LETTERS: Don't print stories about inaccessible places
To the Editor:
The article, "Monument Memorializes Marker" in the March 16 issue of the Peabody Gazette-Bulletin is very good but my question is: Why print this article when it is not accessible to the public?
I would like to see this monument. My wife, Judi, was born and raised in Florence and was shown this monument by her father when she was a child. She has mentioned several times over the years that she would like to show it to me but we have lived out of Kansas for the past 39 years of our married life. About two years ago we had the time to go visit various places we have wanted to see and we attempted to see this monument and were disappointed when we could not get to it. We even momentarily entertained the idea of trespassing but decided that, considering what type of person would stop people from seeing this, we would surely be prosecuted if we were seen trespassing.
I also am a native Kansan, born and raised in Sedgwick. Something Judi and I have trouble understanding over the past few years is why the average person in Kansas is so unfriendly to strangers. Whenever we cross the border from Missouri into Kansas (and also from Missouri into Illinois to visit one of our sons) we just expect to be met with unfriendliness in places of business and by individuals on the street. Vice versa, when we cross back over either border on our way home to Norwood, Mo., we know we will be met with friendliness and smiles pretty much everywhere.
I realize this is a rather long letter but I guess my point is: Why entice people from other areas with good descriptions of things worth seeing but are not accessible to them? It would be best not to print them at all.
Gary and Judi Rowland
Norwood, Mo
