To the editor:

Maybe there is an Oz in Kansas. Here are some comments made recently in Topeka by a lobbyist for the state chamber of commerce, Jeff Glendening, who said minimum wage should not be determined by the “socialist teachings of Karl Marx” (Journal-World, Feb. 13 ). Just a few days later, speaking about the same bill, Rep. Benjamin Hodge, R-Overland Park, stated we should avoid passing “European style socialist bills” (J-W, Feb. 22).

Let’s be honest. No one reads Marx today. The only Marx you, me, Glendening or Hodge read is the name Groucho Marx on our TV screen at the beginning of a late-night movie. Period. What is truly bizarre is the connection between a minimum wage bill in Kansas and Karl Marx or Europe. Is someone getting ideas put in their heads by out-of-state far-right-wing bloggers on the East Coast? Well, maybe, just Google “Karl Marx and minimum wage” and see what the Heritage Foundation has to say.

The really sad part of all this is that our state Legislature is wasting the taxpayers’ time and money with such outlandish debates and having to listen to the insane statements made in public by people who must think that the population of Kansas has brains made of straw.

Jim McCrary,

Lawrence