Group Think
Picket fencing: Read Eric Barton’s December 22 Kansas City Strip. Want you to know there is more going on in the Christian church besides the conservative right and the liberal left. If you’d like to know what a great number of theologically traditional and politically progressive Christians are thinking, you can subscribe to the free e-zine at sojomail.com.
The idea for picketing congressional offices on December 14, which you described in your column, originated from Sojourners and was communicated through sojomail.com.
Karel Ramsey, Minister
United Methodist Church
Waverly, Kansas
High School Confidential
Child left behind: Regarding Nadia Pflaum’s “Is Esmie Evil?” (January 5): nice article. Pflaum clearly did an amazing amount of research and provided the most circumspect picture of Esmie Tseng’s life and the event that has captured so much attention.
However, I find the story’s subhead — “The posse of parents blindly supporting her have no idea what Esmie did last summer” — to be misleading and inaccurate. I am one of Esmie’s staunchest supporters and wrote much of the material you see on Jacob Horwitz’s Web site. I met her several years ago, have read her Zanga and know her well through my son, who is a friend of Esmie’s. I also communicate regularly with her now, while she is incarcerated. I, like many of the parents who support her, in fact DO know what Esmie was doing … how she was feeling, the enormous pressures that were on her, and how lost she felt. That is precisely WHY I support her. She’s a messed-up kid who flipped. She needs help. I know that the other parents who have worked with Jacob to garner support for Esmie have the same information I do about her.
So, while Pflaum’s article does a fabulous job of telling the real story, the subhead is off. It might have read: “Posse of supporters see a kid driven to desperation.” Pflaum’s story beautifully supports that statement.
Diane Kruse
Overland Park
Sister act: I’m the older sister of one of the girls Nadia Pflaum interviewed, and I know my sister was looking toward the story’s publication date with some trepidation. I read the article as soon as I heard it had been published, and as a fellow journalist (and someone who knows about Esmie’s story only from the periphery), I think it came out really well. I think her friends will appreciate Pflaum’s sensitivity, and it seems to shed some new light on the subject.
For a long time I’ve thought how wonderful it would be to write for the Pitch, and reading things like this confirm that even more. The opportunity to write in-depth stories about subjects people around here actually care about … that’s real journalism. Thanks for the great story from start to finish.
Paige Worthy
Kansas City, Missouri
Kid gloves: I’m a really close friend with Esmie, and I think that the way Pflaum portrayed her was a little harsh.
I’m not about to say you shouldn’t have written it, but could you have made it a little … nicer? The front page seemed kind of extreme, and I don’t like people having the notion that she’s a crazy killer. I’m not mad or anything, but I would just appreciate it if you wouldn’t make her look so bad. Nothing personal.
You probably wouldn’t like seeing a story like that about one of your best friends, either. That shit just sucks to see when you go out to eat.
Thanks a lot.
Sam Weinberg
Leawood
Band Aid
Esoteric observation: As an observer of local music, I feel it is my duty to point out a heinous oversight in the “Best of Local Music 2005” list published recently. The Esoteric’s omission from the list is so glaring, it’s almost blinding.
What local band this year rebounded from a crippling disaster to release its finest recorded work to date to national critical acclaim? Made regular rounds on both MTV2 and FUSE with their music video? Played nearly 300 shows all across the country with national acts like Every Time I Die, From Autumn to Ashes, Bear Vs. Shark and more, including a leg on the Vans Warped Tour?
Despite being a heavy band with classic KC rock overtones and having been improperly railed as “maggot infested death metal” in a Pitch review, the Esoteric even managed to pull away from the Pitch Music Awards this year with two wins — then got poked at in the post-show wrap-up for “not bothering to show up.” If I were in a band, I’d surely forgo playing sold-out amphitheaters in New York on Warped to attend the local music award show.
I’m not trying to pick on you, Pitch, just saying that even though I’m not a huge fan of the Esoteric, its lack of mention in the year-end issue is not just conspicuous, it’s criminal. There isn’t a harder-working or more forward-thinking band within 100 miles of here.
Greg Edington
Overland Park
