<strong><span class="subhead">KC&#8217;s first lady should act like one</span></strong></p><p>Thank you for Stacy Downs&#8217; fascinating profile of Gloria Squitiro, Kansas City&#8217;s first lady (7/1, A-1, &#8220;Defenders see sass; detractors say crass). I&#8217;m now convinced that she has a talent for friendships and is a compassionate person. Having known the mayor when he was the auditor, I can see how her warm and friendly personality helps counterbalance his gruff mannerisms.</p><p>Gloria doesn&#8217;t understand &#8220;what the big deal is&#8221; regarding her controversial role in the mayor&#8217;s office. She says, &#8220;Before, City Hall projected wealthy elite. I don&#8217;t pretend. I don&#8217;t like phoniness.&#8221;</p><p>Well, Gloria, here&#8217;s the big deal. The office of mayor in a major U.S. city demands a certain level of propriety. People who are privileged to occupy high offices must preserve an atmosphere of mutual respect for their staff and citizenry. It&#8217;s not phoniness &#8212; it&#8217;s appropriateness. Visitors to the White House wouldn&#8217;t expect to encounter a profane first lady. Similarly, the mayor&#8217;s spouse also assumes a responsibility to respect the high office his or her partner has achieved.</p><p>Please, save the sassiness for your friends on the front porch.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Carol Rothwell</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Lee&#8217;s Summit</em></p> Gloria Squitiro is Kansas City&#8217;s female Tony Soprano.</p><p>If <em>The Star </em>would stop giving her so much attention, she might stop acting like an attention-starved kid. Teachers recognize the syndrome.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Margaret Murphy</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Kansas City</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Look beyond the sound bites</span></strong></p><p>I recently watched an MSNBC report with the headline: &#8220;McCain heckled at conference of Latino elected, appointed leaders.&#8221; CNN also reported that the hecklers were &#8220;credentialed&#8221; and implied they were not extremists but represented the Latino group.</p><p>However on C-SPAN, I watched the actual event and was surprised to discover that the audience jeered the war protestors and applauded after they were removed. In addition, John McCain&#8217;s remarks were greeted numerous times with applause. He received a standing ovation at the end of his speech and after the following question-and-answer session. These facts were amazingly lacking in the reports cited above.</p><p>This is not a partisan issue. I could cite several more examples of biased reporting on the other side, but the lesson I learned is simple: If you want to <em>really</em> know what happened, watch the actual event itself.</p><p>Please take the time to be a truly informed voter and don&#8217;t settle for the biased, self-serving snippets that some in the mainstream media pass along as fact.</p><p><p align="right"><strong>Steven Go</strong></p> <p align="right"><em>Overland Park</em></p> <strong><span class="subhead">Too much info on our TVs</span></strong></p><p>It seems as if we just cannot obtain information fast enough these days.</p><p>On cable news programs we have banners of information at the top and bottom of the screen. If that isn&#8217;t enough, the station&#8217;s ID fills either the right or left bottom corner of the screen, some protruding high into the picture. Strange how these disappear during commercials.</p><p>Thank goodness for large-screen TVs. If you are lucky, you can sometimes see a pair of eyes peering underneath the top banner.</p><p>Sports programs are the same, maybe worse: too many breakaways showing the announcers making idle chatter in their booth while the action continues on the field.</p><p>Finally, one of our old reliable channels for children&#8217;s programming has added its own reality programs that no small child should view. Conformity, I suppose.</p><p>Let&#8217;s see, where did I put that old radio?