Letters to the editor for April 26, 2022

Everyone knows that books are good for our brains, stimulate our imaginations, and take us to amazing places. Book lovers are in for a real treat this weekend when the annual Friends of the Library Book sale takes place.

Thousands of books in all different genres will be available to choose from. For the first time, the sale will take place at the Wefald Pavilion at City Park. On Friday evening, April 29, from 5:30 to 7:30, doors will open up for Manhattan Library Association members, then for the general public on Saturday, April 30 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and Sunday, May 1, from 1 to 3:30 p.m.

Not an MLA member? Not a problem! There is still time to join for the low price of $10 for an individual membership.

Are you a procrastinator? You can even purchase memberships right at the door on Friday evening.

If you can’t make it Friday evening, never fear, there are great books left on Saturday, and special deals on Sunday. The best part (besides the rock-bottom prices) is that all proceeds to go support programs, special events, and summer reading prizes at the library. Join me, and head on over to the MLA Book Sale and pick up a couple books, or a couple dozen books. See you there!

Keri Mills

3221 Cloud Circle

Shea’s column brought awareness

to corruption

Thank you for including Bill Shea’s Saturday column, “Tales of financial corruption plague America.”

I thought it was timely, well-written and very true.

I believe that when Trump was elected president in 2020, very few people in our country could have guessed the amount of corruption in both our federal government and many other related agencies.

Trump started exposing some of this corruption and experienced tremendous retaliation from the Democratic party for his efforts.

I could not believe that in 2020, the American people could be uninformed enough to elect an obviously mentally impaired man who was possibly compromised by foreign powers because of illegal business dealings made by his son using the Biden name. When this happened, I began to seriously fear for the future of our country.

As I’ve said for years, awareness is the precursor of change.

I have tried to help people become more aware through doing a lot of research, writing hundreds of letters to editors of newspapers, politicians, educators, ministers, etc. I have often thought that my efforts have been futile as I have gotten very little response and have seen little change.

I have never quit, however, as I have found that sometimes seeds are planted in the minds of people by individual efforts that may not show results for a long period of time.

I believe I feel positive change begin.

I intend to continue to try to share what I see as reality with as many people as I possibly can and respect your efforts to do the same.

Don McCullough

1604 Denholm

Response to tree

column: Kansas

actually has fewer trees now

Hello, I have some concerns regarding Gregg Eyestone’s column “Trees for Kansas,” published April 23. While I agree we need more trees, I disagree to an extent with these statements “There are many reasons to have trees. Kansas once was mostly barren of trees. ... Since there were few trees here to begin with, trees have been introduced to see how they will grow.”

This is not exactly true. Kansas was 8-10% forested prior to the arrival of European settlers, so we actually have less trees nowadays across the entire state! We have over 50 native species of trees, and 138 species of woody plants (bushes and trees).

I would suggest anyone interested in this topic to pick up “Trees, Shrubs, and Woody Vines in Kansas” by Michael John Haddock and Craig C. Freeman.

There are many native trees that grow well here, I think people should prioritize planting them. Native Oaks are probably the best family of trees to plant. They are strong, long lived, good for wildlife and they support a larger number of insects than almost any others.

The decline of insects is hurting bird populations across the world. They also provide food and habitat for mammals such as deer and squirrels.

Of course, oaks are not the only thing you should plant, but they should be one of the first trees people consider. This website also contains great lists of native plants, just be sure to filter it to “Kansas Native.”

Bre Marihugh

2615 Blueline Circle