<strong><span class="subhead">KC schools need decisive leader</span></strong></p><p>Citizens, community groups and the federal court have played a dominant role in shaping today&#8217;s Kansas City School District. Barbara Shelly&#8217;s column (6/20, Opinion, &#8220;KC School District requires heroic efforts&#8221;) suggesting that community involvement is the district&#8217;s best hope for reforming the district is the same old failed policy of the past.</p><p>When Jack Welch took over General Electric, it was a successful corporation. He began to fire employees to prepare GE for what would become known as &#8220;downsizing,&#8221; thereby positioning GE for the future market. In doing so he earned the name &#8220;Neutron Jack&#8221; for the bomb that kills people but leaves buildings intact.</p><p>To save the children from the community that has all but abandoned them, the children need swift and decisive authority to prepare them for the future. The district&#8217;s history teaches us that such leadership is not to be found in the community.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Michael Lee Kobe</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Kansas City, Kan.</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Unions ensure good quality</span></strong></p><p>Allen DeCamp (6/29, Letters) writes that &#8220;People buy for the best value and the best price.&#8221; Good opinion, but he&#8217;s misinformed.</p><p>People want value and price. &#8220;Save that money&#8221; is their mind-set. But when I buy union-made and American-made, it&#8217;s for exactly that reason.</p><p>My Ford pickup is running strong after 140,000 miles. I&#8217;ve known people who are spending four figures to repair inferior transportation. When I sent a letter to my congressman about Chinese-made products that had to be modified by me before I could even use them, I titled the essay, &#8220;Made in China, fixed in America!&#8221;</p><p>Anyone still buying Chinese after the toy scare?</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Michael Knight</strong></p> <p align="right"><em> Fairway</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Obama is no mystery</span></strong></p><p>Jerry Overstreet&#8217;s letter (6/26) questioning Barack Obama&#8217;s qualifications asks, &#8220;But who is he?&#8221;</p><p>Anyone who thinks that Sen. Obama achieved his status solely on the basis of his keynote speech at the Democratic Convention four years ago has been in hibernation.</p><p>That incredible speech was simply the spark that grew this great new wave of optimism. Obama was admitted to a prestigious private high school on a scholarship. He paid for his Ivy League education with student loans. Why does Obama get presented as some great mystery?</p><p>Why does Overstreet ask if Obama has ever had a &#8220;real job?&#8221; Obama was employed as a community organizer in Chicago, a private practice attorney and by the University of Chicago teaching constitutional law.</p><p>Overstreet&#8217;s implication that Obama does not want people to realize some shadowy past is ludicrous. On the contrary, he&#8217;s put it all out there for us to see. Just because he&#8217;s different doesn&#8217;t make him bad.</p><p>George Bush looks and sounds like John Q. Public, and look where that landed us.</p><p>There is a wealth of biographical information about both presidential candidates out there. Google, my man! Ignorance is not bliss. It&#8217;s dangerous.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Nancy Long</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Harrisonville</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Obama&#8217;s new flag pin</span></strong></p><p>I note with interest an &#8220;Obama for president&#8221; ad on television. In this ad Obama promoted his Midwest roots and his Midwest values. He even sports an American flag pin on his lapel.</p><p>Is this the same Obama who made fun of folks who wear flag pins, claiming that their patriotism needed this outside symbol while real patriots didn&#8217;t need to wear these pins?</p><p>We must be the Bible-reading hayseeds he made fun of in San Francisco.