Kansas City is prepared to sacrifice

Westport and other areas in town to the Cordish Empire's goals. It's not just that KC isn't promoting Westport, it's that they appear to be actively seeking to destroy other entertainment areas. Drunks puke and piss on the street every night in the P&L. they stumble out barely able to walk under their own power, but do you ever see a police check point there? Nope, and you won't. Can't give the impression that everything isn't perfect.

Want to go to Westport? Even if the traffic is slow there will be a drunk check. You won't see the puking and pissing, but you will see cops making sure everyone knows they are on the wrong streets. Want to drink and drive then get your ass over to P&L. I don't condone drinking and driving - my father was killed by a drunk driver when I was 5. What I am saying is that the cops and KC don't give a rat's ass about drinking and driving if you do it in the all mighty Power & Light.

Lots of cops paid for by tax dollars patrolling the areas around the Cordish Empire. Westport begs for any to help with people loitering and causing trouble. I don't think Waldo and Brookside fare much better. Kansas City is too busy kissing the ass of Cordish executives to give a damn about the rest of the city.

18th & vine could be something cool. It could be an international tourist attraction, but not if the city doesn't stand behind it. I'm not asking for tons of money, I'm asking that they MENTION THAT IT EXISTS. I have checked several maps and tourist flyers at rest stops on my back to KC from out of town. You won't see mention of the jazz district or the museum. Lots of stuff on there, but not one of the things that makes the city truly unique. Power and Light looks almost exactly like most of the things Cordish builds. There is no Kansas City flavor to it.

Shop local, dine local, drink local. Quit sending our money out of state just because the city loves a company from Maryland.

When you ignore the Media you learn all sorts of useful stuff.

I don't pay much attention to local news on the tv. One channel here has local news on for something like 2 hours, broken into half hour shows all pretty much reporting on the same thing. Over and Over. I think the idea is for people who miss one to be able to catch the next. Whatever the thought behind it, their show, just like most stations, consists of more "no news" than news. The KC Star is a little too establishment and sometimes the Pitch is too far out there to be a serious news source. (I do read it faithfully though) I don't find the national news stations to be much better - though I do read the Wall Street Journal and like the reporting in it.

So the media fails to report on stuff that you need to know, what's left? For me it's the internet. Don't roll your eyes. I know there's a lot of bad information floating around the net as truth - but that's true of mainstream media too. I have found that if you want to know what's going on you should read a variety of bloggers. They all write from their own bias, but you know that before you read. Most people are pretty straight forward about what they support or don't support and you know their bias up front. The same can NOT be said of mainstream media, which often presents itself as fair and honest.

I bring this up because of something I read on The Flogging of America. Btyfrd has many interesting links in this post, but one hit home for me. The fact that police officers are not able to exercise all their rights politically. My father is a police officer in Georgia. I did some checking and Georgia seems to be more progressive than Missouri on this issue.

Anywho - time for rant- How on earth can they expect a police officer to give up so much for his or her job? This job entails long hours, traditionally low pay, and you spend a LOT of time dealing with people society wishes didn't exist. It's on the news when cops shoot people (as it should be) but when they get shot in the line of duty it's not always a major story. This is one of those jobs that can kill you way before your time. Taking this job should be something that is rewarded, not punished. Police officers should do their best not to bring their own biases to the job (it happens, they are just people) but they shouldn't be forced into not having views. If they want to join a committee for their political party they should be allowed to. If they want to solicit donations for their candidate, as long as they don't do it in uniform or as part of the dept., they should be allowed to. When they take off their uniform they are regular people and should be accorded the rights and responsibilities of regular people. Part of what is supposed to make our nation great is the freedom to choose what we think, say and believe. Other employees of the city and state are allowed to participate fully in their political party, why not police officers? Write your representatives and tell them to put this issue back on the table. - rant over-

Now this issue is not the only one mentioned in that post, just the first one I chose to talk about. She details a lot of stuff you may not be aware of. I know that I wasn't aware of most of it. I didn't know that Missouri chose not to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment. I probably wouldn't have known except for a blogger who did some research and put it on the web. The Flogging of America is not the only blog I read, there are quite a few I check out daily, it was just the first one I read this morning. And see, I've already learned more valuable information than I would have if I had watched any of the insipid morning news shows.