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Letters to the editor

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Dear editor, 

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Today (Wednesday) my father, Bill Farmer, and I had a meeting with Carl Slaugh, Iola city administrator, Bill Shirley, Iola mayor, Chuck Apt, Iola city attorney, and Iola Chief of Police Jared Warner at their request.

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The meeting’s purpose was to formally apologize to my father for the April 14 wrongful arrest and to inform him the City of Iola was dropping the charges. My father was given a written apology, which was sent to the Iola Register and we do appreciate this gesture on their part.

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I am writing this letter and asking the editor to publish it so my father and I can formally thank a few people who we feel deserve mention.

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I first want to thank Allen County Sheriff Tom Williams. Sir, you have no idea how much my father and I are grateful for your kindness and support. You came down on several occasions to talk with my father and also went down there to check on his wellbeing after I called you expressing concern with his high stress level and mental well being. I personally thank you from the bottom of my heart that you cared to do what is right and remained unbiased in the investigation while still caring about my father as a person. My father will always remember you as “The Duke.” Thank you for all you did.

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Next I would like to thank Steve French, Iola city council member, Ward 4. He, too, stayed unbiased, was genuinely concerned for my father and wanted to make sure this was handled correctly. I thank him also for making sure he was there for me and any concerns or questions I had. I will continue to keep in contact with him due to the fact I want this incident reviewed fully by the Iola City Council and to make sure appropriate actions are administered regarding the officers involved. Thank you Steve, you always listened patiently and never made me feel like I was “bugging” you!  

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I would also like to thank Mayor Shirley for going down to my father’s house and spending time with him after the incident. I realize the mayor had to stay neutral but again he did so in a professional manner and made my father feel more at ease. Mr. Shirley, my father really enjoyed talking “military talk” with you! Thank you, my father thinks you are an all right guy!

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My father and I would like to thank the Iola Register for its role in this also. It did such a superb job reporting on this story and was so personable and nice to my father. Special thanks to Susan Lynn, Richard Luken and Bob Johnson.

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Last but not least I would like to thank our family, friends and the citizens of Iola who reached out to my father and me during this difficult time. My father was astonished at how many people who he didn’t even know had come up to him and shared their support. I thank Iola citizens for being true smalltown folks who show what a close-knit town Iola really is!

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My hope in all of this is that the citizens of Iola, Kansas will realize they have civil rights and if they are wronged or if their civil rights are violated, that they will stand up for themselves! 

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My other hope is the Iola Police Department will take a good hard look and reflect what its true mission is in our town of Iola, Kansas. The mission should be about the citizens and their “working together” to make Iola a safe and peaceful community.     

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It shouldn’t be about “them against us” or that they are at war with the public, or just because they have a title or a uniform that gives them special powers or makes them “above the law.”

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In closing, even though my multiple trips to Iola since the 14th were sometimes unpleasant, I did enjoy seeing people I hadn’t seen for years and being reminded what Iola is all about. Iola is about the people and I still consider it “home” and always will. 

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Respectfully, 

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Tonya (Farmer) Shaughnessy,

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Topeka, Kan.

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Dear editor,

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It seems to be a misconception on the part of most of the council members that the people of Iola voted for eight council members so that the council could break up into small groups and have private meetings with almost no input from the citizens. 

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This is so not true. Everyone we have talked to about this agrees the real reason we elected to have more council people was so the people would be better represented from each ward. We are tired of the small, secret meetings of this council and hope the people of Iola speak up at the next council meeting about this.

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When people show up at council meetings it tells council members we do care about Iola. We don’t want Iola to get and keep a bad reputation because of actions of some of the council members.

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We also think that no council member or mayor should have a four-year term. You can always re-elect them, but it is very hard to get rid of someone doing a bad job before voting time rolls around again.

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All that we have heard from local advertisers and the local newspaper for years now is  — BUY IOLA! Now the city council is electing to buy more and more from outside Iola.

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We realize that there are some things you can’t buy locally, but when possible and practical, we believe the city council should support Iola. The less you buy from local businesses is more in another town’s pocket until our businesses may lose enough to have to close. Is this what is best for Iola? We think not!

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We want people to be proud to live in Iola. Iola really does have a lot going for it. To find out more about that, attend one of the See, Hear Iola meetings held on the last Friday of the month. We attended the one in April and it was refreshing.

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Hope to see more of you at the Iola City Council meeting on Monday night.

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Bill and Gayle Campbell,

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Iola, Kan.

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Dear editor,

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I agree with Jacki.

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Rosemary Bass,

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Iola, Kan.

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We agree with Jacki.

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Eletheamae V. Heigele,

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B.P. Heigele Jr.

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Iola, Kan.

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I agree with Jacki.

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Mary Martin,

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Iola, Kan.

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We agree with Jacki.

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Janet S. Apt

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Fred G. Apt

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Editor’s note:

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In Tuesday’s paper, Jacki Chase suggested reducing the city council to four members and a mayor, elected every three years in staggered terms. 

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To set the method in motion, Chase proposed that at next April’s election the two top vote-getters would serve three-year terms, the next highest two-year terms, and the mayor a one-year term.

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Thereafter, all terms would be three years.

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For those in agreement, she suggested they simply say, “I agree with Jacki,” and email to editorial@iolaregister.com.

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When Rep. Brenda Landwehr of Wichita appeared before the Redistricting Committee in the House she asked to be put in a district with predominately Caucasian residents who lived in houses valued at $800,000 or more. 

The white and the rich, that’s who government should serve.

Rep. Landwehr also wants to be in Sen. Jean Schodorf’s district so she can challenge her in the upcoming election.

Rep. Landwehr is part of a cabal determined to change the face of the Kansas Senate so it will no longer stand in the way of Gov. Sam Brownback’s far right initiatives. The governor and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce are working hand in glove to defeat Senate moderates now in control. Rigging the districts in favor of right-wing candidates is the key to the strategy.

In the Wichita case, no rigging was needed. Sen. Schodorf herself asked that her district be modified to include Landwehr’s residence. She was, she said in a public statement, not hesitant to trust the people of her district and would accept whatever decision they made.

It was a wise decision. If her voters decide they would rather be represented by Landwehr and her whites-only, rich-only philosophy, they should have their wish granted.

But there’s more to this redistricting battle than is represented by Landwehr’s ugly prejudices. Computers and comprehensive census data make it possible today to draw political district boundaries that are election-proof. Once elected, office holders can stay elected. As a consequence of scientific gerrymandering, only about 100 seats in the U.S. Congress are actually contested now — none of those are in Kansas. The other 325 members can relax. Their re-election is all but guaranteed. 

Today’s Kansas Legislature is so overwhelmingly Republican and the Kansas House is so completely dominated by Landwehrian conservatives that our state’s political districts could be redrawn to make Kansas elections just as predetermined for the next decade.

It shouldn’t be that way. Kansas should follow the example of California and other states that have taken redistricting out of the hands of partisan politicians and turned the task over to neutral bodies that use diversity as one of their decision-making criteria. 

Political districts drawn to produce political results — which is the definition of gerrymandering — increase polarization and increase the power of the extremists at either end of the political spectrum. The result is plainly visible in Washington today.

Give the state Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Brownback and their political allies free rein, and the already-polarized Kansas Legislature will become even more so.

IF THERE IS a glimmer of light in this dark picture it lies in the fact total power creates total responsibility.

When underfunding the public schools results in undereducated kids, when underfunded highways begin to crumble, when underfunded courts can deliver only part-time justice, when underfunded health care systems result in legions of under-cared-for Kansans who begin to protest, the voters will know who to blame and will turn the system upside-down again.

Unfortunately, that awakening will come too late to repair the damage done during the dark age to a generation of kids and the other victims of government reserved for middle-aged whites and the rich.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

General Electric announced a couple of years ago it would spend $1 billion converting its fleet of passenger cars to electric powered models to give the industry a boost — and build a bigger market for the products it makes that go into electric vehicles or the power stations that recharge them.

The company said it would buy 25,000 electric cars over five years, the largest commitment to the technology made thus far. GE was a bit slow in fulfilling that promise but is now making up for lost time. In 2011, it purchased 300. But this year every single sedan the company buys for an employee will be a Chevrolet Volt. 

The impact will be significant. General Electric is a huge company with many divisions involved in a multitude of separate manufacturing enterprises. It operates throughout the U.S. and in many foreign countries. When it goes all electric, the demand for charging stations will rise, the manufacturers of the units will discover ways to become more efficient so they can bring the price down within the reach of more and more customers.

If big oil cooperates and the price of gasoline remains $3.50 or more, the conversion from gas to electric will happen faster and be more pervasive than any of us can now imagine. The industry says a Chevy Volt can be operated for about $400 a year in comparison with $2,000 for a gasoline-fueled car. In 10 years, that’s more than $15,000 in savings.

With or without GE, the electric car industry is expanding. Tesla is coming out with a new, larger model. Ford will begin selling its C-Max minivan in 2013. Toyota has a model in the works.

What this means for all of us is that the United States will become energy-independent sooner. Domestic production of energy is increasing. More oil is being pumped from U.S. wells thanks to improved technology and, most significantly, production of natural gas has increased so dramatically that prices have plummeted. As gas prices fall, so does the cost of electricity — which means the economy of electric cars seems assured well into the future.

Producing electricity with clean-burning gas and replacing fossil fuels with electricity will reduce the present discharge of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, which could at least slow down the rate at which the climate will change, the polar ice caps will melt and the oceans will rise.

GENERAL ELECTRIC took its electric car initiative because its chief executive officer, Jeff Immelt, is convinced electric is the future for cars — and because the company’s last name is Electric. It has a vested interest in seeing the technology succeed. Other companies with a little less at stake should follow because they can afford to do so and because it would help their country cope.

If sales grow strong enough, the price will drop dramatically, WattStation charging towers will appear everywhere, the air will be cleaner to breathe and those folks in the Middle East will become much easier to live with.

Within a year or two, the Volt or the C-Max or some other model will make sense in Iola, too. And we all will have lived to welcome in another era.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

A rock musical comedy appropriately titled “Little Shop of Horrors” was on the Bowlus stage years ago and is being played by the Kansas City Repertory Theater now.

Howard Ashman wrote the play and lyrics sometime before it was produced on Broadway in 1986. It’s still drawing audiences 26 years later. No competition for Shakespeare, mind you, but its gruesome, quirky plot and appealing romance touch an American nerve.

Perhaps you saw the movie or maybe remember the local version. If so, perhaps you see, along with me, just how up-to-date it is.

The Shop of Horrors is a flower shop in New York City’s skid row. Seymour works for the owner, Mr. Musknik. So does Audry, a cute blond.

Seymour is into weird plants and is especially fond of a plant he’s named Audry II. He discovers one day, when he pricks a finger on a rose thorn, that Audry II can only grow if fed blood. Preferably human blood. The flower shop becomes the House of Horrors as a logical consequence of Audry II’s dietary demands, which are loudly expressed with the plant’s demand, “FEED ME, SEYMOUR!”

Yes, it talks, too.

After the curtain went down the mind was free to wonder what on earth was going through Mr. Ashman’s mind back in the 1980s when he dreamed up a man-eating plant with an insatiable appetite.

Then a blinding light flashed before my eyes. Ashman had had a vision. A vision starring Paul Ryan set 26 years in the future. Ryan had also discovered an unusual plant, that he had named Ryn II (after Ann) which would only grow if fed tax cuts. Not any tax cut would do, only those which eliminated benefits to the hungry, the homeless, the dispossessed, the disabled, the sick, the very young or the very elderly would do. 

Ashman realized that a play with so many helpless victims would never make it past the first week, and tweaked the story. He substituted blood for tax cuts to avoid offending those who think there is a purpose for government and then had the plant eat people only one at a time.

 Turned out to be a formula for 26 years of success. 

— Emerson Lynn, jr.