To the editor:

Rep. Tracey Mann had a virtual town hall where you could submit typed questions or comments, and their staff would pick them to answer. There was a brief speech and a few calls from western Kansas residents, but no callers were selected from our area. Mann said he was appalled that Dems didn’t clap for the boy with cancer at Trump’s speech to Congress. He knows full well they were in shock because Trump canceled all benefits and programs for childhood cancer research. It had nothing to do with the boy, but Mann wanted to fan the flames. In response to a question, he said he was working on banning all federal dollars for Planned Parenthood abortions. I typed the Hyde Amendment, what it was and how long it’s been the law of the land. Hint: decades. Next, he commented on the large number of trans athletes in college sports. I typed in comments that I had watched the hearing on this issue on C-SPAN. The fact is there are over 500,000 NCAA athletes; fewer than 10 are transgender. Then they banned me from typing any kind of question or response. It seems to me our representatives should be communicating the truth, not spreading lies so their base gets all fired up and mad at their fellow Kansans who do not believe those lies, have a brain and use it to find out the facts. Our elected officials must stop lying to keep their jobs and start doing their jobs.

Kelly Horton,

Lawrence