• About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Sunday, February 28, 2021
52 °f
Platte
40 ° Tue
48 ° Wed
51 ° Thu
47 ° Fri
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
  • Home
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward
No Result
View All Result
The Platte County Landmark Newspaper
No Result
View All Result

Five long years

Chris Kamler by Chris Kamler
August 14, 2019
in The Rambling Moron
4
SHARES
88
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on TwitterShare via Email

Five years ago this week, I had the most amazing, whirlwind experience of my life. For those new to my back story, back in the dark ages of the Royals franchise, I found a pen pal in a gentleman living in South Korea. A Royals “super fan” if you will. Sungwoo Lee would become a very close friend, in large part due to his decision to take a week off work in 2014 and travel to a country he’s never visited to watch a baseball team that he’d only watched on television.

#SungWooToKC trended nationally as he was greeted by throngs of media and well wishers at the airport. He was king for a week. It was a perfect storm of good stories for the news and the city. And the town came together to provide Sungwoo a week and a half of experiences for only the luckiest in Kansas City. We were invited to a Chiefs game, we got a private tour of Kauffman Stadium. We were made welcome at businesses and museums and landmarks all across the area. Strangers gave us not one, not two, but three apple pies on separate occasions.

RelatedNews

525,600 Minutes

Up hill, both ways

Fauci’s ouchies

My experience changed me forever. It showed me how great my city could be and gave me hope for the future. Kansas City welcoming an outsider in a unique and quirky way just seems right for my town.

Five years ago this week, all of this happened. And I can’t help but wonder if we are still that same city. We’re certainly not the same country. The US has become anything but welcoming to outsiders. My sense is that Kansas City, as a whole, is in a bit of a bubble and would still welcome Sungwoo with open arms. But for how long?

The sense of charity and generosity so unique to this part of the country seems to be eroding. The other day, I saw an argument in a parking lot over a parking space where tensions were boiling over. One of the participants was white. The other was not. It’s hard to say whether race had anything to do with the fight over a parking space, but it was certainly noteworthy.

Five years ago this week, the Royals launched into one of the greatest runs in sports history culminating in two American League championships, and a World Series title. Eight-hundred thousand Kansas Citians came out to Union Station to greet our conquering heroes. And even today, I wonder if that would happen again (even when the Chiefs win the Super Bowl which they are obviously going to do.) Not because of the joy we’d feel as a community, but the fear of a mass shooting in such a tight space.

We live in a society now that yells “get off my lawn” and a culture where large crowds cause anxiety even when a motorcycle backfires. We live in a society where you’re either with us or against us, with no middle ground. We live in a society that is, quite simply, unfriendly.

Kansas City has, thankfully, maintained a good deal of distance from the world and national negative spotlight. But so had El Paso and Dayton. Charleston, SC had been a sleepy town until white supremacists marched through their streets.

My experience seeing the best of Kansas City five years ago gives me hope that we will never be one of those cities you see on the news. My experience five years ago changed the way I see this city. But it also seems like a dark cloud is creeping closer to my city. A cloud of anger and divisiveness and fury. I wonder in five more years what my city would say to a super fan tourist and his pen pal buddy, or if the doors will be closed entirely.

(Chris Kamler can be found on Twitter, where he is widely known as @TheFakeNed. You’ll also find on YouTube as the Rambling Moron or on Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook)

Chris Kamler

Chris Kamler

Chris Kamler is a 20 year veteran of Information Technology and a nearly 50 year veteran of being a pain in the rear.

He is known for his irreverence through his social media Twitter account @TheFakeNed along with his weekly Landmark columns, sports broadcasts, podcasts, and his book.

Kamler has a wife and a child and is a lifelong Northlander. His list of loves include his family and QuikTrip roller food.

Related Posts

45 Years Ago–February 27, 1976

by Ivan Foley
February 26, 2021
0

Mr. and Mrs. Allen Buxton of Weston announce the birth of their daughter, Valerie Sue, on Sunday, Feb. 22, 1976 at St. John Hospital in Leavenworth. Mrs. Buxton formerly worked at Bobbi's Hair Fashions in Platte City. Doug Hunt, Platte...

30 Years Ago–March 1, 1991

by Ivan Foley
February 26, 2021
0

The Platte City Chamber of Commerce Thursday heard Mayor Steve Wegner deliver a "State of the City" address. The KCI Conference of Schools, hosted by Smithville R-2 School District and Parents as Teachers, will present "The Power of Positive Parenting"...

15 Years Ago–February 23, 2006

by Ivan Foley
February 26, 2021
0

The call to serve his country has come once again for State Rep. Jason Brown of Platte City. Brown, a member of the United States Army Reserves, told The Landmark that he has been called to fulfill a one year...

State of transportation

State of transportation

by Landmark Staff
February 26, 2021
0

EDITOR: We often take our roads and bridges for granted. We trust them to hold our cars up and to get us to work, school, or home. We're thankful for the crews that maintain them and - especially this week...

Next Post

Ruling favors county in KCI hotel tax dispute

Popular News

  • Vaccine shot

    Around 1,700 shots to be offered in the next week

    15 shares
    Share 6 Tweet 4
  • City ‘finds’ 2,300 records, gives them to Jason Maki

    13 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • County health department eases restrictions

    12 shares
    Share 5 Tweet 3
  • Attorney general probing Parkville on Sunshine

    7 shares
    Share 3 Tweet 2
  • Mayor gets two years probation for DWI

    20 shares
    Share 8 Tweet 5
  • About Us
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Privacy Policy
Call us at 816-858-0363

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Subscribe Online
  • Local News
  • Opinion
  • Landmark Live!
  • Looking Backward

Copyright © 2019-2020 The Platte County Landmark Newspaper - All Rights Reserved

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Create New Account!

Fill the forms bellow to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In

Add New Playlist