Letters: KC readers discuss the news in print, Trump’s tax knowledge and Black history
A page-turner
A newspaper carrier delivers The Kansas City Star to my home most mornings. The newspaper is not always at the front door, but I can find it in the driveway or somewhere in the grass.
My newspaper carrier is thoughtful on snowy or icy mornings. He or she throws the newspaper at the garage door. I hear the “bang!” I lift the garage door and grab the newspaper.
On rainy days, I sometimes have to lay pages of the newspaper on kitchen chairs to dry before I can read the news.
Where do I go first? The Sports section. The Star has knowledgeable sports writers.
The New York Times crossword puzzle I can manage if it’s on a Monday. Next are the comics, which totally bewilder me. Whatever became of “Blondie”?
Reading the obituaries is like reading memoirs. I never realized how many famous people lived in my city.
The Opinion section, with the letters to the editor page, are the feel-good pages to get thoughts off my chest.
I need and read my daily hometown newspaper. It’s how my day begins.
- Betty Stinar Swisher, Kansas City
Knew it all?
An open letter to Donald Trump:
On May 13, 2016, you said: “I think nobody knows more about taxes than I do, maybe in the history of the world.” You’ve said repeatedly, “I understand the tax laws better than almost anyone.”
At your rally in Sarasota, Florida, on Saturday, you openly pondered about the taxation of fringe benefits because of the indictment of Allen Weisselberg. You stated: “You didn’t pay tax on the (company) car or a company apartment. You used an apartment because you need an apartment because you have to travel too far (from) where your house is. You didn’t pay tax. Or education for your grandchildren. I don’t even know. Do you have to? Does anybody know the answer to that stuff?”
To help you with this quandary, I cite the Internal Revenue Code. Section 61(a) defines gross income as income from whatever source derived, including (but not limited to) “compensation for services, including fees, commissions, fringe benefits, and similar items.”
Notice it says “fringe benefits” are “gross income.” I hope this helps expand your vast knowledge of income taxes.
- Jim Karlin, Overland Park
Look both ways
Is it just me, or does anyone else view the irony of two front-page stories’ headlines in the Sunday Star? On the left side of the page, we read, “Unemployment ravages Kansans in COVID aftermath.” Scan to the right side and we see, “Kansas and Missouri struggle to end worker shortages.”
I realize that a headline does not tell the entire story, but this has the potential of being a real head-scratcher for your readership.
- Merle A. Nunemaker, Lee’s Summit
Hidden history
Thank you for publishing the guest commentary from retired Army Col. Charles E. Heller, describing his epiphany at discovering how many Black Americans served in the Union Army during the Civil War. (July 4, 17A, “Black Americans’ legacy of military service is untold”)
Is there a local group willing and able to sponsor a presentation by Col. Heller on this history — certainly relevant and not well known to most Americans — that has been ignored and neglected for 150 years?
- Linda Neal, Kansas City
