Three Cinco de Mayos

Cinco de Mayo 2011

Cinco de Mayo 2012

Cinco de Mayo 2013

Coming May, 2014: Four Cinco de Mayos

Our New Book ~ Early Kansas City

There are more pictorial histories of Kansas City than I can count, but Prof. Ulichne and I have added our own contribution to the historical record of this town in the just released book from Arcadia Publishing called, "Images of America: Early Kansas City, Missouri."  We are hoping that even the stoutest Kansas City history buffs will open this book and say (more than once), "I never knew that!"

Another goal in doing this project was to call attention to people and things that have been forgotten or diminished in the official narrative.  In many books about local history, Thomas Bullene is called an early settler and a shopkeeper, if he's mentioned at all.  Theodore Case, if mentioned, is generally referred to as a physician.  These men were so much more than that, and their impact was lasting and should be remembered. There are numerous examples of people such as these that all Kansas Citians should grow up learning about in school, but instead these early leaders have largely been forgotten.

There are also a few pictures and stories of some people whose names grace our roadways.  We see their names every day, but who were they?  And in at least one instance, we're hoping readers will wonder why we continue to honor people whose behavior might not have warranted such a lasting legacy.

I've been told by the publisher that the book is "in the stores" today, but I'm not exactly sure which stores they're referring to yet.  If you're a KC history buff, you can get the book on Amazon, or ask for it at your local library!   Hope you enjoy it :)

P. S.: You can get an even closer look at early Kansas City history by reading the news of the day... from back in the day.

2nd Amendment Solution (Warning: Graphic)

Instead of telling Sandy Hook families to "go to Hell" like one right-wing radio talk show host did last week, worried as he was that their collective grief would cause an impingement on his gun rights, 2nd Amendment activists need to frame the conversation in terms that all human beings can understand. If they were smart, they would leave "left vs right" politics and race-baiting out of the discussion and win hearts and minds the way they always do, by using extreme fear tactics.

After I spent weeks hoping for expanded background checks and limits to the amount of ammunition in a clip, etc., I saw a photograph that made me want to run straight to Bass Pro to buy up any and all automatic firearms and as much ammunition as I could fit in the car (if they have that sort of thing there).  This picture was so terrifying, I forgot all about background checks, wondering if it was legal to buy hand grenades online.  I said to myself, "This is what the 2nd Amendment crowd needs to drive their point home!"

So I'll share it with you here. Instead of being mean and spiteful and driving sensible people away from your cause, gun rights folk merely need to circulate this photograph and the fight will be over.  They could probably get Pfizer (or whoever makes Xanax and Zoloft) to sponsor a billboard campaign using this image and they would never again need to worry about anyone wanting to take their guns away.  You'll have to scroll down for the picture... If you are faint of heart or prone to anxiety or are of a nervous disposition, please turn away and do not look at this photograph.  Professor Joyboy will have some sensible solutions in the coming days about gun issues, but for now, scroll down if you dare...
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Right Wing Paranoia

In the 1990s I knew a man who was so worried that President Clinton was going to "take his guns away" that he spent thousands and thousands of dollars buying firearms, not only to take a stand for the Second Amendment, but also to protect himself from "government tyranny." It was only a matter of time, I was assured, until government troops led by the United Nations would be going door to door to disarm Americans, and this man was going to be ready.  He would not stand by idly and watch Bill Clinton usher in the New World Order. Not arming one's self against tyranny, I was told, would be "unpatriotic."

Little by little the warm feeling of security that gun ownership used to bring him was slipping away.  Each new piece added to the arsenal brought with it a growing sense of paranoia.  As the Clinton years were winding down and most of us were enjoying a booming economy and futuristic technology this man was pacing the floors and peeking out from behind the curtains, no doubt certain that at any given moment Janet Reno would arrive personally to pry his treasured weapons from his cold, dead hands. 

There were no gun grabs, no door-to-door searches by UN troops, nobody was listening to his phone calls, and those black helicopters that he found so troubling as he hurried home from work every night were in reality news choppers covering local traffic conditions.

He could breathe much easier during the Bush years, in spite of having a president who conducted warrantless wiretaps, built secret detention facilities all over the world, used torture and rendition, and sent our troops to invade countries that never attacked us.  That was okay, you see, because THAT president was a Republican and criticizing the President of the United States, I was told, would be "unpatriotic."

Here we are 20 years after Clinton took office and just like a re-run of a bad TV show that nobody liked in the first place, hysterical Right Wing Paranoia is making a resurgence at a fevered pitch.  Facebook and Twitter are exploding with photographs of people posing with their weapons and vowing to lay down their lives to protect their right to have dangerous firearms lying around the house, in spite of the fact that nobody's trying to take that right away in the first place.

If you're a right winger who's too young to remember the Clinton years, please learn from my old friend and don't waste the economic recovery that will usher in the best years yet of the 21st century by pacing around nervously and becoming delusional.  Nobody in the government is going to give a crap about you or your little arsenal, unless you start acting like this guy:



Also see my new Tumblr blog: Right Wing Paranoia: Unhinged in the Face of a Dying Ideology

Meet the New Mayor of Sugar Creek

I was standing in an unfinished loft that will soon be an office, looking down on some magnificent landscaping that will soon be an outdoor wedding chapel next to a vineyard.  Prof. Ulichne was chatting about local history with our host, whose family had been among the first settlers in Jackson County decades before our own grandparents came over from Europe. I was somewhat overwhelmed and speechless at everything I was looking at.

The wedding chapel and reception hall were news to me. I was trying to get a grasp on all the things our host had accomplished since the last time I'd seen him...Vice President of the Board of Education, whose name I'd seen in the news from time to time, always proud when I'd read of his accomplishments. I'd heard good things about his vineyard and local wine.  But to me he was somebody different...

To me our host had always been the kindly pharmacist I only saw when I was sick, back when I lived in that town. Matt's Medicine Store has prospered for more than 20 years, in spite of being located across the street from a discount chain drug store giant.  As a pharmacist, he was so kind and knowledgeable that it gave me an idea of what pharmacies used to be like back in the days before Walgreens and CVS.

Looking out at the vineyard and the wedding grounds, I kept thinking, "Matt Mallinson is literally and seriously invested in the future of this town!"

After years of being depressed about the decline of my beloved Sugar Creek, Missouri, here is someone who's creating beautiful things and making the town a better place. He sees the potential and beauty that anyone who's ever loved Sugar Creek knows so well, and he's making it a better place, "for the future," he said that day.  "That's why we do everything, right? For our kids and our grandkids."

Congratulations to Matt Mallinson, the new mayor of Sugar Creek!  Democracy is strong, and I'm so very proud :)