Royals Flushed

KC at the bat: Regarding Greg Hall’s “Royal Blues” (April 4): Until a hard salary cap comes down with serious revenue sharing, the Royals will never be competitive again. The Royals would have to be omniscient in their draft picks, trades, player development and managing to win or even get to a World Series. While not impossible, one would be a fool to expect anything better than .500 ball. The ’70s were an aberration before free agency threw the economics of baseball out of whack, and Ewing Kauffman didn’t mind losing a few bucks every year.

Baseball should contract at least four teams, including the Royals, and put KC out of its misery. I’d rather take the money for Kauffman Stadium, build an arena, and attract an NBA team. Not that I think that is a good idea, but it’s better than watching the Royals and their fans die a slow death and then have Glass tell everyone how hard he tried but there just wasn’t enough support to watch his mismanaged lousy team.

P.S. If Grunhard doesn’t know what decapitation is, let’s not try to lay a defenestration on him. He and his fellow frat boys might have a brain seizure (“Off the Couch,” April 4).

P.P.S. How can the Jim Rome show be so popular? His schtick gets old very quickly.

Lee Goodman

Prairie Village

Conservative Commentator
Public enemy: I enjoyed Deb Hipp’s concise article (“Broadcast Feuds,” March 7). KKFI 90.1 was incorporated as a community radio station as an alternative to public and commercial radio programming.

As a self-employed white male “Rockefeller” Republican, I became a volunteer around mid-1987. I understood that “community radio” was an effort by aging hippies to provide a “free speech” outlet for the disenfranchised minorities, including “blacks, feminists and even homosexuals,” and anyone who felt oppressed, suppressed and otherwise discriminated against. Such a noble, naïve, expensive, quixotic undertaking!

With the U.S. Supreme Court defining money as free speech, I found it very refreshing that some hippies, as they became yuppies, chose to put their money where their rhetoric was. Being a member of the oppressing “majority,” it amused me to join the “loyal opposition!”

Robert Barrientos was hired to manage a community radio station, not a public station. With KCUR, KANU and KOPN available, we don’t need another NPR outlet! I agree with efforts to bring a more professional quality to community radio. But keeping community radio active is a very exhausting, expensive task.

David R. Watson

Kansas City, Missouri

News Junkie

Now for this commercial interruption: It is laudable that the Pitch champions the causes of KCTV Channel 5 (Joe Miller’s “Anchors Away!” April 4). I hope that in future issues, your crack staff reports how L.C.’s is trying to beat out Gates as barbecue king in Kansas City, or perhaps that Tide gets clothes 75 percent whiter than All-Temperature Cheer.

Please do not become as corporate (or as coprophagic) as all other lukewarm Kansas City publications. As least what’s left of the magazine, between all the ads, is still free.

Brian D. Jolliff

Kansas City, Missouri

Crash Landing

I’m getting buried in the morning: Regarding Allie Johnson’s “Lovers’ Leap” (March 28): I cannot believe the kind of people who are living in today’s society. This story is just an example of those surrounding you, which is a very scary thought.

I believe that if people have a history of violence — even if they have never been convicted of a crime — that this should be easily accessible to the public. I recently just got out of a relationship that could have ended the same way, and if I had known this man’s history earlier on, I would have been saved from a lot of headache and pain. What worries me the most is that those people not aware of these “manipulated knights in shining armor” or “divas in glass slippers” get into relationships with these psychos, which puts them at great harm. What really saddens me, though, is that they just continue to go on, without a care to those still left with horrible memories of their strange, fatal attraction.

Name Withheld Upon Request

Dishonor Roll

The great races: Regarding Kendrick Blackwood’s article “Men of Dishonor” (March 14): I am white, and I am against prejudice and racism. No matter what your color, race or beliefs, if you are serving in the military, you are fighting for one country.

Until I see a man create another human as God created Adam and Eve from the earth, I will firmly believe that we are all equal. Since the September 11 attacks, we have been preaching unity and fighting for freedom. Racism is dividing and conquering this country. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and fight together.

Name Withheld Upon Request

Art of the Matter

Every story tells a picture: Thank you so much for publishing the very best writer on art in Kansas City. I say this knowing that we have many talented art critics in our metro area, but Debra DiBlasi is the best. She clearly works to provide us with insight, history and context for every exhibition she reviews, and I am grateful for this wonderful work.

In “Minority Majority” (April 4), she gives us the context of the dynamic of race and gender in art. She also offers the wonderfully humane infusion of her personal response, her own bias and expectations, which often resonate with our own expectations. Then she sets us straight. Finally, her description of the specific works of art is so eloquent you feel as though you are seeing it firsthand. I relish reading art commentary that has no critical ego. She has no agenda except to help us understand. I also know that Debra is a tireless and talented teacher and volunteer in the art world. We are all incredibly fortunate to have her work in our cultural domain. Again, thank you.

Terry Nygren

Westwood