Kansas City Council Dude Duncan Shares Deets Of PTSD Suicide Attempt

The south side newspaper starts out playing nice with an incoming council dude.

Here's the intro of a recent feature with one line that stands out . . .

"He’s not a polished politician. Nor does he try to be, nor does he want to be. He just beat an opponent with 24 years of polishing.

"Now with the upset win, Kansas City has a first: a city council member who kicked down doors in Iraq, stuck a gun in his mouth when he came home, willfully interrupted eviction hearings and got into politics because of a trailer park."

Of course the paper doesn't mention so much dark money, low turnout and racially charged campaigning that helped this council dude win . . . Given that he identifies as a White, Black & Hispanic elected official nowadays.

Nevertheless . . .

THE COUNCIL DUDE SHARES SCARY DEETS OF HIS STRUGGLE TO UN-ALIVE HIMSELF BEFORE HE, THANKFULLY, GARNERED TREATMENT!!!

Check-it . . .

While enrolled at the University of Kansas, he tried to get mental health help, but grew frustrated with a muddled bureaucracy.

“I was exactly what PTSD looked like,” he said. “I went from being scared to being angry. To get sent to kill young men of color who look like me, to fight for a country that had no interest in fighting for me. We were called heroes, but I felt lied to.”

He sipped his drink then nodded. “So I made a plan to not do that anymore. I made a plan to kill myself.”

That pistol he had? It was a .45 the Army gave him when he left. It was commemorative, inscribed with his unit’s name.

“Yeah, I couldn’t get mental health assistance, but they gave me a gun,” he said.

Then he had a talk with a vet who asked him how he was doing. Duncan answered that he was fine.

The man shook his head. “I don’t think you are.”

That level of disclosure is A LOT . . . 

And honestly we're not sure if sharing the deets of an existential struggle is required for a po'dunk council job wherein his only real challenge is to vote along with Mayor and try not to puke in the process.

Oh yeah . . . And if you made it this far . . . This really great story from the MCT also confirms TKC news that his GF is connected to the Mayor's office. 

Read closely. 

Read more via www.TonysKansasCity.com link . . .

Introducing Johnathan Duncan

"He never forgot what it's like to be poor, to grow up mixed race in a small town, and he never forgot what happened to him when he came back from Iraq."