Kansas City Fourth of July

Once again we prove that we cannot take care of ourselves when we don't have any obligations on our schedule. Or something. Our passion for drama and trauma starts taking over, the fact that many have not been trained or taught conflict resolution, add some mind altering substances, an irregular schedule, more family interactions and voila! It's wacko-ville!

So we had a crazy ass weekend in Kansas City. We had five people killed in homicides, along with several wounded. We had 6 people die in motor vehicle crashes in the time period Friday morning to Monday morning, with several injured, many severely. The scanner was just nuts all weekend long, monitoring mayhem everywhere--passed out people, disturbances, fights, reckless drivers, the shootings, the motor vehicle crashes, at least two structure fires in empty buildings, the usual collection of burglary and robbery...

Right smack in the middle of all this, sometime Sunday afternoon, I heard a call from an East Zone police officer requesting an ambulance to come to the intersection of Truman Road and Elmwood Avenue. The scanner then ran off to monitor more mayhem elsewhere. Returning to the East Zone talk group, the scanner picked up this transmission: "Tell them the baby is born." I had to smile. A Fourth of July baby. Born in a car. On Truman Road. Yes, that Truman. They were probably on the way to the hospital named after the 33rd President of the United States when the baby came. Hopefully, the kiddo can have some fun with it as he/she grows up. "Yeah, I was born at Truman. The corner of Truman and Elmwood. On the fourth of July. Top that, suckers."

I hope your celebration of our nation's independence was a little more sane than ours. We have some work to do to improve this place in order for that little one to grow up to be his/her best.