Waste Management

Sentimental favorite: Regarding C.J. Janovy’s “Sentimental Journeys” (Kansas City Strip, December 19): I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this article and her previous articles.

At least someone else in this city is sane enough to see through the BS that is Kansas City government and waste throughout the nation.

Scott Strausbaugh

Prairie Village

Size It Up

A room with a pew: Regarding Kendrick Blackwood’s “Christmas Eve at Adam’s House” (December 19): That was a fantastic article. As a member of the Church of the Resurrection, I appreciate seeing an article that highlights the benefits and accomplishments the church has been able to achieve.

In fairness, I also appreciate seeing the other side represented. I’m glad that Blackwood highlighted some of the more intelligent complaints that came out of neighbors and people who are not fans of COR, instead of hitting on the more ridiculous arguments. It was fair, and it highlighted something that is doing a lot of good for Kansas City. Thanks.

I hope that his article brings in hundreds more people like me who hadn’t been able to make sense of their relationship to God until they found COR.

Kyle Holt

Olathe

City Stickler

A white middle-class suburban man speaks: Your sister publication, the East Bay Express in California, recently made the editorial decision to discontinue Derf’s The City cartoon, a wise if long-overdue act. I hope you will do the same. That it simply isn’t funny is not the basis for my request, since none of the liberal weeklies’ comics are funny. My main objection to The City is its frequent anti-white, racist stereotyping, particularly a recurring character called “White Middle-Class Suburban Man,” a personification of that racial/class/gender segment of U.S. society. Racism isn’t funny. To truly rid us of racism requires not directing it at anyone, and if you think my concern is too thin-skinned, if you printed a cartoon equally maligning and inaccurately overgeneralizing about nonwhites, cries of outrage would be a hundredfold (at least) over protests against WMCSM and would have come a lot sooner. Imagine if Derf had a recurring “Black Crack-Smoking Ghetto Pimp” or “Low-Riding Drive-By-Shooting Barrio Hombre.”

My boyhood experience was a white, middle-class suburban upbringing; my father and all my suburban friends’ fathers were honest, hard-working and practical, the segment that pays an ordinate amount of taxes that the poor don’t have to pay because of their limited economics and the rich avoid with a myriad of loopholes most have no access to. Maybe Derf thinks that is funny, that WMCSMs are dupes and saps, deserving to be leeched, so he further depicts them, as he does, as paranoid, sexually maladjusted, judgmental zealots.

I’m not advocating censorship, but if you continue to carry The City, do so at least acknowledging that it is racist.

George Warren

Alameda, California

Night Writer

Homey on the ranger: First, I would like to say that Night Ranger is a nice addition to the Pitch. Jen Chen’s last article about Raoul’s Velvet Room was dead-on! (“Choc-o-riffic!” December 19) Only been there once … don’t care to go again.

I live downtown and tend to stay in the general area. So when is she going to visit a bar in midtown or downtown? They need more coverage. (I’m into the whole revitalizing thing.) Writing about bars out south only tells us urbanites what we already know: Bars out there are pretty lame. (Well, at least most of them are.)

Keep up the good work.

Aaron Justus

Kansas City, Missouri

Correction: The wrong photo accompanied last week’s Café review of the new Hannah Bistro in Lee’s Summit. It was actually a picture of a bartender at Harry’s Bar & Tables — which is reviewed on page 35 of this week’s issue.