Original art by Mark Valentine
A Letter to Our Sister City:
Dear Kurashiki,
Aunt Google told me about your recent snow storm. She said you were having a tough time with more winter than you’ve had for decades. I know how you feel. That trouble seems to be running in the family. I’d send you some road salt, but I’m running short myself.
You and I are used to a bit of winter, but this one hit like an atom bomb, not that I want to reopen an old spat. We both got a lot of snow, didn’t we? We both had people die from it. Winter rolled in on a war chariot and declared, “Vini. Vidi. Velcro.”
I think that means, “I came. I saw. I stuck around,” but you know, I never was very good at Latin.
Uncle AP Wire told me you were having trouble with getting voters out for your election. Good luck with that. I can’t get voters out in good weather. How many government officials does it take to get a well-run city? I don’t know. I’m just your sister, Kansas City.
I love getting your pictures. You’re aging well. Your art museum and old-town makes me want to visit. I need a little exercise. Getting older is rough. I used to march. Now I occupy.
Hang in there. Spring always comes eventually. And keep an eye on China, will you?
Love,
Kansas City
When editing this item, I noticed that KC has 16 Sister Cities – 16 – for crying out loud.
Three in Mexico alone. Like whoever was mayor wanted to write off vacationing there or something? Take Guadalajara, what is it that drew us to bringing them into the family?
We’ve got one in Israel…OK…that was bound to happen, I guess.
But what about Nigeria – who made that call?
Turns out there’s a Sister City Association of Kansas City that wants you to cough up $30 to $250 a year to “join.”
They even take Paypal. Who dreamed up this not-for-profit scam?
I can tell you that they dialed in a few corporations for window dressing. Kansas City Southern, Black & Veatch, Commerce Bank…and Magic Touch Cleaning…seriously.
They’re “bring Kansas City to the world and the world to Kansas City”
That’s their spiel anyway. Just thought you’d wanna know.
I know. I am amused by the sister city program. When I did the Blues and Jazz Festival at The Woodlands, I hired a jazz band from one of our French sister cities…or maybe it was a half-sister city…. or a soul-sister city… or a twisted-sister city? We must be Catholic to have that many sisters.
What IS the point of this sister city crap? Is it just feel good BS or is there really a purpose?
Sometimes you just wanna grab two pints of Ben and Jerry’s and gab with yo sista wilsun. Make that 16 sistas in KC’s case.
Jesus, 16!?!?!?
shoot… even prairie village has two sister cities… one in the Ukraine and one in Belgium. aren’t we special?
Gotta be a scam of some sort, but I will tell you this; there’s not a lot of money on the line that I can see on the KC Sisters group.
Maybe it’s like the Loose Park Garden Club or whatever it’s called and it’s just a handful of KKFI wannabes getting their laughs and maybe some travel schmoozes by stacking the deck with sisters.
Bet somebody had a blast on the Nigeria junket
I was on a deck once with some stacked sisters….
That is it. I am writing a new song called “Nigerian Junket”