Need an Uber or Lyft after a Chiefs game at Arrowhead? Good luck with that | Opinion
Uber painful
Who devised the plan for ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft after Chiefs games — and have they actually been there to experience it?
I am guessing not, because the situation is a complete mess, and we, as a community, are lucky nothing terrible has happened. It operates as a bottom-of-the-barrel taxi stand with zero regulation and safety.
First, you have to climb a hill (with no easy walkway or stairs) to reach the designated pickup location at the Missouri Welcome Center (along with a couple thousand of your friends). Then you stare at your phone waiting for a driver to get matched to you, but it won’t happen. That’s because the drivers have decided they will make way more money if they operate as unlicensed taxis and negotiate through their open car windows with no rules or safety protocols for themselves or their riders. So they pull up and ask where you are going, demanding outrageous fares. If you don’t take it, they move on to someone who will.
The police are there to regulate traffic but appear to have no interest in making sure the vehicles providing rides have safe, approved and vetted drivers.
We need to be better.
- T.J. Dierks, Overland Park
Unearned trust
After reading the Nov. 22 guest commentary, “We US citizens in Kansas City must call for a cease-fire now,” (11A) I am struck by two things: The first is the author’s apparent ignorance of history, and the second her childlike wonder that any cease-fire would stop Hamas’ constant barrage of missiles it launches at Israel.
I would surely welcome any move that would end the destruction and loss of life. History tells me, however, that while the Israelis would honor that agreement, terrorists would only use it to rearm and attack again.
I am truly worried about the human race when thugs and murderers call themselves “freedom fighters” and so many people are ready to believe them and support their barbaric behavior.
- Stephen Short, Kearney
Hamas realities
The media here and abroad show Palestinians and their supporters loudly condemning Israel’s actions, but I never seem to hear the word “Hamas.” In the Nov. 29 commentary “Why recognizing Palestine is the key to ending the war in Gaza” by Daoud Kuttab, (11A) the word “Hamas” appears only once — and there, sort of excusing Hamas’ use of violence and excusing the support of Hamas by some Palestinians, if you read the words closely.
I do not see supporters urging Palestinians to drive out Hamas. I seldom see a mention by any of them of Yasser Arafat. In 2000, he turned down a chance for a Palestinian state because it would have meant recognizing Israel (he preferred to be able to keep killing Jews).
I believe there should be a Palestinian state — the two-state solution— and that Israel should give back some of the occupied territory (probably a return to the Israeli borders of 1949). And Palestinians must recognize Israel. Compromise. Remember additionally that some Palestinians, along with the leaders of Iran and other Middle Eastern states, still want to obliterate Israel and the Jews.
- Henry F. Rompage, Lenexa
Back to basics
Cursive handwriting is being re-introduced into the schools. Good idea. (Nov. 26, 14A, “Cursive returns, by law, to many states’ schools”)
While they’re at it, I hope those designing curricula will also include such vitally important academic subjects as the War of 1812, least common denominators, sentence diagramming, the Teapot Dome Scandal, tin box water color paint sets, the French and Indian War and, in physical education, chin-up bars and climbing 30 feet up ropes and wood poles.
Required reading lists should include the lofty, timeless literary masterworks of James Fenimore Cooper, Louisa May Alcott and Charles Dickens.
- John R.W. Taylor, Kansas City
