Harsh Times: Not so merry X-mas for Kansas City's Black Political Elite!!!

Of course I wish happy holidays to everyone but I've recently heard a lot of bad news concerning Kansas City's African-American political power brokers.

Here's the best of it:

Kansas City Council Lady Sharon Sanders Brooks is much closer to recall than Mayor Funky. Her constituents haven't been pleased with her performance as the unpopular Mayor's de facto housemaid and the list of her accomplishments for her district is noticeably short when benefits for her main squeeze Linwood Tauheed are discounted.

Tonight Freedom Inc. is holding their X-mas party . . . Unfortunately, they don't have much to celebrate. This year the group supported light rail (i.e. took a huge check) but was unable to turn out the vote in their community for the expensive toy train set. The dramatic failure of Freedom Inc. in the light rail vote demonstrates the declining influence of the group and calls their leadership into question. Look for other upstarts to challenge the power of this political contingent in the New Year.

I keep hearing that Kansas City's Black Chamber of Commerce can't keep their lights on. Obviously, this isn't the best economic climate for any group of businesses but the begging desperate fundraising of this group is getting a lot of attention lately. Allegedly, the Black Chamber has been reaching out to Union people, big biz and all of the usual suspects with impassioned pleas for money that go beyond those useless memberships sold to corporations with a guilty conscience. Here's hoping that this important part of the local business community can keep their doors open.

Actually, it was sorta fun reporting on this community since I've heard that The Star mostly ignores this kind of news out of fear and The Call hates to cite anything negative regarding the local African-American leadership . . . Sadly, none of this will change much in the New Year.