Bully Pulpit
Put out to pastor: My name is Debbie Graves, and I am a member of the Lenexa Christian Center. I would like to apologize to the Pitch for what it received from Jon when visiting the church (KC Strip, “ Unholy Roller,” June 10). It is un-Christlike to do anything except love others, no matter how different they may be.
We have been members for ten years now and are currently seeking another church because I do not want my children to be “under” Jon’s teaching. Real Christians know that only love breaks down barriers, not hate. Most of us at that church believe that, too!
This young man is out of control. I am so sorry you had to hear or see any of that, and I am sure my Lord would agree. God bless you.
Debbie Graves
Olathe
Double crossed: Great column on the lack of tolerance that is standard fare for so-called Christians. I only wish it had been longer.
Sounds like Jr. Purkey is looking to build the world’s largest organization of Christian skinheads. It is truly sad that this kind of bigotry exists and worse that it is considered Christian. I kind of understand Tony Ortega’s take on Tammeus’ pontifications and what appears to be a “not of this world” utopian view expressed by Vern Barnet. I would think, though, that given the alternatives, wouldn’t he rather listen to someone who really does practice Christian teaching (or for that matter the peaceful teachings of any religion) rather than the ranting of a “my way or the highway” born-again?
Jim Skinner
Overland Park
Holy roller derby: When I read Tony Ortega’s article on Pastor Jon, I was extremely disgusted! He portrayed him as some non-Christian fake guy who is deceitful and rude to other people (or religions). Well, it seems to me that he has gotten his story mixed up!
Pastor Jon is one of the most amazing, helpful and caring Christians that I know. He is very knowledgeable about God and life in general. No matter what, I always know he is there to talk to me and help me. His youth group attracts hundreds of kids each week because there is good preaching there. Jon doesn’t sugarcoat the word of God like many preachers of today’s society have resulted to doing. How can he really have all the characteristics Ortega “claims” he has yet is responsible in helping thousands of kids get saved and come to know Christ? He has also allowed God to work through him to deliver kids from bondage and just is always a helping hand. He tells you straight up what the Bible says and how it says to live. In the Bible — if you read it — it says that GOD is the true god — not Allah, not Mohammed or anything else.
Valerie Kampen
Shawnee
Soul trained: May the Peace and Blessings of Allah be upon you.
After reading the KC Strip about Jon Purkey, I was initially outraged, but after considerable thought, I realized he is an ignorant lost soul. See, I am a white man born Baptist, but after years of study, I chose to be Muslim. When I took World Religion, I became interested in finding the true religion. After researching many religious books (all of which I still own) and doctrines, I chose Islam four years later.
In many religions, including Islam, there is a thing called blind faith. God gave everyone intelligence and free will to choose, but in order to choose, you have to have choices. Doing the research on all religions is necessary, especially if you are going to assume the role that Jon Purkey has and discuss another faith with no obvious knowledge about that particular faith.
Mr. Purkey does not have to fear or worry about reprisal, because he is just a man who has blind faith and obviously has not bothered to use the two gifts God gave him — intelligence and free will — to choose to make a more insightful observation regarding Islam.
Name Withheld Upon Request
Pray anything: Don’t expect me to take Tony Ortega’s side in his painful rant against Jon Purkey. When I read his hack job, I experienced the rational and nonreligious conviction that the undercooked meat on your staff is a rotten guy.
Ortega’s effort is bad faith from start to finish. It says nothing except that he has the patience to hang around a long time when he senses that a dumb kid is going to violate the rules of good taste. No matter that the dumb kid didn’t cooperate to the extent required by a thousand-word column — T-bone contaminated the rest of it unassisted.
Mr. Ortega has demonstrated one thing, if you can take his word for anything: Jon Purkey is immature. Unfortunately, his public mockery of an immature kid in the service of a larger grudge is evidence of his own weakness and immaturity. In fact, I cannot distinguish between the two of them, except that Ortega apparently required several Purkey sermons to dredge up a couple of sour quotes, but he only needed a minute of my reading time to shovel out ten times as much stink.
Word to the tenderloin: You’re preaching to the faithful. Speak it, and they will generalize.
Brian Gharst
Paola
Rail Roaded
Well trained: Regarding Tony Ortega’s “ Star Stuck” (May 27) and C.J. Janovy’s “ Move Over, Mary” (May 20), I know what to do with Union Station: Let it be a Union Station. It can still serve the purpose of introducing people to KC and delivering them to points of interest.
Every district and/or business can invest in opening kiosks to show off what they have to offer. The Plaza, Westport, the River Market, Worlds of Fun, 18th and Vine, the Railroad District, Boulevard Beer, the Steamboat Arabia and the Nelson can have samples of the food, music, culture and history that our region has to offer.
Then, along with a museum of the area’s rich transportation history, it can serve as a transportation hub, with buses, taxis and trolleys on hand to deliver people to these attractions. Locals would also enjoy a visit as a day or evening thing to do and would probably take advantage of the transportation aspect to park and ride to places rather than worry about parking at their destination.
Keep it kid- and field-trip-friendly with interactive exhibits, the planetarium nobody knew about, an atrium/aviary with exotic birds sponsored by the zoo. If it makes money, add on the aquarium idea. Kids will go home and tell the folks how cool it is.
With privatization of most of the exhibits, it won’t be so reliant on tax dollars. I think it would be unique and not just another mall.
This city has got to do something to get the stick out of its butt.
Danni Nordstrom
Parkville
Dial Tone
Lords of the ring: I was very entertained by David Martin’s “ Dial M for the Mob” (June 10). You see, I worked at USP&C’s call center around 1997-98. They put on a very good show (even using a reputable staffing agency with an on-site representative), but you would have to have been blind not to see that something was rotten in Denmark.
The usual scenario was that someone would see an ad for a free psychic reading or dating service, call and be deceived into giving his name, address and phone number (aka “voiceprint”), which was then used as “proof” he had ordered these services when he would call about the charges. Callers were signed up for a newsletter (which they never received but were charged for), a membership that appeared as a monthly charge on their phone bills, and then redirected to a toll number for a “free” reading.
The article states that “only insistent customers received full refunds, according to the indictment.” While this is true to an extent, there were tons of credits given, and I personally gave out far more credits than I imagined they would’ve liked, largely because I couldn’t make lonely old men pay for something they had been misled into and had received nothing for, and partially because the callers who did sort of understand what was going on were accordingly pissed and it was almost impossible to get a word in edgewise. Quite often, the “customer” would be a child, a ne’er-do-well friend or relative, or a boyfriend or girlfriend of the person billed. It was obvious that USP&C was making money hand over fist and was not worried about counting pennies. The company would randomly decide to buy lunch for everyone some days; I once saw a check made out to the caterer for close to a grand for one day’s lunch.
While I could find bones to pick with the Pitch, as many do, I have to commend you for printing articles like this — not just for my own personal interest (although you’ve managed to print a few of those in the last couple of years) but because for all the stick you take, you do quite a bit to expose the underside of the rotten carcass that is KC.
Name Withheld Upon Request
Potty Time
Down the drain: Regarding Kendrick Blackwood’s “ The Girl in the Bathroom” (June 3), one can’t help but be disgusted. What are we teaching our boys for them to act this way? But things aren’t always what they seem.
If this gal truly was assaulted on school property, the school administrators completely mishandled it, and they should, at the very least, be held accountable for their poor judgment. No slap on the wrist, as was implied for the boys involved. But there were a couple of instances where the story seemed to break down. Most readers will never get past their initial feelings of outrage to clearly see this, and that’s why you got so many angry letters.
There are some sides to this story that I’m afraid aren’t being addressed or illuminated. I’m not saying anyone lied. I’m saying that the way in which these situations were handled by the school administrators was unconscionable, considering the heavy responsibilities they bear, and they may have made it impossible to now arrive at the truth. When you put the pieces together, I still believe there’s more to this story than was reported, and perhaps more than we’ll ever know. Keep up the good work.
P.S.: I just read the letter to the editor written by one of the boys who was allegedly involved in one of the incidents (June 17). His sentence “She’s going to lie herself right into her own grave” sounds suspiciously like a veiled threat. What do you and the other Pitch readers think? And if it should be construed as such, he just shot himself in the foot.
Jewell St. Clair
Kansas City, Missouri
Dinner Theater
Egg head: In “ Egg Inflation” (May 27), Charles Ferruzza writes that Craig Claiborne and a friend (Pierre Franey) shocked the world with their $4,000 dinner.
Mr. Ferruzza doesn’t tell half of the story: Mr. Claiborne purchased a “dinner for two anywhere in the world” courtesy of American Express. The deal: WNET, PBS Channel 13 in New York City, had its first pledge drive/begathon, and American Express donated the dinner for two as a premium. The enterprising food writer from The New York Times saw a heck of an opportunity and bought the dinner package. He and chef Franey (a co-author with Claiborne of many cookbooks) then set out to dine at the Chez Denis in Paris.
Claiborne wrote the dinner up in the Times as “Just a Quiet Dinner for Two in Paris: 31 Dishes, Nine Wines, a $4,000 Check” in 1974, a dinner of fabulous foods and wines bought by Claiborne’s tax-deductible donation to charity that Claiborne turned into the subject of his column in the Times. (Claiborne was paid to eat that meal!) Could Mr. Ferruzza be envious?
George R. O’Connor
Parkville
Liquor Control
Drunk tanked: Jen Chen’s Night Ranger is horrible. If she lives her life around alcohol, and that’s the only way she can have a good time, it just tells us — if I’m portraying this right — that she is a disgusting human being.
Alcohol kills more people every day than drugs, guns, anything — you name it — and it should be illegal to the public. And if this is how she’s portraying it, she is a disgusting … is she Asian?
Patrick McCahon
Kansas City, Missouri
Ballot Points
Dogg house: Regarding Nathan Dinsdale’s Prairie Dogg (June 10): What’s wrong with two-for-one Miller High Life? It inspires camaraderie — an “I have two, so I’ll share the wealth” kind of feeling that aligns with the goals of Rock the Vote. We seek to mobilize young people to take action in their communities and participate in their government. We use pop culture, music and, yes, two-for-one Miller High Life to bring politics to a personal level.
Kabal was a perfect venue for music and conversation. Or does the Prairie Dogg feel that wildin’ out on the dance floor is a requirement for a successful event? There was room for our massive registration table, where we collected information from 6 volunteers (this would be the “voter registration list” that the covert Pitch spy noticed while slinking past the table) and registered 18 new voters. That helped us reach more than 1,200 new voters in Kansas City — not bad, even for Gandhi.
The crowd was not just there for the beer but also for political commentary with dope-ass beats behind it. This commentary is found on the album (spell check, anyone?) Tiananmen Square and tracks from the other artists. (FYI, Prairie Dogg: Tiananmen Square was the site of the 1989 massacre of thousands of student demonstrators by the Chinese military.) While we battle with “voter apathy [being] a bitch,” it certainly wasn’t at this event.
And what’s with the passing stab at Reach’s weight? He is one of the most genuine, good-natured gentlemen I know, as well as a talented MC.
Cody Wyoming was right (Letters, June 10): You are a douche bag. And a misinformed one at that.
Amanda Irvin, Media Relations Coordinator, Rock the Vote
Kansas City Street Team
Kansas City, Missouri
Crock the vote: This is in regards to the Prairie Dogg article in the June 10 issue. First, the article states, “There were all of six signatures on the voter registration list at the end of the night.” The list he is referring to is our volunteer sign-up list. We registered 18 people and recruited 6 new volunteers.
Also, I have contacted Rock the Vote lawyers about the comment “It was being conducted under the altruistic auspices of a voter registration rally.” We are a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Artists at our event can exercise their freedom of expression, but we are nonpartisan. This is a highly watched election, with both parties trying to catch the other slipping up; we don’t need editorials with comments of someone’s weight mixed in with accusations that we were having a voter registration rally under partisan goals.
I believe it was Dinsdale’s intent to hurt our organization, which is composed of all volunteers, by making the malicious remark. The tax ID status of our organization needs to be clarified, including “nonpartisan.” Thanks.
Lindsey Walker
Smithville
Out of Tune
Temple of doom: I have been reading the Pitch for years, and I really have to ask if you actually like any type of music at all. I have seen Temple of Solitude live, and they are a great band ( Hear and Now, June 10). Just because they do not scream lyrics that you cannot understand, their music can strike a note with almost everyone. Maybe you should open your mind to a different perspective and focus on what music is for: to express your feelings and beliefs in an open area.
Now, I am not Christian and don’t even really believe in God per se, but Jason’s lyrics do strike a chord with me from the aspect of real-life issues. Maybe you should take the CD out again and listen to it with an open mind or, better yet, go see them at a show and actually talk to them and interview them.
Name Withheld Upon Request
