Before she was Chiefs icon, Norma Hunt taught me lifelong lessons in Texas classroom | Opinion
Taught us well
In 1959, my family moved from Independence to Richardson, Texas. I enrolled in high school and in the spring took a class in Texas history.
That semester, we had a student teacher from North Texas State College (now the University of North Texas) who was an attractive young woman, and all the boys “fell in love” with her. She was an excellent teacher who obviously enjoyed the state’s past, and she relayed her interest to the class in an interesting and informative manner.
Being a newcomer, I realized I had a lot to learn, especially about the pronunciation of Texas place names such as Mexia and Bexar County. While the other students laughed at my mispronunciation of these names, the student teacher was understanding and helpful to a kid new to the state.
She was one of the many great teachers I had in public schools who influenced my decision to teach history. Her name was Miss Norma Knobel, and she would later marry Chief founder Lamar Hunt. (June 6, 1B, “Wife of longtime KC Chiefs owner dies at 85”)
- Mack McLendon, Lawrence
Price of golf
Like wildfires in Canada, greed in sports is out of control. Following in the footsteps of college athletics with conference realignment and NIL, professional golf just caved.
The PGA and its European counterpart did a 180 and struck a deal with the devil. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia — long known for its disregard for human rights and its involvement in 9/11, atrocities in Yemen and dismemberment of a Saudi journalist — is glossing over its brutality by heaping billions into sports sponsorship. (June 8, 2B, “McIlroy: Things must be ‘thrashed out’ after PGA-LIV merger”)
The PGA stunned the world and its own membership by agreeing to partner with the Saudi Public Investment Fund and its rogue LIV golf tour led by Greg Norman and Phil Mickelson, after steadfastly claiming the moral high ground along with Rory McIlroy, Collin Morikawa and other tour players.
How did the golf world react?
“I agree that this is good for the game of golf,” said Jack Nicklaus. “A big, beautiful and glamorous deal for the wonderful world of golf,” per our ex-sandbagger-in-chief Donald Trump. And, most eloquently, Bryson DeChambeau: ”Yeah, I mean, look, it’s unfortunate what has happened, and that’s something I cannot necessarily speak on because I’m a golfer.”
I guess I won’t be watching the Saudi-funded PGA on TV or stopping by PGA stores for tainted merchandise.
- Mark Hannifan, Prairie Village
Protect birds
Acciona Energy USA, the American subsidiary the Spanish company Acciona Energia, has leased several thousand acres (with a nondisclosure agreement) exactly on the south side of the Cheyenne Bottoms in central Kansas. It plans to build a huge, multi-square-mile solar panel farm project. Audubon of Kansas has sent a letter of protest. There is an online petition with more than 1,300 signatures.
I have spoken with multiple game wardens, managers and others with the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, which manages the Bottoms, who tell me they have been instructed to make no comment.
The Central Flyway bird corridor is critical. Migrating birds confuse solar panels with water and crash into them, frequently dying or sustaining injuries. The Nature Conservancy, Ducks Unlimited, Sierra Club and more are studying and, I hope, negotiating to move this project to another site. Acciona has readily admitted that it has never done a project that included wetlands, endangered species and migration.
Please urge every person and organization you can to help move this project away from the south edge of the Cheyenne Bottoms. It would kill whooping cranes and other migrating birds.
A dead whooping crane is a bad legacy for a decent governor. Encourage Laura Kelly to empower Wildlife and Parks to do its job and protect these birds. This is a terrible location for a huge solar panel array. The birds deserve better.
- Dan Witt, Hoisington, Kansas
Gun responsibility
My family and I have been responsible gun owners and hunters all our lives for generations, but I still resent the NRA (the National Rats Association to me) stand of always blindly asserting the right to own firearms without thought to potential gun owners’ mental stability.
Enough gun violence is enough, and reasonable checks should be required of purchasers. Too many gun owners are mentally unhinged.
- Bill McKenzie, Liberty
Who decides
During the 2021-22 school year, more than 1,600 books were banned from school libraries across the United States. (May 21, 22A, “Librarians face new penalty over banned books: prison”)
Texas and Florida lead the nation in banning of books, many covering topics such as race relations and LGBTQ issues.
These comparisons should not be made flippantly, but in May 1933, the Nazis began a massive book burning, purging ideas determined to be “un-German.” Within 10 years, the regime began incinerating people for the same.
Banning reading materials has been a signature move by authoritarian regimes throughout history.
Are we a nation founded on the freedom of faith, the freedom of speech and the freedom of ideas? Or are we to yield to a few but vocal and powerful individuals to determine for us what is American or “un-American”?
- James A. Waltz, Kansas City
