Letters from the week of November 27

Carolyn Szczepanski’s cover story regarding R. Crosby Kemper III was both affirmative and annoying. Having been the subject of a cover Pitch story quite some years back, I can be especially sympathetic to Mr. Kemper.

Yes, the spirit of rebellion and investigative reporting that The Pitch regularly exhibits often puts the paper in the heroic mode for which so many of us are sincerely grateful. Its role is important to the vitality of our community. But to routinely throw out a few snide remarks on incredibly trivial points, such as someone’s casual dress, is unworthy in an article of this kind.

Crosby Kemper is a humble, kindhearted and generous soul. Is that simple truth too dull for your publication? I am confident that Kemper is so magnanimous that he will certainly overlook The Pitch‘s snotty remarks. Just because somebody is a member high up in the wealthy establishment, it is not de rigueur for The Pitch to take a few snide remarks in the name of investigative reporting or balanced journalism. Come on, Pitch staff, grow up and cut out the cheap adolescent potshots.

Richard Mende, Kansas City, Missouri

I read Peter Rugg’s story about priests at St. Elizabeth abusing their young parishioners. I was reminded of a woman I worked with in Chicago. She grew up in Los Alamos, New Mexico, in the 1970s (her father worked at the lab there). She said when she was about 7 years old, her parents warned her to never go near the building on the hill just outside of town. When she was older, her mother told her that the building was a “halfway house” for priests who had been caught sexually abusing young children. The priests were sent there for “rehabilitation,” and when that was supposedly completed, those “reformed” priests were then sent to another parish in another state — where unsuspecting parishioners had no knowledge of their new priest’s past activities with young boys. I don’t know if this is still the standard procedure for the Catholic Church or if that building is still being used for that purpose, but the higher-ups in the Catholic Church never considered removing these abusers from the priesthood.

Thank you for — once again — bringing us the details behind mainstream media headlines such as “Tentative settlement reached in KC priest abuse cases.”

Sandi Miller, Leawood

Editor’s note: After the publication of “117 Homicides and Counting … ,” Peter Rugg’s November 20 feature on City Hall’s Aim4­Peace anti-violence program, City Councilwoman Sharon Sanders Brooks called us, unhappy that she wasn’t listed among the council members (Cathy Jolly, Melba Curls and Cindy Circo) who attended a November 1 rally. She asked us to clarify that she was there, too. Duly noted, Councilwoman.

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