I don't cast a ballot in the 3rd District Election today.
But, despite the digital divide, there are a great many people who read this blog and are faced with difficult choices at the ballot box.
I won't presume to tell anybody what to do in yet another battle between faith and reason and everything else that stirs the heart.
For the most part, I'm guided by the heart telling me that Bar Refaeli represents some kind of otherworldly perfection that I can only glimpse through the power of the Internets. But I digress . . .
What I know is:
Michael Fletcher has a real plan for reducing crime in the 3rd District.
Michael Fletcher was already making waves about holding businesses accountable for minority hiring and development. It's a subject where the incumbent has completely failed.
Michael Fletcher wasn't taking money from special interest groups and local powerbrokers. Meanwhile, Sharon Sanders Brooks is on the payroll and wins the support of people who share the same building with Cordish ALONG WITH Local 42.
Bottom line: What I know for a fact is that Sharon Sanders Brooks is the worst kind of incompetent, mostly ignorant and completely inconsistent representative that any District would be unfortuante to call their own.
However, for me, the court case raised some very real doubts about the residency of Michael Fletcher and it's simply a fact that he is currently ineligible to take office as Kansas City resident.
I can't ask people to put their faith in the outcome of an appeal that already has two strikes against it. At the risk of revealing too much about my faith life, this is a debate that I deal with on a very deep level. Oftentimes I struggle to put my faith in something that I can't see and for which there is no proof. No matter how much I want to believe, there's always a lingering doubt.
But I digress . . .
Jermaine Reed is an alternative. Sadly, I don't know enough about him to give a recommendation and if the young man has one obvious failing it's that he refuses to answer questions or make himself available to the public time and time again.
What troubles me is that so many groups simply refused to endorse anybody in the 3rd District like it's some kind of far away foreign country . . . On the other hand, the idea that Yael Abouhalkah of The Kansas City Star knows anything about the problems of the African-American Community is laughable.
While I don't want to be presumptuous, I think I have a bit more insight about leadership in minority communities if only because Latinos have struggled with similar issues.
If Michael Fletcher was qualified to hold office in Kansas City he is undoubtedly the best candidate in his field.
But right now that's not the case.
So, like so many other Kansas City residents I can't endorse anyone because there isn't a real candidate from which to chose. There was promise, hope and something to believe in but now that's not an option available to voters.
Still, I don't feel too irresponsible in declaring that voters who see the ballot should follow their heart, gut, intellect, reasoning or whatever power that guides them . . . Again, for TKC that would be supermodels.
The choice between blind faith and a lesser evil is always horrible. Tragically, this is a situation that is all to common in Kansas City's 3rd District.
LINKS:
Former lawyer booted from KC council race
Council hopeful Fletcher loses appeal, vows to fight on
Kansas City Council candidate Fletcher is disqualified from race
Disqualified City Council Candidate Loses Appeal
Candidates Name To Remain On Ballot
Actually, of course, neither faith nor reason have so much as visited the Third District in a very long time.
ReplyDeleteAnd today's election is a perfect and very sad example of that. But only the most recent and probably not the last.
Surrender Tony:
ReplyDeleteChris Moreno rules the day.
Fletcher does NOT have a real plan for decreasing crime. He has yet another out-of-town "program" put together by a group of academics that has been applied somewhere else. KCMO already spends over $600,000 a year on Aim4Peace, which was the LAST program put together by a PhD and brought to town to save the day. That's been here for a couple years. See any difference?
ReplyDeletePublic safety can't be contracted out by elected and appointed officials in KCMO and the police board and command staff of the KCPD. The issue can't be ignored by parents of kids roaming the streets or by the community leaders who paralyze the police by threatening charges of racism, harrassment, and profiling just for trying to do their jobs. Crime will continue to flourish in an environment where the faith and business communities remain utterly mute.
We need to do this ourselves, or it won't get done.
6:41 - AMEN!
ReplyDeleteChris Moreno did a good job working for Sharon but he don't make me laugh.
ReplyDeleteFletcher is a unethical wannabe, but Sanders Brooks is the worse kind of do nothing uppity nigger representative of her "people". Have they figured it out? Doubt it.
ReplyDeleteNo you didn't! But I am sure you did just suggest to the people of the 3rd district that they waste their vote.
ReplyDeleteYour empathy for blacks (as if mexicans have somehow arrived)is laughable.
Tony is the ultimate joke, just like this blog.
Fletcher has alot of promises. Remember the road to hell was paved with good intentions.
ReplyDelete2/22/11 7:22 AM
ReplyDelete"No you didn't! But I am sure you did just suggest to the people of the 3rd district that they waste their vote."
Umm, what?
Have you been drinking this morning? I think what Tony said is he wouldn't know what the hell to do if he had to vote in the 3rd district today.
Tony, I applaud you for stating the facts Sharon Sanders Brooks and other incumbents are on the Cordish Co. PAYROLL. I know this for a fact and they need to continue her tenure to continue recieving millions of taxpayer dollars. That's what Mike Fletcher, was referring to when he said it was advantageous for some white kansas citians to retain Sharon Sanders Brooks in office.
ReplyDeleteI'd rather vote for Jermaine Reed at least you know what Sharon is about.
Sharon Sander Brooks, is a cheap buy for special interest groups.
Oh and by the way I am BLACK.
Fletcher, by far was the best candidate for the 3rd District and will be elected one way or the other. It doesn't matter if Sharon wins today Mike Fletcher will eventually WIN.
ReplyDeleteWin what? Naples Island California Neighborhood Association President?
ReplyDeleteTony you do know Mike Fletcher's Plan has already passed the city council right? It was called SOPA/SODA, that plan you were against?
ReplyDeleteThis man has a million dollor home in Long Beach....hes a unemployed millionaire. He bought alot of people off. And it seems like he bought you off too.
ReplyDelete9:23AM So what you are black? Various other bloggers are too. But you especially seem to have all the answers about other blacks in this community. Why not put your wisdom and intellect to test and run for office?
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to critize when hiding in the tall grass.
If he bought off Tony then Tony would have said vote for him no matter what. I think this is on one of the best posts I've ever read on this blog and it gets to the heart of the problem. There is no good representation in the 3rd.
ReplyDeleteThis election is just strange.
Tony, you are so full of shit that your eyes are brown.
ReplyDeletelol. I like this post but it doesn't say much.
ReplyDeleteTony, if you had any guts you would call on Fletcher to resign.