Cross Fire

Stock and Bond: “Liberal Christians” demonstrating outside of Kit Bond’s office are wasting their time (Kansas City Strip, December 22). Bond doesn’t care. If it doesn’t pertain to his perennial re-election campaign, it is beneath his notice, as is evidenced by the smarmy form letters you receive if you take the trouble to write to his office about important issues like Medicare funding.

These demonstrators need to be concentrating their efforts on Kansas City’s bizarre political organization, Democrats for Bond. This is another well-meaning group with seriously confused priorities. Bond may be a master at producing pork to improve mass transit systems and support homeless shelters, but he is also a key supporter of policies that are throwing an increasing number of people into poverty and straining an already overloaded social support system.

Democrats for Bond makes about as much sense as Christians for Satan. The Rev. Donna Simon and her little flock should be casting light on this kind of inconsistency rather than crying in the wilderness down on Tenth Street.

Samuel Bennett

Kansas City, Missouri

Type Cast

Shirting the issue: In regard to Ron Hunt’s comments about David Pener (Kansas City Strip, December 15), it seems stereotypes against blacks are bad, while referring to Pener’s “synagogue,” “Italians selling guns” and “bloodsuckers” is fine.

I hope Hunt and Alonzo Washington spend as much time fighting some of the trash BET and MTV puts on television as they do T-shirts.

Drew Murphy

Kansas City, Missouri

Grow Away

Helping Hands: As local farmers raising sustainably grown produce in the Kansas City area, we mourned the closing of the Local Harvest stores (Nadia Pflaum’s “Harvest of Debt,” December 8).

I was interviewed at length by Ms. Pflaum for this story, but for whatever reason our comments were not included. Tom and I sold produce to Local Harvest during our first two years as we set down roots as new growers in the area. Heather Hands tied the fate of her business to our own — becoming a vocal champion for the local family farmer and of the benefits and pleasures of eating local. We thank her for her undying support and tenacious spirit in the face of daunting odds.

As with any small business, the likelihood of “success” is a gambling proposition. We should know, as all farmers are small-business owners, too. But Heather and all of the other many folks involved in Local Harvest did not fail. Because of their dedication and hard work, Kansas City is a more welcoming place for local farmers with an informed public that cares about where their food comes from. The many benefits of having a Local Harvest, even for its brief life, greatly outweigh the bit of money owed to us.

Rebecca Graff and Tom Ruggieri

Fair Share Farm

Kearney

Shop Class

Mall rat: Regarding David Martin’s “Merry Xmas from the Dead Malls” (December 15): Mr. Martin must have been too busy snapping photos of escalators under repair at the Metcalf South Shopping Center to have noticed more than 400 theater patrons attending two sold-out shows of A Christmas Bette at The Martin City Melodrama & Vaudeville Company on Black Friday, November 26, 2005.

The Martin City Melodrama and its children’s theater arm, Martin City Jr., have made their home at Metcalf South since November 22, 2002, the very same date the popular Glenwood Arts Movie Theater also opened at Metcalf South. Mr. Martin also failed to acknowledge the very large and very popular Gifts and Accents, a wonderful retail store full of unique gift items, which has enjoyed 26 years of success at Metcalf South. Indeed, Mr. Martin also failed to recognize mall owner Sherman Dreiseszun’s strong commitment to the community by providing space at Metcalf South for such nonprofit organizations as Purrfect Pets (offering pet adoptions of abandoned or neglected animals), the Champs American Karate Studio (offering physical education to disabled and able-bodied children) and the aforementioned Martin City Melodrama (offering G-rated live theater entertainment to the entire family).

Perhaps Mr. Martin should have his journalistic “eyes” checked at the nearest LensCrafters. And for that he will need to go to Oak Park Mall.

Jeanne Beechwood, Executive Artistic

Director

The Martin City Melodrama &

Vaudeville Company

Jon Copeland, Artistic Director

Martin City Jr.

Overland Park

Store bought: As a former writer for the Pitch, I wanted to give a thumbs up to David Martin for his story on the malls. David impressed me with his writing skills, creating vivid images with phrases such as “shopping centers … harden into fossils.” Nice job writing!

Mike Walker

Kansas City, Missouri

Jam Band

Mod-ifications: David Hudnall, in a piece that he claims is “a brief history lesson,” states, “In mid-1960s Britain, mods celebrated the music of bands such as the Jam, the Kinks and the Who” (Night & Day, December 15). It would no doubt be fascinating to listen to the music produced by the Jam during this period seeing as during the mid-’60s, the three group members would each have been approximately five years old.

For Mr. Hudnall’s information, the Jam existed for about six years, from approximately 1976 to 1982 or early ’83. Perhaps in the future, if Mr. Hudnall lacks firsthand knowledge of a subject, a little fact-checking wouldn’t go amiss.

Andy Collier

Independence

Punk You

All shook up: ABOUT YOUR NASTY COMMENTS ABOUT LISA MARIE PRESLEY (Live, November 10): GO TO HELL YOU IDIOT.

Janice E. Wynter

Via the Internet