Strip Tease

Bad meat!Oh, come on! Making Johnny Dare's bar sound racist is just silly! (KC Strip, " Johnny on the Spot," August 5) Following this line of logic, you would complain about any bar in Westport that is not aimed at the hip-hop crowd, making any person opening a nonhip-hop club racist.

Your logic is flawed like an E. coli-infected rump roast.

Jill Hanson
Raytown

The Dare program:A bit simplistic, don't you think? You referred to Westport as a place for young blacks to party. There was very little partying going on, mostly a lot of standing around. And whether black folks are standing around or not, of course merchants aren't going to want people that are just loitering and not going into any of the other clubs. I don't see why people think that any group in society has a moral obligation to entertain any other group or groups of people. Grow up and stop pretending that no minority group has ever done anything wrong. The young black kids who were loitering around the Westport area in the past were mostly under 21 (which means they can provide little economically to the area), and the fact that they scared white suburbanites away from the area is a fact as well. It's bad for business. Bar owners are taxed enough; they aren't going to cut into their profit margins just to promote racial harmony. Like many other liberals, you want to put Band-Aids on cultural problems that are the result of old and deep cuts, and that just doesn't make sense. Justified or not, people want to feel secure, and they want to make money. Sometimes it's just nice to go to a part of town where you don't have to go through metal detectors to have a good time.

A. Roberts
Kansas City, Kansas

Point man:I've liked several of the Kansas City Strip columns, but regarding Tony Ortega's " Render Unto Cleaver ..." (July 22): a little ADD, Tony? First there's Jamie Metzl, then Shakespeare, then Precious Doe. Wherefore art thou, point? It reminds me of Steve Martin in Planes, Trains, and Automobiles: "Here's an idea: When you tell a story, have a point. It makes it so much easier for the listener" (in this case, reader).

I flipped the page over several times, looking for the end of the story or how to fix the pipes or mud so it doesn't stink, but it goes nowhere. There are hits ("Hot Ticket," July 8) and misses, and this was a big miss.

Jonathan Hankin
Overland Park

Watch Out
TV guide: I agree with Nadia Pflaum's " Viewer Discretion Advised" (July 15). I reviewed the same TV clips last winter, and I felt like I needed to take another shower after I thought about the preview's shenanigans.

As the days went by, and as I thought more about being duped, the angrier I became. Thank you for exposing this scam.

T. Jones
Overland Park

Cross Hatch
State of affairs:Thank you for Kendrick Blackwood's " Ministers Hate Fags Too" (July 22). It's amusing to watch the radical, right-wing Republicans stoop to wedge issues like gay marriage when they know they are dead in the water on the economy, jobs and the war in Iraq. It's also very interesting that the Bush administration is asking for the names and addresses of evangelical, fundamentalist congregations so that they may be contacted for Republican campaign support. This comes very close, of course, to ignoring the law regarding church and state, where tax-exempt organizations may not endorse a political candidate.

Jerry Johnston's group at First Family Church should be monitored very closely all year, not just during the election season. Johnston's group brought Judge Roy Moore to the First Family Church about a year ago.

The alarming drift toward the radical right in Kansas is not limited to Johnston and Attorney General Phill Kline; politicians Brownback, Roberts, Kobach, O'Conner, Brownlee, etc., all display an utter disregard for church-and-state issues, and all need to be kept on a very short leash.

I applaud any group that may succeed in revoking First Family's tax-exempt status. Thanks for an enlightening article that shows the true threat to freedom, democracy and equal rights for all.

Jeff Witt
Prairie Village

Reading is fundamental: I really enjoyed Kendrick Blackwood's article on the lunatic right wing. He really was quite even-handed -- more so than I would have been. I have less and less patience with fundamentalists of any stripe, whether religious, political or economic, and Bob Meneilly's group seems to be reasonable and to make sense. I guess that makes me a "moral relativist" who subscribes to "situational ethics," to use the language of the fundamentalist. Guilty as charged!

Michael B. Wood
Kansas City, Missouri

Seeing Pink
Don't be glib: I'm writing in response to your article " Jug-a-Lug: It's a good cause for ta-tas" (Sports & Outdoors, August 5). It's clear that whoever wrote the article has had the good fortune not to have been touched by breast cancer.

Three years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer at age 28. I can tell you firsthand that it takes a lot more than just $25 to wear the "really cute, bubble-gum-colored tee" at the Race for the Cure. The pink shirts are worn by breast-cancer survivors only. I wish I could have earned my "really cute tee" by paying only $25. Instead, I earned my shirt after enduring 3 months of chemotherapy, puking my guts out, losing my hair, having constant mouth and throat sores, and having a double mastectomy. No, my "ta-tas" weren't saved. But my life was. And the research that is funded by the Race for the Cure can save the lives of other women and men who are diagnosed with breast cancer.