It’s easy to sympathize with grieving families who erect makeshift roadside memorials — often small crosses and flowers –to lost loved ones killed in traffic accidents and other tragedies. But in practice, such memorials raise thorny public policy questions — how long should such displays be allowed to exist? Permanently? Does allowing them on public property open the door to other kinds of displays? Are they a distraction to drivers?
City and state officials have tended to look the other way on these questions, but some commonsense rules need to be put in place. Temporary displays aren’t so much the problem; the conflict arises when permanent, private displays are erected on public land such as highway medians and roadsides.
In Cheyenne Bottoms wildlife refuge, one family has erected on state property a private memorial including solar lights, a power outlet and a footbridge.
Where to draw the line? As some states have done, a good compromise might be to issue permits allowing short-term displays, with the understanding that permanent memorials belong in private cemeteries.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
It’s a shocking reminder that abuse is something that happens here in Wichita, in ordinary neighborhoods, sometimes just down the street: State social workers — responding to a tip — last week visited a south Wichita home and found two children in the basement, emaciated and starving. The two girls, 6 and 7 years old, said they ate when their father came home from business trips. "They looked like concentration-camp survivors," said Wichita police Lt. E.J. Bastian.
Police have removed the girls, and the stepmother has been arrested on suspicion of child abuse and endangerment and aggravated battery.
It was a tip that helped social workers and police uncover this horror. Wichitans should keep their eyes and ears open for signs of abuse, whether of children or adults, and report it promptly.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Hays, who increasingly looks prescient for his refusal to vote for the Medicare prescription drug bill, noted this month in Clay Center that congressional politics has stalled the discussion about how to fix the drug program, which has been a nightmare for some pharmacists and citizens. Moran predicted Congress eventually would do “some tweaking” to the program. “We have to get through November before anyone is willing to admit there is a problem,” Moran told the Clay Center Dispatch. Funny how that works.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Wichitans have a chance to hear candidates for the Sedgwick County Commission address recycling and solid-waste issues at a public forum from 7 to 8:30 p.m. today at East Heights United Methodist Church, 4407 E. Douglas.
This is a good opportunity for the public to let candidates know they want changes in the county’s expensive and inefficient trash and recycling system.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
The recent U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding challenges to lethal injection executions is being watched closely in Missouri, where the state has been unable to find a single taker among the state’s almost 300 anesthesiologists willing to administer the deadly dose of chemicals.
It’s not encouraging that the surgeon who has administered the procedure for a decade admitted to a federal judge reviewing the state’s death penalty system that there was no protocol for the procedure and that he often “improvised” the dosage.
This reinforces the ethical dangers of getting doctors involved as executioners.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
