You Can't Go Back

It's not that people have ethics or they don't have ethics. It's just, they don't always follow them. And then, pretty soon, they're sliding down the slope where they are doing all kinds of crazy things.

The JCCC Board of Trustees recently announced that the college is going to build this $300,000 scholarship in the name of Carlsen. He's trying to buy his way back into our college.

The good ol' boy network is still deeply entrenched at the college. There are professors who have tenure who say they're not going to speak because their classes will be reassigned. They can still get to people.

I don't know if I want to be in a traditional newsroom. I'm thinking of creating a local newspaper that's only online. With today's media, you don't just have to find your place — you can create it.

Jeff "Stretch" Rumaner, 41, sculpture artist and owner of Grinders restaurant and Zone Gallery

My name is Stretch. It's not just a name. It's an entity.

But there are still a fuckload of people that don't take me seriously.

The city is raping everyone who moved down here, with $38 parking tickets. When I was awarded an Urban Hero Award, I got a parking ticket because my truck doesn't fit into a parking space. The mayor did a great thing by installing a bunch of artwork in a vacant chunk of land at 44th and Main, but when we were there for a dedication ceremony, parking patrol comes by and starts ticketing cars. They are fucking piddley ass Nazis.

My restaurant gives $70,000 a year in taxes, and then the city comes and hits me with a $125 dollar-dance permit fee. The city should be down here giving me a lap dance for rejuvenating a dead section of town.

More and more people are coming down here. It's kind of like a concentric-circle thing: first your homeless, then your artists, then your yupped-up developers, then your yuppies.

Downtown doesn't need to look like Leawood. The biggest failure this city has is 18th and Vine. It's candy-coated crap that was done from a boardroom by people who don't know the city. The Power and Light District? It's not real. It's not authentic. I mean, I've never been asked about it.

Gary Lezak, 44, chief meteorologist, KSHB Channel 41

I never thought I'd be in TV. I was a little shy and I was scared of the camera, but I loved weather so much. Most people get interested in weather with hurricanes or tornadoes. Ever since I was 5 years old, all my memories have been of clouds and rain. I got a few big breaks and wound up in Kansas City.

Standing on the air, you are always concerned about people who are possibly in the track of a tornado. The idea that a tornado could come down at any moment and affect people — it really hits hard emotionally.

My dog Windy was very old. It was a very difficult experience to go through. I will remember her in a positive way, but I believe we go on and life goes on, and that's how I'm living.

After we announced that she had passed away, we did a little tribute for her on our blog. We had over 800 responses from people sharing their experience of their own pets who have passed away. It was just a tremendous support system, and it was overwhelming.

Breezy — she is a great dog. But I'm working on some training issues with her. Stormy keeps Breezy in line.

I believe I've made a major weather discovery. Each year, the weather pattern sets up in the fall between October and early November and then starts cycling. Knowing this helps long-range forecasts from winter to summer. I can give you a good idea if we are going into a wet pattern or a dry pattern over the next month.

I am one of the few meteorologists across the United States who actually did a special on global warming this year. How can it not help future generations? Why not try to do something now?

I just recently had a test, and I am seven years cancer-free. I wish I really could get this message to people: Instead of being scared to death of cancer, stay optimistic and think, Man, if I can get through this, it will be great to tell my story later.

Sarah Finken, 26, activist with Code Pink

Some of my friends and I started the Code Pink chapter here. The name Code Pink is kind of a play on words with the terrorist levels. You know, code yellow, code orange?

There aren't any leaders or structured hierarchy. Code Pink is a woman-initiated, woman-led (but gender-inclusive) peace movement. It looks at how war and violence affect women and children and minorities and how our tax dollars could be used instead. It's the comprehensive picture of how war affects the everyday person.