It’s that if the poorest families spent as much money educating their children as they do on wine, cigarettes and prostitutes, their children’s prospects would be transformed. Much suffering is caused not only by low incomes, but also by shortsighted private spending decisions by heads of households.He goes on to give a few examples of people who are spending money on liquor and other non-essentials, and not having enough to send their children to school. (Despite supposedly being "free", almost all schools in African nations require a fee of some type), discusses a few ideas to improve things, among which is removing the money from the charge of the husband and letting the wife make spending decisions and concludes with:
Well meaning humanitarians sometimes burnish suffering to make it seem more virtuous and noble than it often is. If we're going to make more progress,...,we need to look unflinchingly at uncomfortable truths--and then try to redirect the family money now spent on wine and prostitution.
I wanted to write more on the death of firefighter John Glaser of the Shawnee, KS fire department. I wanted to do it last night, but I ran out of WiFi. I was thinking about his death and the events that led to it, and also, about how one writes about police and fire personnel who make the ultimate sacrifice while doing their duty.
could make them out to be saints, great family, yada yada. Such talk would cause eyes to roll in the fire house or police station, you just know that. They know that they put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us. However, the work they've chosen to do, it does separate them from the rest of us. They go towards infernos like the one pictured with this post, while the rest of us move away. Man with a gun reported? We are ducking and covering. The police officer is looking for the man with the gun. So police officers and firefighters are not saints, or perfect. However, they have an integrity about them that cannot be denied. There is an honesty and bravery to their work that most jobs lack. This is why I think the loss of a firefighter or police officer hurts as much as it does. They reflect the best of us, the most altruistic of us, the most courageous of us, us on our very best day. All loss hurts, but the loss of us at our best hurts just a little more.
To the incident at hand: No doubt there will be a lot of analysis. It will be hard work, while mourning the death of one of one's own. The fire service does not like to lose anyone; just this morning, a child was killed in an apartment fire in Kansas City, MO. That fire will be looked at too. For the fire in Shawnee, every FF there will be interviewed. Every command decision looked at. Tapes of radio transmissions will be listened too, transcribed and analyzed. Protective equipment will be looked at and checked. Questions will be raised. Are our procedures best practice? Did we follow our operational plan? Was there a radio glitch? Did something break? Did communications break down? And so on.
What FF Glaser was attempting to do is much harder then it looks on TV. When newbie FFs are learning how to do search and rescue in a building on fire, often the masks on their SCBA will be opaque, so they can experience safely the blindness of being in a smoke filled building. During the press conference yesterday Shawnee FD Chief Jeff Hudson said in describing the conditions in the fire: "You can't see past your face mask. To try and see anyone trapped inside is nearly impossible." Do this, either as a thought experiment, or for real. Go to the front door of your home. Put a good blindfold on. Now, try to go through every room in the dwelling. For increased realism, put on a 20 pound pack and crawl instead of walk. Did that pretty well? Now, go to a friend's home--not someone who lives in the same building or development--no cheating by finding a familiar floor plan. Do the same thing. This is something firefighters do every day when they search a building on fire. It is probably one of the most dangerous parts of their job.
Shawnee, Kansas Firefighter John Glaser was killed in the line of duty while doing a house search during a house fire in Shawnee yesterday evening. The six year veteran became separated from his search team as they were doing primary and secondary search of a large two story wood frame house. He sent out a "Mayday" but by the time he was located, he was unconscious. He was pronounced dead at a near by hospital. A second firefighter received minor injuries. The large home was well involved with flames showing when firefighters arrived. Neighbors informed the fire department that the house was occupied by an older man and a dog. Initial search was done, and the dog was found. A second search started and this was when FF Glaser became separated from his team. 
Wells Fargo has canceled the auction of 250 houses in Kansas City. We are committed to working with Mayor Mark Funkhouser, the city,and community organizations--including Habitat for Humanity--to find a solution that encourages local ownership and builds sustainable neighborhoods for the residents of Kansas City.
Mayor Mark Funkhouser today said Wells Fargo & Co. has responded to community concerns about this weekend’s large auction of foreclosed Kansas City houses, and will postpone the sale.
“I’m glad they were listening,” Mayor Funkhouser said. “I’m thrilled Wells Fargo will take some extra time and work with the community. It’s the right thing to do.”
On Wednesday, Mayor Funkhouser and neighborhood and community development activists held a press conference asking Kansas Citians to take part in the auction. Too often, large real estate auctions are dominated by out-of-town investors and real estate speculators who do little to fix up the houses they buy, often leaving them vacant and in disrepair while they wait for the housing market to rebound, the Mayor said.
“The city looks forward to working with Wells Fargo to make sure these Kansas City homes go to Kansas Citians,” Mayor Funkhouser said.
“Habitat for Humanity Kansas City is proud to have played some small part in helping the Mayor realize his goal of making sure that these foreclosed properties are kept in community hands,” Colbert said. “It is beyond our wildest expectations that Wells would postpone the auction based on our communication with our contacts at the bank about the Mayor’s Wednesday press conference.”So...the auction is on hold for now. This is remarkable considering this auction was in the works for a long time. We'll have to wait and see what impact it has on the housing situation in the city. The biggest problem is for some of these homes they are in rough shape, and in rough neighborhoods. It's going to take some unique local people to take up this gauntlet and go to war with some of the forces at work here.
express his concern with regard to that auction. The mayor is concerned that buyers from out of state will participate in this national auction and will buy many of the houses, and let them "sit and rot and fall into disrepair". He stated that houses up for auction could go for as little as $5000--even as little as $2 k. The mayor was accompanied by community and city housing advocates and organizers, including Habitat for Humanity, the Neighborhood Stabilization Program and others. The event was held at 11220 Palmer Avenue in the Ruskin Heights part of Kansas City. This address is in the 64134 zip code, which has the second highest foreclosure rate in the city.
neighborhoods and allowing the houses to lie fallow. He also challenged private non-profit money to come and help people purchase some of these homes. He answered a few questions, mainly about the mandated city registry of abandoned houses. He admitted that the list had fallen short on accuracy and work was being done to compare the list to other data bases like those of the Water Department.
This neighborhood is hurtin' for certain. I noticed a lot of houses with notes taped to their window, some well kept up, and many with overgrown lawns, a few seemingly still occupied. I totally understand the mayor's concern, wanting to keep as much local involvement in the neighborhood as possible. There are pitfalls, such as enabling people to be homeowners who do not have the wherewithal to maintain the home. Also, we cannot give away something for nothing--it will just become another entitlement that will not be cared for--another black hole of endless want/handout/begging. We also have to be careful that we don't end up with a cluster of subsidized houses, clumping people of disadvantage all together. It has been demonstrated over and over that a cluster of subsidized housing is a neighborhood clusterf**k. I like the idea of involving groups, whether private or public, that demand accountability of the home owner and make the home owner an investor in the property, the neighborhood, and the city.
At the intersection of Blue River Road and Red Bridge, we could have a rotary (traffic circle) instead of signal lights. Plus: traffic could flow better, and trucks could not use the circle, thus limiting truck traffic. Minus: Drivers around here are still trying to figure out the newish circles on Longview Road. My first instinct--ooh no circles, but making passage for trucks difficult has a lot of appeal...Opinions on traffic circles welcome! I really was kind of surprised they were even up for consideration.
An engineer answers residents' questions about the current work going on on the bridge project proper. The visual change wrought by the construction I think caused a lot of concerns for people. This project was also very complicated engineering. They've had to move a sewer line, create drainage to draw off contaminants before they enter the river, and restore wetland areas that had to be compromised by bridge construction.
True confession: My cats do not have licenses to be cats. I've just never gotten around to it. And to be even more candid, I was over the kitty limit for several years. All my cats have been indoor only cats. You wouldn't know I had a cat, unless you looked through my trash. (or caught me having to chase one of my cats outside to return them inside after a successful door charge by the stinker.)
The old Red Bridge 4 movie theater, last open in 2006, has been bought and renovated by the Fine Arts Group, the same folks who run the Glenwood Theater at the Metcalf South mall. Movies will roll once again starting May 7th, with first run and artsy fare Ironman 2 and The Square. The concentration will be on having a high quality movie experience, and the owners have renovated the old theater to be comfortable. It was reported that many people have stopped by over the past months inquiring as to when it would be open. It's going to be nice to have a good theater in the neighborhood again!
This rather reminds me of the story Dr. James Dobson told on himself. He received a nice letter from a thankful mom who had tried some of the things he recommended in his book Dare to Discipline. The child did not find all of the changes pleasant. He demonstrated to his mom that he knew the cause of the changes when she found the young'un trying to flush her copy of Dr. Dobson's book down the toilet.
