Though I have lived here 6 1/2 years, many times I still feel like a visiting tourist. Last week I saw Trace Adkins at the Midland Theatre — what a way to spend Friday night. I had never seen the beautiful Midland in its refurbished state, and we sat there in awe during a wonderful concert.
Kansas City has so much to offer!
Faith Farmer
Kansas City
I wish to answer your question, “Will (Obama’s) palate inspire change, too?” (2/3, FYI). Recently, I read that President Obama was wining and dining White House guests with wagyu steaks. Being unsophisticated, I had to investigate what a wagyu steak is. Then I went on to price them, just in case they would inspire my palate.
At the price of $125 per pound, I will never be able to afford wagyu steaks. These steaks are not in my budget. Rather, I will have to be satisfied with hamburger.
Robert W. Straub
Kansas City
Monday evening’s UMKC Conservatory Concert Jazz Band’s performance of Bobby Watson’s Gates Bar-B-Q Suite was extraordinary. Watson’s composition was masterful, and the band could not have performed it better.
What a great evening of music it was!
Laurie Fisher
Kansas City
A tragic Black Friday
Enough already!
Before reading the news of the trampling death of an employee at a New York Wal-Mart in a rush of greed-crazed shoppers (11/29, A-5, “Wal-Mart worker killed in stampede”), I had scanned the ads and had reached the above stated conclusion.
The stores open earlier every year, with at least one major retailer being open all night and others handing out “tickets” or “vouchers” granting the sleep-deprived the right to purchase items advertised as “door-busters” or “door-crashers”. Apparently, as the crumpled door at Wal-Mart would attest, it is a literal term, not just an advertising device.
Everyone shares responsibility in this tragedy: stores so eager to rake in revenue; consumers willing to push, shove, and even walk on a store employee; a society so greed-driven as to engage in such behavior.
It is unconscionable for retailers to put out ads with offers on an item for which there is a huge market and an incredibly short supply. It would be much more reasonable for good buys to be offered in sufficient quantity over the course of several days than for these loss-leader sales that generate such mayhem to contribute to tragedy such as that in Valley Stream, N.Y.
Paul Reed
Oskaloosa, Kan.
With tears streaming down my face, I wonder if we realize what this great nation has become — and if the tragedy of the Wal-Mart employee trampled to death by shoppers on Black Friday will cause us to wake up. We have become increasingly isolated from one another in our pursuit of newer and better “stuff” to the point that children are reared by electronics while parents and grandparents work 40-plus hours a week to pay for more “stuff.”
We consistently live beyond our means, both as families and as a nation. Our president called upon us to get back in the malls as our patriotic duty when thousands were killed in the attacks of 9/11. And now, shoppers in Long Island have declared that bargain prices on plasma TVs and digital cameras were worth more than a man’s life. Shame on us. America has been a better place than that and can be again.
My heart goes out to the family of the slain man and to those unfortunate souls who participated in his death and those who protested when the store was closed as a result.
Wal-Mart reopened that store within a few hours. And the beat goes on.
Macha Greenleaf-Maple
Raytown
Why must stores open so early?
Why is it that all the retailers need to be the first to open their doors the day after Thanksgiving? What happened to families enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday together and giving thanks for all they have been blessed with? This should also include all the employees of the retail stores. I doubt they can enjoy this holiday knowing that they must be at work so early in the morning (midnight or 4 a.m.). Everyone needs some sleep before going to work. This early shopping time has gotten out of control.
Why can’t the retailers have the same specials or incentives to purchase at 9 a.m.? Perhaps they can extend the working hours a little later on that day rather than open so early. Why the big rush? Consumers will buy their gifts with those incentives at a reasonable hour.
Yes, all the retail employees should be thankful to have the job. I just wish everyone could enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday with their family as much as I did.
Barbara Reed
Lee’s Summit
As I was driving home last Friday, I was sexually harassed by men in a roofing company vehicle who made a gesture depicting oral sex when they passed me.
When I called the company to complain that their employees were sexually harassing women on the highway, I was informed that it would be “mentioned to the guys.”
When I pressed further, the company representative hung up on me.
This is no unique incident, only peculiar in that these men did not consider the company information on their windshield to be a deterrent.
They assumed that they could get away with it because I would dismiss their threat as just another part of my day.
How bittersweet to see women as contenders for our country’s highest offices and still live with the normalcy of sexual harassment in our everyday lives.
Will we accept violence as normal life?
Jane M. Webb
Kansas City
The economy is horrible, and I care about that, but I care about more than the economy.
I care about our children and the education that they are (or aren’t) getting.
I care about the callous disregard for another human life — including, but not only, in the womb.
I care about how polarized our culture has become.
I care about the growing number of lies that are accepted as truth.
I care about how few people seem to be able to think through a problem logically.
I care a lot about laws that are selectively enforced.
I care about our freedom.
Betty Reed
Overland Park
The Star’s article “Motive may never be known” (9/15, Local) questioning how Edwin Hall went from juvenile delinquent to rapist and murderer turned a blind eye to the obvious.
The abduction, sexual assault and murder of Kelsey Smith is more evidence of the negative effects of a highly sexualized culture on communities. Rapes have increased in Kansas City by 45 percent. The Centers for Disease Control reports that 26 percent of teenage girls have a sexually transmitted disease.
It is cause and effect: garbage in, garbage out. We can’t afford to be indifferent and dismiss as harmless fun the pervasive flood of highly sexualized commercials, videos, TV entertainment, Internet porn and sexualized music, all exacerbated by emerging handheld communication technologies. The pornification of America has changed everything.
Kelsey Smith was likely one more tragic victim of fantasy-driven criminal behavior. The public will never know? Wake up and smell the coffee. We all know. Denial and desensitization are the issues we should examine.
Phillip Cosby
Executive director, Kansas City Office of the National Coalition for the Protection of Children and Families
Overland Park
I had the enormous privilege of making my Kansas City Symphony debut this past weekend as a guest soloist. Although I sing on the famous international stages of the world, being a native of Prairie Village and current resident of Kansas City, this particular debut was one of the most special of my career. I’ve seen firsthand the unbounded growth and meteoric rise of my hometown “band.” The Kansas City Symphony, under the vibrant direction of Michael Stern, is on its way to becoming a world-class institution.
I have a feeling that this city doesn’t yet realize what an enormous impact our new performing arts center is going to have. It will redefine our skyline and scream out to the world that we are a vibrant, progressive and principled city that believes in building a strong cultural backbone and that has made an enormous commitment to ensuring a lasting place for the arts. This new building will give birth to the international arrival of not only the Kansas City Symphony, but the Lyric Opera and Kansas City Ballet as well.
Brace yourselves, Kansas City — it’s going to be an amazing ride!
Joyce DiDonato
Kansas City
Am I an elitist? Has thinking become unfashionable? I don’t like NASCAR, conservative talk shows or cheap beer — probably telltale signs of slipping into that deep dark, elitist realm. If I am not careful, I may end up at the ballet or, even worse, taking up yoga.
But if being elitist means not trusting the Republican Party to guard the henhouse again, then I guess I am one.
If being an elitist means I am not easily fooled by a wolf in sheep’s clothing, then pin that label on my flagless lapel.
If I think creationist science is an oxymoron, pro-choice means exactly what it says, and gay people should be able to marry then, God forbid, I may fall into that dirty rotten elitist camp.
What’s even worse is I don’t think that being able to see Russia across the Bering Strait counts as foreign policy expertise.
Gee whiz! I may never get over this stigma of elitism at this rate.
Drew Pearce
Kansas City
Olympics: billions.
National campaigns: millions.
Democratic and Republican conventions: millions.
National sports million dollar contracts: NASCAR, baseball, football.
Billions and millions of dollars of our economy disaster’s events I can watch on cable for just hundreds.
David L. Davis
Leavenworth
