Calling All Karls
“In almost every musical case, you’d do well to pay less attention to the audience and more attention to the music.” State Lines, “Dead to Fred,” November 9
Calling All Karls
I grew up with Karl Hockenbarger. He has always been strong-willed, opinionated and quick to anger. He’s also .0.been one of the few members of the Westboro Baptist Church who I felt really embraced the teachings of my father — took them to heart and owned them. Many there talked the talk but were not genuine in their “faith.”
Justin Kendall’s story is probably the best piece of writing that I have seen in the past 15 years as far as shedding light on the actual nuts and bolts inner workings of my family. It is at times infuriating and humorous to read about the words and actions of my siblings and compare them with the classic definition of a cult.
To suggest that my family has not caused Karl and Kay to be divorced simply because a document hasn’t been accessed and signed by a judge, and therefore they have not knowingly violated that dictate, is profoundly Clintonesque.
This article shines a pure, pristine spotlight on the grotesque, repulsive manipulation of the “truth” of the Bible that my father has practiced and passed on to his children and their children. “The Sins of the Father” seems so appropriate here. Nathan Phelps, Cranbrook, British Columbia State Lines, “Here, Kiddie, Kiddie,” November 2
Butt Seriously
Since the soccer fields in Cupcake Land fell through, I would love to see the Wizards back at Arrowhead. Arrowhead should be filled with Wizards blue on Saturday nights!
It’s a shame to see such good soccer struggle. They have no clue how to promote it, though. The fact that they don’t announce games in Spanish as well as English screams of racism to me. Or stupidity. Or both.
Major League Soccer has some of the best soccer played anywhere around the world now — they should have no trouble getting people out to watch the world’s most popular sport being played at such a high level. However, it’s not the most popular sport with the white, suburban, audience that they’re going after, hence their problems with attendance.
The recent Wizards vs. Chivas match was an excellent example: Arrowhead seemed packed with fans, nearly all of them Hispanics wearing Chivas colors. I know almost all of the Chivas fans were from KC! They should be Wizards fans!
That passion for soccer goes through almost all newly immigrated groups in the United States. Alexi Lalas is right — the Barney & Friends mentality is alienating adult soccer fans. It’s insulting. Real soccer fans want to go to the stadium and drink a couple of pints, yell, sing, drum, dance. Instead, we have to settle for stale, crappy beer and being head-butted in the testicles by snotty-nosed kids.
Hopefully MLS’ idiotic notions will wear out before their pocketbooks, and we can have some real soccer in the United States. It sure was great to see the MLS All-Stars beat Chelsea this summer! Ken Krauss, Kansas City
Feature, “The New Fred,” November 2
Monster Truck
As a Kansas City native, I’m a frequent reader via the Web.
Regarding the article on the Phelps family and Westboro Baptist Church: Why? You are part of the problem here, not part of the solution.
Hands up, anyone who didn’t know the Westboro people were completely and totally evil? Nobody? Exactly. An “exposé” serves no purpose. There is no need to understand them. There is no further information that serves the public regarding their beliefs or actions. By covering them, you are aiding them. The same goes for Hannity, O’Reilly and even Gallagher (negotiating with them over the Amish situation?). The only garlic for this breed of vampire is the strong stench of evasion. Ignore them. If you do not feed the monster, the monster will die.
Ignore them. Those who need to mind them (Patriot Riders, lawmakers) are. Stop feeding the monster, please. Justin Julian, La Verne, California
Better Than Watchtower
This is the most apt article on religious perversion I have ever read.
Ray Paxton, Kansas City, Missouri
Shirley Not
As a Baptist minister’s daughter who bore a child out of wedlock, Shirley Phelps-Roper might better spend her time atoning to God rather than playing God. If God truly hates homosexuals, it would follow that He also hates fornicators.
Hiding behind the shield of the constitutional right to protest is self-serving. Twisting the words of the Bible to advance one’s personal agenda is heresy. Sane people who actually read the Bible understand that, though God may hate the sin, He loves the sinner. We are all sinners. At the end of the day, we answer to God, not Shirley Phelps-Roper.
Perhaps there’s a compound in hell reserved for the Phelps family. Joan Wheeler, Kansas City, Missouri
Feature: “Ethanol Pushers,” September 21 and September 28
Fuel Shaft
The ethanol articles were informative but highly negative.
Ethanol has its problems, but ethanol production is still in its infancy. Of course gasoline will be tough to compete with — we’ve had over a hundred years to refine it! When big oil companies are reaping billions of dollars in profits, how much is going toward funding better ways to drill, pump and refine their product? Yet how much do the U.S., state and local governments hand out in grants to our universities for scientific advances of ethanol?
The U.S. government pays farmers to grow corn, but we also pay them to grow nothing in order to keep the world economy stable. If we dumped tons of corn to feed the hungry, we’d drive more countries into poverty because they in turn couldn’t sell theirs. So we’re left with acres of fallow farmland, while the farmers reap the federal dime as their crop.
There’s a great debate about tax credits and grants going to farmers. Yet we’re still sending billions of dollars in oil sales overseas to fund radical governments that in turn fund their favorite terrorists. And then we spend billions to fight these guys.
Build more ethanol distilleries. Fund more universities. Stop paying farmers to not farm. The next thing you know, we’ve got farmers who need more workers, ethanol plants that need more technicians, railroads and trucking companies that need more engineers and drivers, and on and on.
If you run the math for the overall picture, ethanol sounds pretty damn good to me. Adam P. Muncy, Independence
Stage, November 9
The Play’s the Thing
In his review of the Lyric’s Hamlet, Alan Scherstuhl noted, “Arts patrons, with their sharp palates and sharper tongues, actually scare newcomers away with pride in discernment, like that of wine snobs or the guys who hang out in comic-book stores.”
I play in the Kansas City Symphony and am in the pit orchestra for the opera and the ballet. Those arts patrons Scherstuhl denigrates are the people who support the few struggling big-budget arts organizations in this town through thick and thin. They’re the ones who attend every show and buy season tickets. They have strong opinions because they have experience and hardcore interest in the form.
When I got into blues, I wasn’t crazy about the die-hard blues guys who insist that you need to be dressed the right way, listen the right way and drink the right beverage. And talk about strong opinions on what is and isn’t good music! Yet I’ve also met some incredibly generous and open-minded blues guys.
In almost every musical case, you’d do well to pay less attention to the audience and more attention to the music.
All that being said, it’s great to see the Pitch do reviews of the real “alternative” music scene in Kansas City. Michael Davis, Kansas City, Missouri
Correction: The Belger Art Center’s exhibit American Dream: In Question (“Dream On,” November 16) closes February 2, not in December.
