Race Day

Ebony and irony: I just read Greg Hall’s article about how the Royals are trying to advertise to Kansas City’s Hispanic community (“A Royal Peña,” May 23). Call me closed-minded, but I don’t think that any sports team should advertise to any ethnic group. It just doesn’t make sense. Blacks and Hispanics are going to go to a game if they have black/Hispanic night or not. I think it’s kind of sick that people start going to games if someone that looks like them is on the team.
I remember another Pitch article about how blacks weren’t going to Royals games because they don’t have African-Americans on the team (Greg Hall’s “White Tide,” June 21, 2001). How reverse-racist is that? Do you think white people would get away with saying the reason they don’t like the NBA is because there are no whites? Do you think an American would get away with saying the reason he doesn’t like the NHL is because there are too many Canadians and Eastern Europeans? Do you think straight people would get away with saying the reason why they hate figure skating is because there are too many gay people? I know many Asians and Native Americans who love sports, and how many of them do you see playing?
Brian K. Johnson
Kansas City, Missouri

Drum Set
The bald truth: Regarding Deb Hipp’s “Drummed Out” (May 23): People will always fear what they don’t understand. It’s pathetic that the Krishnas have received so much trivial lowbrow, strong-arm bullshit for spreading a little cheer on the Plaza. Most – and I do mean most – people think they’re silly or a nuisance. But if you understand what they are doing, you might be “enlightened” a bit to chat with them. George Harrison was a huge supporter of the Krishnas for nearly forty years!
I’ve never attended one of their Sunday feasts, but I’ve considered it many times. Hell, when I worked at the Hurricane in Westport, I was approached every day by the Krishnas. Sure, at times it was an inconvenience, but I would much rather have put up with them than the prepubescent punk kids begging for change or the barely audible/decipherable drunk asking for a cigarette. Three years later, I enjoy seeing them on the streets being passionate about something they believe in.
Let me ask Mr. and Mrs. Abercrombie and Grinch: Would you rather see some silly bald people in saffron robes chanting, banging on drums and offering you a book for a donation, or be accosted by a bunch of thugs hanging outside the McDonald’s with nothing to do on a Saturday night but harass passersby?
David George
Prairie Village

Different drummers: It’s charming. It’s unique. It’s local. Naturally, it must be eradicated from the Plaza. I speak of Highwoods Properties’ current De-Krishnafication Project. All that dancing and singing is a real menace. And heaven forbid it offends the bourgeoisie!
The Krishnas were my neighbors once. I know their thoughtfulness from daily experience, and I genuinely miss them. They’re not determined to irritate, offend or condemn people with their religion, which is more than can be said for others.
What exactly is the problem? Some yuppies and yokels think the Krishnas are “stupid”? How ironic. I know it’s an Ashcroft world, but Plaza public-safety officers don’t yet have the power to suspend the Constitution on the grounds that the Krishnas are weird.
Anyway, if Weird + Stupid + Religious = Illegal, I’d arrest Fred Phelps myself.
It sounds like the off-duty Plaza security officer deliberately took Karuna’s book to entrap him in the trespassing charge. If some jerk stole my book, I like to think I’d follow him, too. A judge with half a brain will throw this out. Highwoods should say a prayer not to be sued, though this may be complicated due to their recent self-deification.
Keep it up and soon the Plahzah will become Town Center Plaza Central, boasting only a unique river of Mission Hills’ sewage.
Meanwhile, I’ll try to stay off their bricks.
Maureen Lawlor
Brookside

Youth Services
Bar association: Regarding T.R. Witcher’s “Covert Curfew” (May 16): There used to be places for eighteen-, nineteen- and twenty-year-olds to go. Unfortunately, they’ve made it illegal to be young. They made it a crime for kids that age to pursue the same interests their parents and grandparents enjoyed. I’m speaking, of course, of drinking beer and listening to music.
We used to have clubs where teens could go to drink beer and listen to live bands. They only served 3.2 beer, which is the proper stuff for inexperienced drinkers. There were bouncers in case a fight broke out. Unless you were actually driving drunk, you didn’t have to worry about being abducted by the cops and losing your license.
Now the kids north of the river are left standing around bonfires outside the city. There are no live bands, just a boom box. There’s no 3.2 beer, either; there’s 5 percent beer or hard liquor, or anything somebody brings. No bouncers to stop a fight if one breaks out. In the city, they’re left to roam the streets of Westport, dodge the cops and gangbangers and drink in alleys.
Apparently, there are people misguided enough to think this is a better system. The corrupt legal system creates the problem, but none of our leaders have the guts or integrity to admit their own mistakes. Remember, if you treat people like animals, they will act like animals.
David Hughes
Kansas City, Missouri

Central Heat
Lift and separate: Joe Miller’s “The Long Walk Home” (May 23) was awesome! After reading his history of the desegregation case, I began to understand why the conditions in the Kansas City schools were as they were when I attended (’60s and ’70s), and why we have the current situation. I’m not naïve; I always believed it had to do with politics, corruption and racism, but Miller’s article detailed how those factors interacted.
I have to say that while the desegregation plan had obvious flaws, the black people he spoke to are glamorizing the past. If the schools were better back then, it’s because we had caring teachers and administrators (both black and white) who often pulled up the slack where resources were lacking … and I do mean lacking. We had shit for books and equipment; on-site health services were catch-as-catch-can; we never knew what course electives we’d have from one year to the next; the substitute teachers were untrained; and even then, the buildings were deteriorating. (The first book I remember reading when I started attending KC schools was literally falling to pieces, and it was copyrighted in the early 1930s – this was around 1966!)
While I don’t believe white students in a classroom are necessary for black children to be able to learn, separate is definitely not equal, and it will never be! We had better be careful that we don’t play into the hands of conservative power brokers (who have anything but our children’s best interests at heart) by falling prey to this “good old days” bullshit.
Don Charles
Kansas City, Missouri