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Seaboard Foods' Rod Brenneman complained that the ethanol industry is strangling pork producers ("Ethanol mandate hurts livestock producers," July 6 Opinion). These are strange words from the executive of a company whose first quarter earnings were up 42 percent from the same quarter last year.

Brenneman is a leader in the Food Before Fuel coalition. The coalition is managed by Glover Park Group, the same East Coast public relations firm that is handling the Grocery Manufacturers Association's now infamous ethanol misinformation campaign. The goal of these two groups is simple: Get rid of ethanol so food companies can once again have access to cheap corn. Unfortunately for Seaboard and the other big food manufacturers, it isn't that simple.

Seaboard has been a good friend to corn growers over the years, especially when corn was priced below our cost of production. Writing his commentary from his corporate office in metropolitan Kansas City, Brenneman feigned concern for the small family pork producer.

Our office is located in rural Garnett. All four of our employees come from family farms -- both livestock and grain. We know that small livestock producers are struggling with higher corn prices, because those producers are our friends and neighbors, association members, and two of our four employees.

Several factors have contributed to higher corn prices. One factor is certainly ethanol, and we will gladly take some credit for that one.

There was a practice in medieval England of ringing the church bell one time for each year of the life of a person who had just died. Commenting on this practice, John Donne said, "No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.... Therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The bell tolled recently for two young women who were murdered in our city. There has been a healthy response to these acts of violence on the part of local clergy and in a challenging editorial cartoon in the July 6 Eagle by Richard Crowson questioning just what we value in our city.

I was a part of a groundswell of passion in Topeka 14 years ago that led to the formation of Safe Streets in Topeka (www.safestreets.org). My efforts in Wichita have met with interest on the part of law enforcement. But government officials have said point-blank, "It's a fine idea, but we have no money for such things."

Indeed. We have the wherewithal to build a downtown arena but not to fund crime prevention (the point of Crowson's cartoon, I believe). Where is the discussion of violence in our cities on the national scene, state scene and local scene? It seems all Wichitans are interested in is electing people who will cut taxes.

Imagine this scenario: Elected officials decide to get serious about preventing crime. Our mayor uses his office and influence to bring together a coalition to form an organization called SOAR. Building on Wichita's aeronautical heritage and identity, leaders from industry and the military advocate for HOPE scholarships so that every young person in our city will have funding for college or trade school. The funds for these scholarships come from gambling revenues, a city sales tax for HOPE scholarships, and private sources. Youths receive a one-year scholarship for each year of participation in SOAR, which includes a promise to stay drug- and alcohol-free, participate in a youth service organization (congregation youth groups, Boys & Girls Clubs, scouting, etc.) and perform public service.

The elected leader of Iraq, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is demanding a timetable for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from his country.

In the holy city of Najaf, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the religious leader of Iraq's Shiite majority, signaled to his followers last week that it was time to negotiate an end to the "illegal" U.S. occupation.

"We will not accept any memorandum of understanding that doesn't have specific dates to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq," Iraqi national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie said after meeting with Sistani.

Such statements ought to be embraced as good news. They suggest an Iraqi government increasingly confident in its authority and ability, ready to stand up so we Americans can stand down. They represent a flashing neon sign, written in English, reading "This way to the exit."

But the Bush administration refuses to read the lighting on the wall. It doesn't want to leave Iraq. Not now, not tomorrow, and not ever.

"Kansas Democrats have never been screaming liberals. All our Democrat leaders have been moderates. We don't know what a liberal is in Kansas."

-- Former Republican Gov. Mike Hayden, now a member of Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' Cabinet, in a Salon profile of Sebelius

"She knew how to get re-elected. I didn't."

-- Sebelius' father, former Ohio Gov. John Gilligan, also in Salon

"I just don't associate voting with 102 degrees."

As President Bush and the Group of Eight leaders again shun their responsibilities in Darfur, there is a serious argument to be made that genocide is overrated as an international concern. The G-8 leaders implicitly accept that argument, which goes like this:

Genocide is regrettable, but don't lose perspective. It is simply one of many tragedies in the world today -- and a fairly modest one in terms of lives lost.

All the genocides of the past 100 years have cost only 10 million to 12 million lives. In contrast, every year we lose almost 10 million children under the age of 5 from diseases and malnutrition attributable to poverty. Make that the priority, not Darfur.

Civil conflict in Congo has claimed more than 5.4 million lives over the past decade, according to careful mortality surveys by the International Rescue Committee. That's at least 10 times the toll in Darfur, but because Congo doesn't count as genocide -- just as murderous chaos -- no one has paid much attention to it.

The world has been trying to pressure Sudan to stop slaughtering Darfuris for nearly five years, yet the situation in some ways is worse than ever. In contrast, we know how to combat malaria, child mortality and maternal mortality. The same resources would save far more lives if they were used for vaccinations and bed nets.