It's no secret that most of the white patrons of Westport are probably from Johnson County and inherently, they have a disdain or even fear of anything nonwhite. And it's no secret that some police officers abuse their power.
My contention is that, as in the case of Ms. Ludwigs, if people were more cooperative and respected the authority of the police, many of these problems could be avoided. Certainly, had Ms. Ludwigs taken the officer at his word and had not continued to ask why, she would have been on her merry way. Maybe she would have had to walk out of her way, but that would be a small price to pay when you consider the alternative of being arrested. Now, I'm not saying the police were right. However, it seems to me that cooperation on both sides is needed to make this work. And where did Rodgers' quotes come from? The police? Ms. Ludwigs? A third party?
Unfortunately, our society, especially people of color, have a growing distrust of police, and perhaps this is justified. But in my experience, when you cooperate and respond to the police by doing what they ask of you, they tend to leave you alone.
Maybe Rodgers could follow up this article with one that stresses a message of mutual cooperation. The police need to respect the rights of the people they are there to ostensibly protect, and the citizens need to respect the authority of the police and do what is asked of them.
I can see this as a win-win situation. Quite honestly, however, once I start seeing the ACLU, I know that the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.
Good article. Now it's time to find a solution.
-- Joseph Shockey
Kansas City, Missouri
The Duro story illustrates how the work we do (e.g., the suppliers we choose and how we monitor corporate codes of conduct) and the products we consume affect the living conditions of people around the world. It also brings home the injustice of our affluence or so-called economic "boom" at the expense of their exploitation and desperate squalor. Maybe more stories like this will make it harder for people to just "look the other way."
-- Cliff Jones
Westwood Hills
My greatest disappointment is that HKCF, with the help of your article, has reduced the issue of the Liberty Memorial to arguing over such details as whether the windows in Memorial Hall are "industrial sash windows" or "steel casement windows." There is a deeper spiritual meaning to the monument, but if HKCF gets its way, the Liberty Memorial will become a monument to a dead architect rather than dead soldiers.
My commitment to a museum lies in my understanding of the circumstances of the First World War. Although largely overlooked now, if the First World War had not been fought, there would have been no Hitler, no communism, no Vietnam. The creators of the memorial, unaware of that future, did know they had created a new kind of war -- total war -- and did not need a museum to remind them of how 441 Kansas City citizens died. We, however, have lost that memory, and anyone who claims that the proposed Liberty Memorial Museum would glorify war is wrong. It would remind us of its consequences.
-- Mark Randolph
Kansas City, Missouri
Some actors I know think that his style of reviewing is cruel. To them, I say go to Chicago or any bigger city and that's what you get. It's only an opinion. As far as your past reviewers of theater go I can say only this: Too many times I noticed certain critics throwing their necks out of joint looking for something positive to say about a production that sucked overall. I don't want that in a critic. Just tell it like you see it, and that is what Steve Walker does.
I wonder if I will be having the same thoughts when he reviews a play that I have written entitled Bobbers, which opens at the brand-new, fabulous, beautiful, wondrous, marvelous, and safe Just Off Broadway Theatre on January 4. Hmmm. Either way, thanks for making him your theater critic.
-- Whit W. Welker
Kansas City, Missouri
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