To the editor:

Last week, the Kansas Legislature sent two bills to the governor for signature. One would allow us to carry concealed weapons, and the other further restricts the possibility of payments through worker’s compensation. These bills very well reflect two attitudes that have been promoted in our country in the past few years: fear and greed.

The presumed need to carry a concealed weapon is based on the fear that threat is all around us. Recently here in Lawrence a man apparently feared, incorrectly, that he was about to be attacked and chose to shoot first – with fatal results. President Bush has promoted fear for years as a means to excuse actions that are not in keeping with American legal and moral tradition – pre-emptive war, ignoring basic human rights, invasion of privacy in unprecedented fashion. Our fear (and complacency) allowed the unnecessary and disastrous invasion of Iraq three years ago.

The worker’s compensation bill would make it even more difficult for an injured worker to receive any payments. This would save money for insurers and employers at the expense of injured employees. As a nation we have allowed massive reductions in health and other services for the poor and disabled while the wealthy receive tax cuts, war contracts, etc.

Greed is alive and well in the private sector with repeated instances of fraud, deception and influence purchasing as well as legal but morally indefensible profit taking by executives as workers suffer.

Demand that our elected representatives hold values that can make America a shining example of freedom, fairness and compassion.

Joe Douglas,

Lawrence