Letters to The Lawrence Times are welcome and encouraged.
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.

LETTERS TO THE TIMES

Letter to the Times: Lawrence’s policies should support business growth
“By supporting the expansion of existing businesses and by attracting new employers, we can create jobs, increase our tax base and ultimately ease the pressure on residential property taxpayers,” Gary Rexroad writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Planning Commission should deny 3rd and Michigan upzoning request
“Please encourage the development interests — public and private — to engage the neighborhood so that the results reflect sensible density that adds value for all concerned,” Phil and Peggi Englehart write in this open letter to the Planning Commission.

Letter to the Times: Occupancy limits are unfair to nontraditional families
“Why should the rest of us have to live with increased housing costs because adults who chose not only to live in a college town, but next to the campus itself, don’t want an increase of students living in the neighborhood?” Chris Flowers writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: A message from the Haskell Faculty Senate
”To our incredible students, we say be strong and together we will get through this. We must. … To the public, rest assured we will communicate soon ways you may enact your support,” the Haskell Faculty Senate writes in this letter.

Letter to the Times: Haskell has been unfairly maligned
”Let us not in 2025 allow Haskell to be lost — to our Lawrence community, as well as to young Native students across the country who count on an educational experience unattainable to them anywhere else in the world,” Carole Tomlinson writes in this letter.

Letter to the Times: Haskell firings are unacceptable
”This irresponsible action has devastating effects on those fired and on all university staff and students. … Haskell Indian Nations University is an integral part of our community and an important higher education resource,” Pat Willer and Pat Kehde write in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Bravo to Lawrence High for ‘Hadestown’
”I’ll admit I was skeptical of such a complex and dynamic show in the hands of a high school. My doubts turned to goosebumps, and I caught my theater-going partner wiping away tears,” Marc Havener writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Financial handcuffs of housing costs
”A sort of financial handcuff gets placed on the low-income, the disabled, the retired, on Social Security,” Brian King writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Inhumane minimum wage
”We need our city commission to pass a $15 minimum wage for all of Lawrence,” Steve Jacob writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Mixed messages about the jail
”To some of us who have been in this battle for nearly 10 years, (the sheriff comes across as) trying to protect the jail from overcrowding rather than protecting people from being incarcerated there capriciously and needlessly,” Ralph Planthold writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: To those disillusioned and troubled by the church
”If you are deeply troubled by the increased prominence of Christian Nationalism in American culture, by the degradation of our civic discourse, and by the neverending vitriol of the ‘culture wars,’ I want to encourage you: you are not alone,” Deacon Godsey writes in this letter to the Times.

Letter to the Times: Bail fund overregulation would keep ‘justice’ system in hands of the elite
”The idea that community bail funds should be regulated with insurance requirements is an absurd overregulation of what amounts to voluntary mutual aid within a community,” Douglas County Community Bail Fund directors write in this letter to the Times.
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