No More Racist City in the US Than Kansas City, Missouri

Lonnie McFadden asks an excellent very legitimate question on the PBS program, "Bird: Not Out of Nowhere."

Who had more to do with Kansas City-- Bird, Charlie Parker or Winston Churchill? But who has a statue on the Plaza? A city divided. Literally divided. Badly, badly divided. We need to fix that.

Good, Fun, Big Local Entertainment News Today From The Pitch

How cool is this? The Pitch KC has a great article out now that none other than Melissa Etheridge is actually going to play the Leavenworth Festival.

Fantastic news.More here: Go, check out the full article at The Pitch: https://www.thepitchkc.com/melissa-etheridge-to-headline-camp-leavenworth-2021/

KCPT Week in Review--- 3 White People and a Token Black

Once more, one more time this week, KCPT, "Kansas City Public Television" and their "Week in Review" program has 3 white people and Eric Wesson, a token Black man, on their program. That's it. Three white people and a Black man.

Thank goodness, again, Eric Wesson shows up. Thank you, sir, for being there, time and again. To KCPT, "Kansas City Public Television", there are no Hispanic people in the community. Thank goodness they got 2 white women to appear on the program so they have at least SOME more minorities on the show. So hoping one day they fix this. Hey, we can hope.

KCPT's "Week In Review", Keeping it White, Keeping it Male

Unbelievable. It's supposed to be "Kansas City Public Talevision" but their one weekly local news program is once again, mostly just white. And what isn't just white is very mostly just male.

Once again, tonight, our local PBS station, the one asking us to send them our money and who says they represent us all, had--count them--three white people and one token Black person, a Black man, Eric Wesson, God bless him, on their weekly news program. Two white men a white woman and Eric Wesson. That was it. No Hispanic. No two women. Nothing. That was it.Thank goodness Eric Wesson can and will show up every week. When the program was over, Kliff Kuehl, who runs KCPT, thanked us for sending in money and swore it's about representing us all. Hey, send in your money, folks. We represent you. Right.Our local paper, the Kansas City Star, apologizes for not representing all of us over the years. Then KCPT gives us this. Wow.

The Kansas Legislature is Broken

What you don't and won't hear from more mainstream media in the area like the Kansas City Star, KCUR, KCPT or certainly not from the local TV news stations. This is from Davis Hammet @Davis_Hammet of the organization Loud Light today including the headline above:

--Legislators are hiding who actually wrote bills. --Public hearings are being scheduled with less than 24 hrs notice or entirely skipped. --The day waiting period between debate and the final vote is constantly being suspended. #ksleg

When Will KCPT Stop Blackmailing Us?

Every Spring and Fall, for one week, our local KCPT, Kansas City Public Television, PBS , turns insipid. It's all for fundraising. Like now, this week.

The other 50 weeks it's intelligent and/or entertaining and usually informative. For these 2 weeks, it turns into a blackmailing jukebox. It goes from intelligent to insipid and isnulting. It makes no sense. There has got to be better ways, much better ways to raise money than playing music for Boomers. And trust me, this is coming from a Boomer.

And Quick As That, It's Now Gone

After sitting there for at least 2 months, that car I posted about earlier today, quick as that, is now gone.

Stunned me for sure.

Abandoned In Westport

Just getting the word out. This car, an old Chevrolet Malibu, has been abandoned in Westport here in town in front of the Sunfresh Market on Mill Street, for what it's worth.

It's been there at least 2 months.

It has 2 flat tires. If you can see the license plate here, it is a Nebraska plate WFS 987. It seems it isn't Sunfresh's parking lot and I'm told it's up to the owner of the lot to get it taken care of. The police are aware it's there and that it's been abadoned. Maybe someone will see this and get word to the owner. Doubtful but possible.

That Meyer Boulevard Turnabout

I went by the Meyer Boulevard turnabout yesterday on Ward Parkway and couldn't believe what I saw, what happened yet again. Check for yourself.

I mean really. This brings up so many thougts. Thoughts like I wonder how many times this wall, these walls have been smashed like this over the years? Last I remember, it was the one on the left that was taken down by some no doubt drunk dirver. Another thought----how absolutely smashed do you have to be to come flying down Meyer Boulevard to then round this curve and, yes, SMASH INTO and destroy this wall, one of these walls? And look how fully that wall is taken down. Don't you know that car was totalled? Unreal.Another thought and question---I wonder if it's these people's homeowner's insurance that pays for the rebuild or if it's a city wall and we keep paying for these things? Just wondering.

Question for Governor Parson and the Jackson County Health Department

 

WHY ARE WE STILL IN PHASE 1B, TIER 1 IN JACKSON COUNTY, MISSOURI, for only first responders, emergency services & public health infrastructure? 

We've been there for WEEKS. 

Are we EVER going to get the vaccine????

In fairness, an answer today, this morning, from the Jackson County Health Department:

Thanks for your email. For the last several weeks the state has not sent us vaccines, so we have not been able to offer appointment times for 1^st doses in your tier. We hope to be able to offer appointments again in the next few weeks. In the meantime if you have a primary care provider you can reach out to them and the hospital they are affiliated with. They may be able to get you an appointment at the hospital before we have times available. You can also reach out to the State of Missouri Vaccine Navigators at 1-877-435-8411 or https://covidvaccine.mo.gov/navigator to get more information on various organizations receiving vaccine.

So we wait. We continue to wait. And hope.

Great News, Campers!

Yes, great news! Yesterday and last night were the lowest, worst temperatures we'll see! 

From here forward, nearly completely in a straight line, it nothing but warms up from now on! Yahoo!! 

The worst of Winter is over!!!

Yes!!!

Enjoy!!  And today we have sunshine, too!

A Question for you, Kansas City

Yes, I have a question for you, Kansas City.

Count Basie and Charlie "Bird" Parker are both from here, both from Kansas City.

Why is Winston Churchill the only one on the Country Club Plaza?

Anyone?

Bueller?

Protest Against Chiefs Name Goes National Today

I just saw this on Facebook. Seems the protest against our Chiefs name is, in fact, not just going public but actually going national. From CBS News.

Protest calling for Chiefs to change name and stop using tomahawk chop planned ahead of Super Bowl

A bit of the article:

A Native American rights group is planning a protest on Sunday urging the Kansas City Chiefs to retire the team's name and stop fans from using an in-game tomahawk chop ahead of Super Bowl LV in Tampa.

Alicia Norris, co-founder of the Florida Indigenous Rights and Environmental Equality (FIREE), is one of the people leading the demonstration set to take place near Raymond James Stadium, where the Chiefs will play the Tampa Bay Buccaneers for the championship. Norris told CBS News that the use of the name and chop are "dishonorable and disrespectful."

"The Indigenous people of this land have already had a mass genocide approach with regard to their culture and way of living," she said. "And when you further dehumanize them and objectify them, it just kind of falls in line with that extinction of who they are."

It goes on:

It's not just Native American rights groups calling for the change. The Kansas City Star posted an editorial this week urging the Chiefs to abandon the Native American imagery. With millions set to tune in to the big game, the newspaper's editorial board had a message for people unaware of the Chiefs' traditions.

"For those fans, a message: Many Kansas Citians will cringe along with you when spectators do the chop," they wrote. "We embrace the team's on-field success, but don't think a corrosive chant has much to do with it. It isn't fair to ask groups offended by these symbols to wait even longer for change."

With this, ladies and gentlemen, Kansas Citians--including Chiefs fans, of course--I can tell you, it will only be a matter of time now. Wait for it. The only question is how long it will take but it will be sooner than later. Count on it. Like it, agree with it, understand it or not, the Chiefs will be renamed and soon. It's all but done. You can take that to the bank.

The Kansas City Chiefs are going the way of the Washington Redskins, at least in name.

As our Dad used to say, it's all over but the crying.

Kansas City Seems To Be Having a Year of Racism Awareness

I just keep getting more surprised about racism in Kansas City. Certainly not that it's here but that we keep getting revelations about it all here in town. For a first example, there was, of course, this.

Kansas City Star apologizes for decades of racist coverage

That was a nearly earth shaking evaluation right there, totally unforeseen.

Then, after that, our own Nelson-Atkins Museum announced, because of the Star's public self-evaluation, they might well do the same thing. That is, they were certainly self-evaluating but might--GASP--CHANGE THEIR NAME??

Might a name change be in store for Nelson-Atkins museum

The Nelson-Atkins Museum to consider removing Nelson's name

Keeping in mind, of course, the city of Kansas City, Missouri took the name of very famous and very racist JC Nichols off the fountain on the Country Club Plaza he created, in Mill Creek Park. That was surprising and refreshing enough, eh?

And now, today, there is this from our Kansas City Star.

I was a Black fire captain for KCFD. Racism there is real, and it risks public safety

The man, the now former Captain makes what are to me stunning claims. It's not just that there's racism in the organization, the Kansas City Fire Department. It goes far worse than that. He says Black firefighters don’t get training on the equipment needed to keep Kansas City safe. It's a fascinating, even, I would say, important article to read as it gives some history in the city of the systemic racism there. What concerns me is that not enough citizens of the city, especially white people, will read--and absorb--the entire article.

Again, it's just stunning to the point of outrageous. These men and women are there to protect us all from fire and fires and he's saying they aren't as fully, completely trained as the white firefighters? In the same jobs? That's nearly unbelievable, at least to those of us on the outside of the organization. It's unforgivable.

So we're still learning about ourselves, Kansas City.

Can we handle it?

More to the point, can we change?

And soon as possible?

Additional links:

I was surprised but pleased of fellow citizen Steve Kraske for so singularly and publicly taking on a big load of the racism in the city a few years ago, when he lead the charge, nearly singlehandedly, to get the JC Nichols Fountain renamed.

Steve Kraske: Kansas City should confront racist past

Steve Kraske: I’m still talking about J.C. Nichols, racism

Our KC Star Finally Gets It on Race -- Will KCPT?

 Yes, as I wrote earlier last week, I thought it pretty incredible and courageous and soul-searching for our Kansas City Star local newspaper to own up and 'fess up to their very racist, white supremacist past. Great for them, great for us. Progress. Surprising and again, incredible. Very encouraging and hopeful.

So now, a next step, it makes me wonder aloud here if our local PBS station will ever "get it" on race, too. If KCPT will ever be truly inclusive. I've written about it before.

They used  to have 2 weekly news programs and now they're down to one. Both were heavily, heavily represented by---wait for it--white people. Only. Singularly. And the one now gone was also heavily full of Right Wing and/or conservative and/or out and out Republican Party guests and viewpoints. It was dispiriting to say the least.

And even now, still, to this day, their "Week in Review" program is heavily all white. Here's the latest example.

Where it used to be a solidly, dependably, weekly all white panel, now they seem to have finally, finally committed to having a reliable, token Black person, a Black man.  At least there is that improvement.

But to this day, as in this week's episode, there are 3 white people.

That's it.

Three men, one woman and one Black man, that's it.

Occasionally, occasionally they will include a Hispanic or Latinx member of the community but it is rare, at best. They apparently take money from and advertise the Dos Mundos newspaper but no steady representation of our Hispanic community. It's almost as though they don't live here. Or at least, it's as though KCPT either just doesn't or doesn't want to recognize them, Hispanics in the community.

In their defense, I know this isn't true. I know the station and the host, Nick Haines, want to be fair and representative of us all.

But it ain't happenin'.

It's 2020, very nearly 2021, of course, and still no representation, no reliable, steady, dependable representation of ALL in our community.

But hey, if you're white? Or more, if you're a white man? They got you covered. Great for you.

So come on, KCPT. Do it. Somehow, do it. Get it done. Commit to, somehow, having, say, one white maile, one white female, yes a Black person, male or female and the---wait for it---a Hispanic or Latinx person, again, male or female on your program, on this program, on "Week in REview", week after week after week. Reliably. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to good, fair representative media. 

You owe it to all of us.

Kansas City COViD Roundup

 Here you go, Kansas City! A COVID roundup. First up, Torey Southwick advises us!

With KC beds sparse, rural hospitals in Kansas, Missouri face new COVID ‘tidal wave’

Negro Leagues Baseball Museum temporarily closes after staff test positive for COVID-19

A lost generation? Educators and students worry online classes leave too many behind

KC metro sees dip in new coronavirus cases as testing slows over Thanksgiving holiday

Meanwhile, this, nationally.

16 States Log Record-High Average COVID-19 Cases Since Thanksgiving

Insane.

Here's a statewide assessment.

Examining COVID-19 Cases In Hard-Hit Wisconsin, Missouri 

The region.

‘We’re drowning’: COVID cases flood hospitals in America’s heartland

And then, hope.

Covid: First Americans 'could get vaccine in December

Be careful out there, folks. Stay safe. Mask up, for sure.

KCPT Needs to Rename "Week in Review"

 

They need to just call it "Three White People and a Black Man."

Kansas City Week in Review

Nearly Bleached White KCPT "Week In Review"--With a Token

 I give up.

KCPT, our local PBS station, is supposed to represent us all, across the metropolitan area, but, geez. Their "Week in Review" program with Nick Haines, is supposed to represent us all and they advertise that and they emphasize, day after day, again and again, that the Hispanic Dos Mundos is one of their supporters but holy cow. Time after time, week after week, show after show, it's 3 very, very bleached white people and one--token--Black person.

That's it.

They either can't or just don't or won't get any Hispanic or Latinx person. Nearly never.  So frequently, again, repeatedly, they have the white person and worse, the conservative, if not out and out just Republican Party, white person covered but anyone from the Hispanic viewpoint?

Fuggedaboudit.

Not a chance.

So yeah. I give up. It's going to be a nearly bleached white, largely Right Wing, if not Republican, conservative viewpoint.

Congratulations, KCPT. Congratulations, Nick.

Love to hear what the white people's view is.

Nearly singularly.

Nearly solely.

I guess this is progress. It used to be only all 4 white people. Every time. Week after week.

Sure.  Right.

Never mind.

There's no reason to watch this program any further.

How are they not embarrassed? Professionally embarrassed.

Someone please tell me, please explain to me how this isn't racist.

Kansas City Needs a Philanthropist Savior Just Now

I've been thinking of this for the last week since I heard this report.

Pandemic prompts Nelson-Atkins Museum layoffs

From the article.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art plans to lay off 36 employees because of fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The museum announced the layoffs in a Wednesday news release. It also said it planned to cut its budget by 25% to about $26 million, KCUR reports.

“Today’s decision comes after analyzing, trying to fundraise,” CEO and Director Julián Zugazagoitia told KCUR, “and also seeing that this pandemic is going to be lasting for many, many months to come.”

So that, last week, led to this, now.

Kansas City Curator Who Built The Nelson-Atkins' World-Class Photography Collection Resigns In Protest

In 2005, Keith Davis brought the Hallmark Photographic Collection to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art and founded the museum's photography department. Now, he's leaving after another curator lost her job.

Last month, the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art announced it was cutting its budget by 25 percent and laying off 36 staffers to cope with financial challenges due to the coronavirus pandemic.

"It does cut across all (of) the museum," said CEO and director Julián Zugazagoitia at the time, and suggested that "recalibrating and restructuring" was ahead.

National arts writer Tyler Green reported on Wednesday that the departures include two of three curators in the museum's photography department. These curators oversaw the internationally recognized Hallmark Photographic Collection with works from 1839 to the present.

According to Green, an author, critic and host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast, senior curator Keith Davis resigned in protest of the termination of curator Jane L. Aspinwall.

So this is where it made me think that we need one of our local, very wealthy philanthropist families, or someone, anyone, to come up with--who knows how much? a million?--or whatever and make yet another donation to the Nelson-Atkins so they can stay afloat. Not only stay afloat but keep it's national standing and it's fantastic exhibits all going.

Blochs? Kempers?  Halls? Someone? Anyone?  Maybe get together and make a donation together? Please?

Because we'll beg.

Honestly we will.

A Question for, a Plea to Dos Mundos

 To the Dos Mundos Newspaper

You advertise on Kansas City PBS. 

Can you not arrange, somehow, to help Nick Haines get someone from the Hispanic/Latinx community each week for his program "Week in Review"? You are frequently, repeatedly not represented on the program. Can't someone in the community help him/them get someone reliably on the show? 

Please? 

For your own sake, the sake of that Hispanic/Latinx community and for the sake of the entire community?

Weekly, weekly, there are 3 white people and a token Black man or woman on the show and that's it.

Give the poor man some help.   Help him help you.  Heck, help him help all of us. Let's hear from the ENTIRE community.

Thank you, in advance.

Links:

Kansas City PBS

Kansas City Week in Review