Listen, I didn’t want to talk about guns and violence this week. Honestly. I had a whole thing planned about the QuikTrip patches that are going on the Royals jerseys this year. It was pithy. It was funny. It was irreverent. It referenced roller foods and fly balls.
No. No esta semana.
Como muchos de ustedes saben, soy locutor de megafonía para varios grupos deportivos de la ciudad. North Kansas City High School, Park University, UMKC, Kansas City Monarchs y Kansas City Comets, por nombrar algunos. El jueves, North Kansas City jugaba las semifinales de su distrito en la escuela secundaria, sin embargo, tenía otro compromiso con los KC Comets en Independence.
As you’ve no doubt heard, Independence was rocked last week by the killing of a police officer and an officer of the Jackson County Court with two more officers in the hospital as a result. One of the solemn duties of a public address announcer is to deliver requests for moments of silence after important events or notable deaths. Just this year, I’ve had to deliver two related to shootings in Kansas City. It’s about to be three.
El jueves acababa de terminar mi momento de silencio en el Cable Dahmer Arena. Había presentado un coro de escuela primaria para cantar el Himno Nacional. Justo cuando la quietud del momento había disminuido, mi teléfono empezó a sonar y estalló con mensajes de texto. "¿Estás bien?" “Acabo de enterarme de lo que pasó. Por favor envíame un mensaje de texto”. "¿Está ahí?"
Esos mensajes me resultaron familiares. Y deberían hacerlo, porque recibí los mismos mensajes después del desfile de los Chiefs apenas unas semanas antes. Y ciertamente querían decir que algo malo había sucedido.
There was a shooting on Thursday night at the basketball game at North Kansas City High School. Two people were injured and the suspects are still at large as of Monday. I switched into “reporter” mode while also announcing the Comets game. They won, by the way, in overtime. As news rolled in, I reported that it was some sort of argument outside of the fieldhouse and several people were involved. Several dozen rounds were spent, and had it happened five minutes later, that entire area would’ve been filled with fans leaving the game.
The juxtaposition of reporting about a shooting at a sporting event while at a sporting event where I had just done a moment of silence about another shooting while we are all still in the shadow of a third shooting during a triumphant parade about a sporting event weighs heavy on my mind this week. We’re all tired of this, aren’t we? As I wrote just two weeks ago, we can’t keep doing nothing. Nothing is going to get us killed.
As I watched the video of the fieldhouse where I normally sit, watching basketball and volleyball games at a school that is my alma mater. I watched men and women, children of all ages, families and friends run for their literal lives out a back door. We’re just stacking trauma on top of trauma at this point. There is nothing proactive being done right now and the problem seems to be getting worse. At least to me. As I was at the site of two shootings in the past month and paying tribute to a third.
So, no, you don’t get my QuikTrip patch on the Royals jersey column this week. And it included some amazing puns, too. You get to hear me bitch and moan about guns and violence. Again.
(Puedes encontrar a Chris Kamler en todas las redes sociales, donde se le conoce más como @TheFakeNed)