. Conversation beats censorship.

Editorial: Rise in crime worrisome

Tue, 22 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The rise in violent crime is a concerning trend in Douglas County. The KBI’s annual Crime Index Report compiles crime statistics reported to the KBI by local and state law enforcement agencies across Kansas, which are submitted through the Kansas Incident Based Reporting System.

Editorial: History lessons in Lecompton

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

There is a fine line between teaching the history of the Civil War, accurately and honestly, and celebrating men who fought on the side of slavery.

Opinion: President also must be moral leader

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

It was obviously an earlier, less cynical time when the president of the United States could explain an unscheduled drive from the White House he had once taken. “I was outraged,” the president wrote when he was out of office, “when I read in the newspapers about a black family. ... The husband and wife were both employed in a government printing office.

Your Turn: Sustained NIH funding critical for health care

Mon, 21 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

As Congress works to make improvements to our health care system, we should make certain we continue to prioritize medical research and its ability to save lives tomorrow through today’s investments. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) plays a critical role nationwide in directing our medical research community.

Opinion: GOP laid out racist welcome mat

Sun, 20 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Last week’s violent demonstration by white supremacists in Charlottesville, Va., culminating in the death of 32-year-old Heather Heyer, made for a carnival of obscenity as sickening as it was riveting. But the thing is, it did not spring from nowhere.

Editorial: A pay raise for prison guards

Sun, 20 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Gov. Sam Brownback announced Thursday that uniformed officers across the state would receive about a 5 percent raise, with officers at El Dorado Correctional Facility getting raises of about 10 percent. Brownback was right to take steps to increase wages for workers at Kansas state prisons. The move should help stabilize prison staffing and reduce dangerous incidents, which have become all too frequent of late.

Opinion: Let’s not forget: Words have meaning

Sat, 19 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Remember “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me?” It isn’t so. At the moment we are experiencing new and confusing usages that have the whole nation and perhaps the world totally confounded. On the world stage we have tin-pot tyrants across the globe who manipulate language in ways that would make George Orwell gasp.

Opinion: Firing of Bannon shows ‘populism’ has been a ruse

Sat, 19 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

There is absolutely no way of establishing what Trump believes. He says whatever he feels he has to say at any given moment to get attention, strike back at foes or advance his personal (especially economic) interests. But Trump’s decision to let go of his right-wing-populist-in-chief Steve Bannon sends a clear signal that the president’s “populism” has always been a ruse.

Opinion: Blowback follows Russia’s meddling

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

The Kremlin is still issuing cocky statements accusing the U.S. of “political schizophrenia” in its response to Russian hacking. And there are vestiges of the triumphal tone I encountered in Moscow early this summer — a sense that America is in decline and that a mistreated but resurgent Russia is in the driver’s seat. But Russia’s confidence must be flagging.

Your Turn: Korea, China and a potential catastrophe

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

If the United States attacks North Korea for whatever reason, the result may be a global economic and humanitarian crisis like the world has never seen. While the military and diplomatic experts remind us of the risks and massive loss of civilian and military life, the aftermath of such a conflict will leave East Asia in an economic and humanitarian crisis that will most likely spread to Asia, Europe and North America. Even if America “wins” a conventional conflict, we will lose as the global and American economy goes into a downward tail spin.

Editorial: Keep space free for the press

Fri, 18 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Kansas legislators should be as accommodating as possible to media organizations that provide coverage of their work in Topeka, including continuing to provide free space in the Capitol for those news organizations to use. Members of the Legislative Coordinating Council, which includes the top Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers, voted this week to direct staff to draft a policy on how requests for media space in the Capitol should be handled. At least one member of the council, House Speaker Pro Tem Scott Schwab, R- Olathe, said the policy of providing free space to for-profit news organizations should be reconsidered.

Opinion: America is ‘better than this’?

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Comedian Kevin Hart and singer Camila Cabello, among others, took to social media to proclaim it as the tragedy in Charlottesville unfolded. “We are better than this,” said Hart. “This is not America,” said Cabello. The words are obviously well-meant. They are also false.

Opinion: Widely denounced tirade a new low

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Critics left, right and center panned President Trump for his initial refusal to denounce the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, one of whom allegedly drove his car into counter-demonstrators, killing one and injuring 19. When Trump finally gave a canned and grudging disavowal of white supremacists, he was urged anew to say more, to be presidential, to bring the nation together. Well, late Tuesday, Trump said more and told the nation what he really thought. It was downright ugly.

Editorial: Standing up against racism

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Lawrence public boards and organizations were right to send letters of support to the people of Charlottesville, Va., and to condemn the purveyors of racism who instigated violence that resulted in the death of an innocent woman. On Saturday, a car driven by a man participating in a white nationalist rally plowed into a group of people protesting the rally, killing 32-year-old legal assistant Heather Heyer and injuring at least 19 others. Two state police officers who had been monitoring the protests also died in a helicopter crash.

Editorial: End suffering of parents

Wed, 16 Aug 2017 00:00:00 -0500

Harold and Alberta Leach deserve better from the state of Kansas.

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