All students and staff in our public schools deserve to be treated with respect and dignity. There should be no room for ignorance or discrimination based on sexual orientation in our educational system. I hope that the Pitch's article, along with the work of concerned citizens in our region, will help make the schools safe for everybody.
Mike Silverman
Lawrence
The gay community is in a civil rights battle parallel to the Civil Rights Movements of our African-American sisters and brothers. Rights are rights for humankind and should not be based on skin color, gender, or sexual preference.
So thank you again for helping to enlighten everyone.
Shelly Stone
Edgerton, Kansas
The skyways (walkway connections between downtown buildings) encourage walking, especially to escape the city's brutal winters.
In Kansas City, everything is built to accommodate the motor vehicle. Conserving energy doesn't even occur to our city planners. I don't expect this letter to make much of an impact. I live north of the river, where sidewalks are as scarce as hen's teeth. And bicycle riding is done only if one has a death wish.
Michael Cindrich
Gladstone
I was losing sleep over this and shared my concern with some sympathetic family and friends. After several telephone calls and an Internet search for information, I felt compelled to attempt to rescue the puppy myself and developed a plan to cut it off from the pack. My trusty fiancé agreed to help on an early Saturday morning. Dressed for combat, we entered the dog pack territory loaded down with a fishnet, a blanket, rope, 5-pound bag of dog food, and two packages of hot dogs.
Alas, our efforts were thwarted when the pack ran across Linwood. Weighted down with so much gear, we were unable to engage in a foot chase. We got everything loaded back in the truck and circled around the block just in time to see them headed toward home. After the pack crossed the street, the yellow male also crossed safely, taking up the rear.
I went home feeling I had given it my best shot and never went back there again. Thanks again for Patrick Dobson's article about homeless domestic animals.
Dee Ann McCreary
Kansas City, Missouri
I would ask you to keep up the pressure on Animal Control to get the dogs off the streets before winter comes. And I would ask that your readers who work in the midtown area call Animal Control every time they see the dog pack. Maybe together we can rescue them.
Ellen Eisen
Kansas City, Missouri
A responsible organization would analyze this and make changes accordingly. This just shows that while mental-health treatment can be misused, it can also be very beneficial if the therapist is professional and current on his or her understanding of modern research and treatment methods. This article also continues to show how old names in psychotherapy continue to dominate the field while not changing to meet current knowledge and changes in the field. Two Rivers should be ashamed of itself!
Nick Crossley, MSW
Kansas City, Missouri
I was a graduate student at KU and living in Lawrence. I began to retreat emotionally my second semester and I needed someone to identify what was happening to me. One of the college psychiatrists that I was referred to convinced me I needed to go to Research Hospital and commit myself. Of course she made sure I had insurance. At Research I was recruited to Two Rivers by a phone call in the waiting room.
Once Two Rivers got all its paperwork and a $2,000 deposit, I was taken down to the chronic and drug-dependency ward. I sat there waiting to be processed, and after an hour I decided this was not the place for me and I requested to leave. They told me I couldn't until I saw a doctor, and one wouldn't be in until morning. I realized then I had no rights and that I had voluntarily signed myself in, and now I couldn't get out. I was immediately offered a Valium after my outburst.
During my month and a half there, I was on four different drugs, encouraged to stop talking to my parents, and allowed to delude myself with their psychobabble. After my friends pointed out the effects of those drugs on my being, I quit taking them. Of course, the hospital said my system would go into shock. Thank God for those friends who said, "Something is not right." I began to get much better after I quit their legal-drug taking.
I am doing very well today and as well-adjusted as an artist can be, despite Two Rivers. They almost got me, and I'm more educated than most, so what about those who aren't?
Name Withheld Upon Request
Kansas City, Missouri
Since KCPL has been so overwhelmed with discrimination lawsuits from the black employees, it is now afraid of them, and the white employees are now victims of reverse discrimination, which runs rampant throughout KCPL.
I believe that everyone should be treated equally according to his own individual work performance. However, in the call center for KCPL, white employees are now the minority. Anything that happens is now a black and white issue, when in reality, KCPL management treats everyone like shit!
The call center is a union workshop where management twists the reading of the contract to take advantage of employees any way they can. The business manager for our local is in bed with the company so deep that we have basically no union representation. The company robs its employees by overcharging them for benefits. They also pass over excellent, well-qualified candidates for promotions and promote underqualified employees to meet their minority quota. In the call center over the past two years, there have been 25 new employees hired. Of those 25, only eight were white or "nonminority." (Who determines what a minority is?)
When things happen within the company that negatively affect the employees or the working environment, everyone complains, but no one stands up for fear of retaliation. If you are one of the few who do stand up to them, you will be harassed and retaliated against!
We have been told by our union president and by KCPL management that as long as only one or two of us are willing to stand up to them, nothing will change. Until everyone overcomes the fear of retaliation and stands up, things will remain the same. It is now a very hostile workplace, where once-strong friendships between black and white coworkers are now challenged.
Name Withheld Upon Request
North Kansas City
