March Madness
It wasn’t easy being green: Tony Ortega’s Kansas City Strip (April 7) about this year’s St. Paddy’s Day being turned into a “family-friendly” event seemed to gloss over the fact that this year’s parade barely existed. An earlier start time, half the route (not to mention that it didn’t even really come downtown) and the city’s threat that if you did anything resembling fun you were going to jail all led to this year’s parade being the biggest disappointment for many parade veterans in years, if not decades.
For many of this city’s experienced party hounds, the parade signifies the onset of the season of outdoor fun and an opportunity to shake off the doldrums of a rapidly waning winter. If you want a wholesome, kid-friendly experience, go to the Snake Saturday Parade in North Kansas City and ride the carnival rides. They have a cop for every two blocks, and it has that friendly, wholesome, hometown feel. Leave us, the adults who have made the “real” parade one of the largest in the United States, our one day of fun. Don’t punish us because a very small group of people got out of hand.
I, like many, look forward to St. Paddy’s all year long, and to have a squeamish city government pee on our parade (pun intended) does nothing but undermine the celebration for the years to come. To the city planners and officials, I say tear down our historic buildings, build your arena; just give me back my Paddy’s Day.
Brian Rivera
Kansas City, Missouri
Fighting Irish: Where do I begin? Would it be with your mention of a Kansas City Parade Commission (when no such organization exists) or your suggestion that St. Patrick’s Day Parade COMMITTEE members somehow control liquor permits in Kansas City? Or would it be your snide and insulting remarks about a holiday that genuinely has meaning in this city’s large and economically influential Irish-American community? Or would it be your amateurish efforts to take parade committee co-chair Mary Nestel’s remarks completely out of any context at all to make her and the many volunteers she represents look like jerks? I’d like to clarify a few more points, since “journalistic investigation” in the Pitch seems to be limited to collecting as many snarky remarks as possible while avoiding any real information for your readers.
The reason beer-tent permits were set for 3 p.m. is likely based on the fact that previous years’ parades ended at about that time. (You might have delved into your alcohol-addled brain to recall that this is the first year the parade had such an early start.) That would also be supported by Judy Hadley’s comments on policy not allowing such tents “during the actual parade hours.” So, if anyone gets the shellacking, it’s City Hall for not adjusting its policies to the new reality (which, not coincidentally, was imposed by the very same City Hall).
I also take deep offense at your “cute” barfing-leprechaun graphic. While St. Patrick’s Day may just be another step into an (apparently lifelong) alcoholic haze for you (and, we admit, a great many Irish-Americans as well), this particular holiday is a time of celebration in our community, not merely a chance to drink ourselves sick. Sadly, many just like you simply lack the maturity and the intelligence to understand the difference.
Pete Maher
Kansas City, Missouri
Board Games
Monkeying around: There is really no reason for me to write and comment on Tony Ortega’s “Scopes Snoops” (Kansas City Strip, March 17), but I feel compelled to respond to the biased tone of the article. The last time I checked, we live in a great country that uses a democratic process to sort out its issues. As Americans, it is our right to defend, sometimes with force, our opinions.
Ortega writes that the Kansas School Board is “staging” hearings to discuss the theory of evolution, and his article suggests the hearings are just a dog and pony show. Although the scientists have had plenty of opportunity to prove the theory of evolution in the past, they have not supported it with concrete evidence.
The bottom line is that the school board represents the public, and they must make a decision based on the people’s voice. This process is why our country is the greatest in the world. The little guy does have a right to voice his opinion on what is being taught to his children.
Dick Jenkins
Kansas City, Missouri
Screen Pass
Blogged artery: I would first like to say I enjoyed Nadia Pflaum’s “Meaner Girls” (March 31). I felt that it accurately portrayed the Xanga society. I am a junior at Rockhurst High School. (I am on scholarship, so don’t think I am a stupid rich kid.)
The problem with free speech is that so many have nothing good to say. They like to spread hate and misgivings. (One girl I know complained about chauvinistic males and was told, “Get back in the kitchen, cunt.” Or something vulgar like that.) I do make fun of others (Republicans, homophobes, chauvinistic males and overly depressed kids).
My parents know as much about computers as I know about paying taxes. Remember, all things have the power to heal or destroy.
Joseph Burnett
Kansas City, Missouri
Minority report: I’m a 15-year-old high school student, and I know what goes on inside high schools.
Nadia Pflaum says that Xanga.com is a tool for kids to make fun of each other. If you so much as step into a high school or even into public at all, you are opening yourself up to public criticism. If you can’t handle having people who disagree with you around, then high school is going to be unbearable.
Can Xanga.com and other Web logs be used to mock or gossip about people? Absolutely, but it’s also a great way to express yourself and tell people how you really feel about something. In this case, I think that the kids who use the site in a negative way are a big minority on the Web sites.
Name Withheld by Request
