4 days ago
Kansas City police enforce vehicle safety unevenly, when it comes to Patriot Front
Missouri and Kansas police departments have worked to improve highway safety the past two weeks by cracking down on seat belt enforcement during the annual Click It or Ticket campaign. Kansas City drivers have seen a higher police presence and more pullovers during some of the busiest travel days of the year. And drivers ticketed for skipping the belt can expect a $10 to $60 fine.
Unless you're a white nationalist. In which case, you can expect a police escort and for officers to stand by as you pile into the back of a U-Haul from Texas, sans safety restraint. (May 30, 1A, 'Police let white nationalists go 'unbothered,' witness says') Patriot Front members and pals demonstrated this strange legal loophole last weekend.
As for me, I have little energy for angry white boys who want to cosplay as militiamen instead of participating in the annual Memorial Day barbecue and home improvement blitz like the rest of us. But I've spent the last week marveling at KCPD's enthusiasm for personal driving safety, only to be shocked as officers stood by while dozens of men crowded into the back of a van right in front of them, without comment.
They certainly did not click it. Where is their ticket?
- Natalia Cortez-Barb, Osawatomie
It was with deep anguish that the news of Sarah Milgrim sank in. Now her parents have to experience the unimaginable. We lost not only Sarah, but also the problems not solved, the marriages not celebrated, the babies not born. We are left with a deep hole in our hearts and community. Sarah dedicated her life to peace. God knows we need more people like her in our world.
I would like to challenge each of us to pick an issue we are concerned about — and with Sarah in our hearts, let's continue her spirit of service and commitment to peace that she so was passionate about.
- Connie Spies, Gladstone
We laid Sarah Milgrim and Yaron Lischinsky to rest, not antisemitism.
The Trump administration cannot condemn antisemitism on the one hand and dance with it on the other. Did Elon Musk think nothing would follow his heil salute, or JD Vance think no Israel hater would hear him exhort Germany to embrace the AfD, the neo-Nazi-founded party that Germany itself labels a terrorist organization?
In Donald Trump's first term, he opined that 'some' far-right extremists in Charlottesville who chanted 'Jews will not replace us' were 'very fine people' (while claiming he meant 'other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists' among them). In his second term, he has full-pardoned convicted neo-fascist leaders who rampaged the capitol on Jan. 6. The full pardon allows them to carry guns.
Did Trump, Musk and Vance think lone wolf radicals would not hear the speech condoning German fascism, not see the straight-arm gesture, not consider the pardon of homegrown terrorists as anything but approval from those in power? Strangling universities and expelling foreign students will not rub the blood of antisemitism off this country's hands.
In retrospect, the murder of two Israeli Embassy staffers seems a predictable follow-up to actions of our nation's leaders. The Bible says it best: You reap what you sow.
- Joyce Winslow, Bethesda, Maryland
The College of Cardinals took all of two days to select a new Pope.
The Jackson County Legislature and the county executive after five months have been unable to adopt a budget. (May 23, 'These ideas from Jackson County Prosecutor's Office blocked in county budget stalemate')
Here's a thought: Each time the Legislature meets, its members can signal their progress on the arduous task:
Black smoke, no budget.
White smoke, an approved budget.
On the later occasion, the public will not cheer for joy but instead give a big sigh of relief that something actually got done.
- Brent Schondelmeyer, Independence
I met Jeanne Baldwin in 1954 when I enrolled in her Saturday puppetry classes in the glorious Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. Having taken the class 15 years earlier, Mrs. Baldwin then taught this 10-class session four times a year, culminating in a marionette production free to the public.
I lived for those Saturdays when we produced four marionette fairy-tales each year, inspired by objects and paintings in the Nelson-Atkins' vast collection. I learned art history by osmosis, surrounded by it every week. Mrs Baldwin was guide and mentor.
At her suggestion, the Nelson-Atkins hired me as her assistant. This credit and my portfolio enabled my acceptance into the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University drama school in 1960. My Nelson-Atkins classmate, Howard Smith — St. George to my dragon — later created China Smith Tours, a university-accredited Chinese culture study. Shortly after, he become a member of the board of directors for Columbia University.
Jeanne Baldwin passed away May 24. She blessed my life and those of her many other students. Her footprint is indelible in our career accomplishments as artists and as educators.
- Jerry Williams, Eugene, Oregon
