Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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In response to the gathering for Lawrence, Douglas County leaders pledging to reach functional zero homelessness, restore schools, elder care, etc.:
I assume that was a grand performance they put together, but I fear the applause is premature. I say this because too many times I’ve heard speeches professing progress and promising goals only to watch them unfold at a snail’s pace, then several years into the future showing only a mere fraction of those promises and goals come to fruition. Yet in their egos, they will still believe they have accomplished great things, even if only a small margin of people slightly benefit from it.
I know this was imagined with good intentions, but the “proof is in the pudding” and only then when the City of Lawrence gets a taste of that reality will they then deserve the applause and standing ovations.
Time will tell, and I will be watching.
— Kathleen Christian, Lawrence
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More Community Voices:
Letter to the Times: City should create oversight committee to guide pool renovation project, rebuild trust
”Our petition’s 1,764 signatures, our supporters’ 75 letters, and our research into the extensive flaws in the (pool renovation) community engagement process all indicate that the previously proposed plan did not reflect public opinion,” Holly Krebs writes in this letter to the Times.
Shawn Alexander: Say his name – Fred Harvey Smith (Column)
”Racial violence has been omnipresent in American history, and in far too many of the incidents, the perpetrators of the crime are acquitted or not even brought up on charges. When I think of such cases I am often haunted by the heinous murder of Fred Harvey Smith here in the land of John Brown in May 1936,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.