It looks like all of the resolutions from the beginning of this year have been forgotten and this cowtown is back in same old vicious cycle of in-fighting, bickering and tacit racism. A round-up of trends from throughout this week reveal that Kansas City continues to fight and make little real progress.
Fortunately, cowtown pettiness is something that keeps media outlets going so I’m not going to lament the return to a regular news cycle that features more than a fair share of nastiness, hatred and circular logic.
Let’s take a look at the top stories that powered the media and supplied a break in content between much more entertaining entertainment talk programs and reality shows.
Check it:
1. The Waldo Rapist provided the vast majority of this week’s fear and loathing. White people who normally don’t give a damn about East side murders were sparked into action when crime finally came to their doorstep. Of course we don’t want to diminish the suffering of the rape victims. However, it’s almost comforting to see that newbie Waldo crime activists are just as annoying, lame, self-righteous and media loving as so many Eastside anti-violence activists that are subtly resented by local reactionaries via talk radio calls and anony internet comments.
2. Mike Sanders set the agenda at City Hall with his TIF fight. Without question he is quickly earning notoriety as one of the most skillful politicians in the metro area.
3. The Kansas Murder Trial Mistaken For An Abortion Fight ended with a whimper. It didn’t take much time for The Tiller Killer to come back guilty. The jury required only 37 minutes to reject even the vaguest (albeit intriguing) notion that killing somebody in a church at point blank range was necessary to save the lives of countless babies.
4. Kansas City Democrats rallied around Obama’s one-liner promising to get rid of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” While this town is falling behind in the race to secure Obamacash related to infrastructure and transit, it’s nice to see the local Dems make the most of this social issue.
5. Finally, the citizen satisfaction numbers that Mayor Funkhouser campaigned on are down across the board. What’s even more interesting is that this survey was taken before Kansas City’s lackluster snow removal job during the recent blizzard.
So, it seems that mostly frustrated headlines mark this first month of the new decade as history seems to continue repeating itself with regard to political disappointment in this town.
Tony Botello
