Scott Wenzel, Knoxville, Maryland
Backwash, October 26
Foundation Cracks
The one damn time I was in Kansas City (in 1994 to install a network), I listened to The Fish Fry on KCUR 89.3 and heard about the late-night jams at the Mutual Musicians Foundation and went down there. I have a copy of that old blues documentary, part of which was shot there, and I sat in the very chair Big Joe Turner sat in before he passed. And now, after all these years, Regulated Industries is shocked — SHOCKED! — to find drinking going on there!
What a bunch of dildos. Wait, is this on? Can I say “dildos”? Oh, wait, I guess I already have. Next time I’m in KC, I’ll leave the Local a big-ass donation and a case of Hennessy. Scott Wenzel, Knoxville, Maryland
KC Strip: “sky’s the limit,” november 16
clay feat
On November 7, to the Pitch‘s dismay, a majority of voters in Kansas City hopped aboard the “Crazy Train” and left the grumbling, cynical and bewildered Pitch at the station.
State Sen. Charles Wheeler called this historic and courageous vote of the people for a modern, exciting, economically enhancing, socially redeeming and environmentally sound new transit system for Kansas City a “political miracle.”
Whatever it was, Kansas City’s star is now more vividly aglow on the horizon thanks to the competent, visionary and sensitive action of its people.
Anyway, the people have spoken and not only repudiated the Pitch‘s position on the issue but also, hopefully, their condescending, ridiculing, smart-aleck, bullying, sarcastic and altogether superior journalistic mode of operandi.
But to show there are no hard feelings I propose the Pitch brass be given the first chance to ride the aerial gondola from Union Station to Liberty Memorial to revitalized Penn Valley Park. The fresh air might do their minds some good. Clay Chastain, Bedford, Virginia
Feature: “To the Rescue,” November 16 Color Reel
I’m from Hawaii. I just got off the boat two weeks ago and landed here in Parkville. Walking into the local River Rock Café, I noticed your paper with an alarming headline, “Worried about the country turning brown? The Minutemen are here to help.” My jaw dropped, and my blood pressure rose to an unhealthy high.
“Brown” sounds pretty derogatory to my Hawaiian sensibilities. Has your reporter traveled the United States? Since when has this country not been brown or multicultural?
Recently, America voted for thoughtful moderate policy. Not hotheaded revolution. Yes, there is an illegal-immigration problem. But how would a civil war between two extremist groups help me or the country? We ask you to stop hurting America.
I tried very hard to see if your reporter was attempting a Daily Show– or Colbert Report-type irony with the Minutemen story, but your style of irony was lost on me. Reporter Carolyn Szczepanski, three-quarters through the five-page article, finally gives way to an opposing viewpoint. Yet, the pro-immigration people are poorly represented. Where is the moderate view in this article? Where is the compromise? No compromise, no solution!
Is this journalism, or is it a straight-out editorial, just like my letter? It’s obviously sympathetic to anti-immigration folks. There are no side-by-side rebuttals until the end of the article. There’s no photograph of immigrants.
What if “brown” people stopped reading your paper — thought about that one?
As a nation, we are born brown. From space, we are brown dust. Daniel McCall, Parkville
Feature: “T-Shirt Tombstones,” November 9
Top Story
Nadia Pflaum’s story about memorializing the victims of violence on T-shirts was such an incredible story. Nowhere else could I have read about gang violence in such detail, on this intense a level of the individual, and from such a unique perspective (T-shirts).
I hope somebody’s handing out awards to the Pitch. Ryan Haas, Columbia
Feature, “The New Fred,” November 2
Zeal of Disapproval
I am unsure as to your motives to promote and give free press coverage to the zealot hate group that adorned your recent cover. These people don’t need any help in promoting their disgusting and ignorant agenda or the shame and pain they cause our citizens. They are an embarrassment and a black mark on our community. What an unfortunate and sad group of people.
Citizens who are intelligent and independent thinkers don’t want to hear about this trash. It’s promoted enough on TV, and those who cannot think for themselves don’t need any help in learning how to be a part of this hate crusade. I enjoy your paper, but with all the difficult things going on in our world right now, it seems a shame to promote such negativity. Name withheld on request
Fred State
This Westboro Baptist Church hates not only the gay community but also African-Americans, Canada, Sweden, the Fire Department of New York, victims of 9/11, Christian churches, the Pope, Judaism, America and our troops — and the list goes on. Many of the groups they despise are specifically named on their hate propaganda. They not only hate but also wish death on all whom they hate.
This sick, so-called church spreads its hate through picketing in our streets, provoking attacks with abusive, vulgar language. Worst of all, they endanger their own young children, having them man the front lines in their combative demonstrations as they attempt to create a confrontation and cause one more frivolous lawsuit.
If a mother has given her son to this country and is putting him in his grave, this is not the time or the place. This is not about protesters; this is about a group that calls that mother names on the way into a church to say goodbye to her son. We are not talking about freedom. We are talking about human decency.
They are not peaceful. They are not a “church.” It is about an old man, lost in the darkness of hate, who will put his 6-year-old grandson in danger to save himself. The city of Topeka, the state of Kansas and the United States at large — its citizens and their churches, its schools and events — are all held hostage by this hate group. Cam Brunner, Boca Raton, Florida
Church of the Poisoned Minds
I beg of you — please stop writing about the Phelps family and their church of hate. They are desperate for a forum to continue to spew their hatred and lies.
You are providing them exactly what they want by putting them on the front page — a place to say what they want and spread their message. We need to give them what they deserve: nothing. No attention, no articles, no airtime. If we ignore them and stop adding attention to what they do and say, then they will no longer have a way to spread their word.
The Bible says to turn the other cheek. How about we turn our backs and ignore them for once? Megan Clark, Overland Park
Fat Mouth, November 9
Wingin’ It
I ate at the Anchor Bar in Buffalo last year, and the wings there are the best I’ve ever had. You can order them delivered to your doorstep here, and I may have to do that one day. Their Web site has all the details.
Jim Layton, Parkville
“Has your reporter traveled the
United States? Since when has this country
not been brown or multicultural?”
