Great things at the Nelson this weekend

 

This weekend, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (sounds stuffy, doesn't it?) is having an open house to celebrate the reopening of their American Indian Gallery.

I tell you, the things they're doing over there are just terrific. As I've said before, we're very lucky to have the Nelson here in town.

They redid the American Gallery (sounds like a competition--the "American Gallery" vs. the "American Indian Gallery") and the improvements were clear, obvious and wonderful.

I really look forward to this new change, this weekend. They don't seem to miss a mark when they improve over there.

And soon, next Spring, they are to reopen the Egyptian Gallery. That should brighten a grey and brown Kansas City winter, just when we need it.

So, this weekend, make sure you make it by the Nelson for the American Indian galleries Community Celebration Weekend.

While you're at it, don't forget having lunch or dinner at the Rozzelle Court--yet another way to enjoy the day at this local treasure.

Again--you may thank me later.

Link to more on the Nelson and the American Indian Gallery here:
http://www.nelson-atkins.org/art/AmericanIndian.cfm

Welcome back SOTL!

I say it again: Welcome back to State of the Line blog.

Frankly and honestly, I never knew about them while there were here and they left back in February but I see they're back.

And they look good.

I've always wanted a good blog to follow about Kansas City--one written here and about Kansas City--and I've followed a good photography blog (Hyperblogal's) but Tony's KC blog was all I could find.

And while Tony does, admittedly, do a pretty good job of keeping some things up to date, both his hating on Kansas City and those insipid, repeatedly shown pics of half-clad women kept driving me away. I felt like I was trying to keep up on and with the city by reading a blog written by a 15-year-old. (Sorry, Tony. I gave you some credit--repeatedly--for what you do but geez, get over the degrading, sexist shots, will you? I've asked several times).

So, again, welcome back SOTL! Good on ya'. Brief, concise, intelligent writing with some pics and video. I already like what I see.

If you haven't been there, go now:

http://stateoftheline.wordpress.com/

You may thank me later.

Gun laws in the US?

I've written, time and again, about our looney gun culture and our obsession with them and the shootings we end up with.

For more information on the subject, and in a rare case of re-posting, I put up the following, from Bill Mann and The Huffington Post, today:

Fort Hood Reminds Us: Our Gun Laws Are a National Disgrace

Our current lack of health insurance for all is a national disgrace. But so are our handgun laws -- or lack of them.

You'd think you might have heard a bit more about our heedless national pistolero mentality in the wall-to-wall TV coverage of the tragic shootings at Fort Hood this week. But no such luck. How many times have we seen this movie before? It's only the locations that change.

There was only scant mention in all the coverage that suspected mass murderer Nidal Hasan had bought his lethal cop-killer handgun at "Guns Galore" in nearby Killeen, Texas. How charming.

Why is it that comic Stephen Colbert seems to be the only one on national TV who regularly reminds us about this country's twisted love of handguns? (Colbert keeps his piece, "Sweetness," under his anchor desk, occasionally taking it out to smooch its barrel).

Something I've written in my newspaper columns about for years bears repeating here:

Any country with as many mentally ill people as the U.S. that allows virtually unlimited access to handguns is on a suicide mission.

Gun sickness is our most pressing national illness.

I live within sight of the Canadian border, and Americans who visit Canada are often surprised at how serious Canadian customs officials regard guns -- specifically, bringing them into relatively handgun-free Canada. Where are these people's priorities, they seem to be saying?

(Note: Canadian customs can -- and does -- turn people back at the border who have a DUI conviction. Again, different national priorities).

Canadians recognize handguns as a direct threat to civilized society, unlike here, where the NRA and the gun-toters evidently believe we're living in Tombstone, Ariz., circa 1885.

How many more mass shootings and troubled-loner gun sprees (what the New York Post calls "Slayfests") can we afford before we finally get serious about gun control? How much longer will network TV news continue to soft-peddle and play down this most basic issue?

I don't really care that much about what drove Hasan to apparently murder all those soldiers, which has been the prime focus of nonstop cable news. The fact is, he did. What I DO care about is how easy it was for him to get the means -- a lethal gun -- to do it.

Not to belabor the Canadian issue -- we Americans are, after all, the noisy, gun-toting downstairs neighbors -- but re-entering the U.S. after living in Canada for several years (which we did) was a maddening experience.

We lived a major metropolitan area, Montreal, for seven years. And even in the more disadvantaged parts of that city, you feel safe. You never feel you might get shot, either by a handgun-toting robber or a troubled loner.

Coming back into the United States you lose that peace of mind. It's like a slap in the face.

Don't believe me? Ask anyone else who's lived in a developed country in which handguns are restricted and can't be bought as easily as cigarettes.

We have millions of sick Americans who need health insurance. But there are even more of us who live in danger of being shot by an easy-to-obtain weapon. It's way past time for the media to pay attention to THIS life and death issue.
____________________

Great writing, Mr. Mann. Thank you for the logic, information and unimpassioned input.

(Side note to "Top of the Chain": We don't agree on this issue. You know it. I know it. I appreciate your reasonably calm writing but let's not go on about this. Let's agree to disagree. Thank you for reading, absolutely. In the meantime, several more people were shot and killed this weekend in Kansas City alone, on top of the Fort Hood slaughter and the shooting in Orlando last week).

We need to get a handle on energy speculation

I know the White House is busy, what with wars in two countries and health care reform and all that, but they'd better also be working on putting back regulation of energy speculation and speculators, too. If they don't, any economic recovery could get squelched quickly and simply, by rising prices that benefit a small group of those speculators.

There is a report out now, showing that gas is rising in price, due to the weak dollar and Hurricane Ida, in the Gulf of Mexico. (Good news there, at least--Ida was downgraded).

As long as oil speculation is left unregulated, people and businesses are going to try to make money on the rise in price.

This is crazy. I've written about this before and it's important.

The world economy is in a very weak, bad state but oil prices have been running up lately, prompting this observation:

"'In the real world, there is very little evidence that the underlying market fundamentals, both in the overall economy and more particularly in the oil market, are improving fast enough to justify these price levels,' said analysts at KBC Market Services in Britain."

And yet the price goes up because, again, there are people wanting to bid it up, to make money and these markets have been unregulated since 2000.

People and companies might buy up oil, counting on an increase in price, only to later sell it back on the market at the higher price, just for the gain. In the meantime, the airlines and energy companies and, ultimately, you and I pay higher prices just for their greed.

It's no way to run an energy market.

It's bad for individuals, rich and poor, around the world, but it's even bad for businesses.

This needs to get fixed, one day soon. We need the energy markets overseen, as they used to be, and as soon as possible.

If we don't, our economies the world over could come crashing back down--or even just be held back in any recovery--just because a small group of people want to benefit.

Here's hoping.

Link to story: http://www.kansascity.com/382/story/1557497.html

Yet another shooting spree

Yesterday it's a shooting rampage in Texas.

Today it's a shooting rampage in Orlando, Florida.

Just breaking news:

"Reports are coming in that 8 people were shot in a downtown high-rise in Orlando, Florida. The local news reports: All eight victims are trauma patients, the Fire Department said."

"Officers were dispatched to the Gateway Center office building just before noon on Friday after reports of a shooting."


"MSNBC reports that there are at least two people dead and no suspect in custody. The shootings took place on multiple floors of the office building. AP reports that the building is on lock down and surrounded."

"Police have surrounded a Florida high-rise after gun shots were reportedly fired."


To repeat: the answer to too many guns, killings and murders is not more guns.


Link to original story:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/06/gateway-center-shooting-a_n_348566.html

Not doing the Muslim faith--or Muslims--any favor

So here we go again, it seems.

One more incident, to the Western eye, of a Muslim man "going postal" in the world--this time in Fort Hood, Texas.

Any and every time some terrorist straps explosives to their body and blows themself up, whether they take anyone with them or not, if they are also Muslim, the opinion in the West is that these are desperately ignorant people.

In this case, unfortunately, US Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan went on a shooting spree here in the States--at Fort Hood, Texas, just outside San Antonio.

The result?

At least 13 killed and 31 wounded.

And as usual, it makes no sense. It just ends up being another horrible, tragic event.

And the thing is, to the people of the United States and the West, this all too frequently looks like a pattern of a lack of education (read: ignorance), religious or otherwise zeal and virtually unthinkable violence, all rolled into one.

Leaders of the Muslim faith immediately came out to say that this is not the Muslim faith, fortunately--and of course--and that's good. But for too many people, they see these senseless, murderous acts repeated again and again and both don't like the results of them, naturally, and feel as though it's an ugly, ugly pattern that gets repeated far too frequently all around the world.

How do you deal with someone who thinks violence is an answer?

And the only answer, at that?

How do you deal with someone who has been taught by his elders (because most of them are men, in fact) that if they go on a successful suicide pact and kill "the enemy", they will go straight to "heaven"? Granted, that's not the case here regarding Major Hasan but that is the case for so many of the deaths in the Middle East.

How can we deal with a suicide mentality, locally, nationally and internationally?

In the case of this Major Hasan in Texas, it appears he was mentally unstable, as information comes out but it appears, given what information we have at this moment, that it also may have been borne out of religious fervor.

I hope that's not the case.

What's true is that religious leaders all around the world need to teach their followers in peace, acceptance and tolerance--not murder, death and suicide.


Link to story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_fort_hood_shooting_suspect

Yesterday's murder in South Kansas City

Yesterday, "at approximately 4pm, KCMO Police were called to 116 St and Holiday Dr in regard to the sound of gunshots. Upon arrival a shooting victim (b/m approx. 20yrs old) was located in the street with no signs of life. He was pronounced dead a short time later."

"Witnesses state the victim was walking with another male when two black males approached on foot and shot the victim. The suspects ran north on 116 street and are possibly in a house on Longview Rd. Detectives are interviewing several witnesses in an attempt to locate the suspects."


Okay, after that reporting, it's important to say that everyone in this area, in this neighborhood, that knows anything--anything--about this situation and/or the people involved with this should report whatever they know to authorities.

And as quickly as possible.

This would not be an issue but for the controversy of "snitching."

To be clear, there really should be no such thing as "snitching." We have to report crimes--and perpetrators of those crimes--to the police, people, that's all there is to it.

It's the "order" of "law and order."


Link:
http://blogs.kansascity.com/crime_scene/2009/11/1-man-shot-and-killed-in-south-kc.html

An exciting Kansas City development

 

I have to tell you, I've been so looking forward to this new Performing Arts Center here in town, I can barely wait until it opens.

When the new Bloch Gallery of Contemporary Art opened at the Nelson-Atkins Art Gallery, that was incredibly exciting itself. It's such a beautiful building, even if it is just at night. For everything from its position on the site to the same lighting at night, the views from within the gallery, the natural light inside the gallery and so much more, it's been a stunner since it opened.

Since that opening, I've looked forward to this additional addition to the Kansas City landscape. With the Moshe Safdie design--which is going to be brilliant both figuratively and literally--and what it will mean to Kansas City in terms of live art performances, it will be a huge, historic and important addition to the city and, really, the region.

We're a lucky, lucky people here in Kansas City.

(In spite of what Tony says on his blog).

(Just having fun, Tony).

I'd like to start thanking the Kauffman Foundation and all the people who have contributed to this facility we will have soon, now.

This is the year for being wrong, clearly

A few days ago, after President Obama went to Dover Air Force Base to pay his respects to 18 deceased American Soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan.

I wrote that he showed a great deal of dignity and, again, respect for the Soldiers and their families.

I also wrote that surely the Right wing, Fox "News" and Beck, Limbaugh, Hannity, etc., wouldn't dare speak out against this, that it would just be beyond the pale.

As it says above, this is my year for being wrong (you have no idea).

A quote, just now, from the Associated Press and Yahoo! News covering yesterday's Sunday morning news programs:

"Limbaugh belittled Obama's surprise, middle-of-the-night trip last week to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to observe the return of 18 flag-covered cases holding the remains of Americans killed in Afghanistan. 'It was a photo op' designed to 'create the impression that he has all of this great concern,' he contended."

It's been a banner year for me, I'll tell you.

Link to full story:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091102/ap_on_bi_ge/us_limbaugh_obama

Not a perfect world but a lot more things going right of late

Yesterday the President signed the new "Hate Crimes" law into effect.

With him at the signing were the parents of murdered Matthew Shepard and the sister of lynched African-American James Byrd, Jr.

We've waited, as a country, for this law for so long and finally it's here.

Then, this morning, we find that that same President went, in the middle of the night last night, to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, to pay respect to 18 American soldiers who lost their lives in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars.

I know I covered this earlier today in another entry but adding the signing of this new law, on top of last evening's somber showing emphasizes still more what a big change and improvement this administration is over the previous one.

And it's far more that just trashing W yet again.

It's celebrating a much better trajectory and path, nationally, internally and internationally.

This just can't be emphasized enough, for me.

Some significant, good things are happening for the country and since they've come back-to-back, so to speak, it's worth just taking a moment to celebrate a couple of significant events.

Next thing you know, we'll be ending the Afghanistan War.

Links:
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/29/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5452143.shtml

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/10/president-obama-pays-respect-to-fallen-troops-at-dover-air-force-base.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_James_Byrd,_Jr.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Shepard

http://www.trib.com/news/state-and-regional/article_59e387b4-c40a-11de-a91f-001cc4c03286.html