If you thought that last "flash mob" was fun...

I think this one was even better.

Again, let's organize and coordinate some flash mobs like this on the Plaza for Saturday night entertainment with people from all over the city. We could do them in Mill Creek Park.

Anybody game?

This, then, is a "flash mob"

Could we organize these on the Plaza on Saturday nights?

It looks like everyone had a good time, everyone was entertained and no one was intimitdated or hurt and no laws were broken.

Behold the common and ever-present coward and bully

The report this morning from The Kansas City Star is that all was well again last evening on the Plaza.

And of course it was.

Because that is precisely how the bully and the coward and the cowardly bully all operate--they pick on the smaller person, the more helpless, and, in this case, the unarmed, the defenseless and those who aren't expecting any trouble or that they should have to defend themselves on the Country Club Plaza on a mild, otherwise pleasant Saturday night.

Couple having coffee, as they stroll the area?

Knock the coffee out of their hands.

Potted planters to decorate the area?

Pick them up and break them into pieces.

etc., etc.

Cowards. Bullies, all.

So they knew there would be a big police presence on the Plaza last evening. I guessed that they'd not show precisely because of this cowardice and I was right.

But, knowing this is how bullies and cowards act, naturally we can't assume this has taken care of itself.

Chief Corwin and the KCMO Police Department will have to, at least for a while, if not forever, prepare themselves for any possible "flash mob" like this, in case they decide to converge again on a spot and on people and be the bullies and cowards they've shown themselves to be.

Sad, pitiful and tragic but true.

This is the reality we'll have to live in, at least for a while, if not permanently.

Fortunately, the police surely know this.

Kansas City: Let's use this moment to come together, at last

I see from the newspaper this morning--again--that there will be additional police out in town tonight, most specifically on the Plaza.

The Mayor announced yesterday that he'll be walking around down there. (Thanks for the warning, Mayor).

Then there's this: "A group of African-American community leaders, led by Alvin Brooks, who is a police commissioner, held a news conference Friday to announce they will be present tonighton the Plaza to make sure any youth gathering remains peaceful and safe."

Thank you, once again, Mr. Brooks.

More: "Brooks, who is president of the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime, was joined by ministers, Kansas City school board president Airick Leonard West and others. They said they wanted to have a good dialogue with any youths who gathered."

This, then, is how a great deal of good can and, of course should, come out of this whole "Plaza melee'" mess from the last few weeks.

Can we not, now, learn something from all this?

Can we not, now, come together as a city and as one group of people who live here and work together, as one, to better this city?

We could.

We should.

We can.

We should use this as a catalyst to stop being East Side/inner city/West Side/suburbanite, etc., and, again, come together as one city and work to solve our problems.

And right now, we have the attention of the Mayor and his office, the "establishment", represented by Highwoods Properties (the Plaza owners and managers), all the retail store owners and managers down there, the leaders of the African-American community, virtually everyone.

We all have a stake, certainly, in seeing to it that no one group terrorizes or intimidates another, anywhere in the city, at any time.

It's not who we are.

It's not how good cities work, of course.

And we all have a larger stake, too, in having our problems addressed by all of us, for the good of all.

Alvin Brooks or Mayor Funkhouser or Airick West or somebody needs to say as much, in a very public way, while the television cameras are rolling and the media has their attention.

Let's get at this, people.

A week of some "good calls"

First it was the President, surprisingly ordering "his health secretary to issue new rules aimed at granting hospital visiting rights to same-sex partners", bringing everyone in America that much closer to equality for all.

Good on ya', Mr. President. Well done. And thank you. As you know, sir, it was long overdue.

Then it fell to Kansas Governor Mark Parkinson for the next sound judgement call:

"...Gov. Mark Parkinson on Thursday vetoed legislation designed to tighten the rules on late-term abortion."

"The legislation would have required physicians who sign off on late-term abortions to document the specific medical diagnosis used to authorize the procedure. It’s similar to a bill vetoed last year by Kathleen Sebelius."

And here's the good part--Gov. Parkinson called "abortion a “tragedy” but..." said that "Kansas lawmakers shouldn’t intrude in a private decision..."

Because after all, isn't that big, intrusive government reaching into our personal lives?

Isn't that what "conservatives" want is government out of our private lives?

For the next "good call", "A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the day amounts to a call for religious action."

Yeehaw! It just keeps getting better and better.

Could we have "separation of church and state"? Please?

Finally, in this brief list of "good calls" this week, it was announced a few hours ago that the government is pressing charges of fraud against the seemingly untouchable Goldman Sachs for "defrauding investors by failing to disclose conflicts of interest in mortgage investments it sold as the housing market was collapsing."

I don't know how this will play out since Goldman Sachs is, for all intents and purposes, in the White House and has been for years but it surely was good news.

Maybe they'll go after some more of the big companies that defrauded America and Americans in similar ways. That would be nice.

In the meantime, because of this, the price of a barrel of oil decreased, too, just because the government is going after GS.

Check it out--a "two-fer" for the common, working stiff, all in the same day.

Anyway, after the more local mess that was the Saturday night melee' here in town, it was a nice change that these kinds of things happened.


Let's have a great weekend, y'all!