Category: Opinions

Roses and shortages: Valentine’s Day edition

Roses were easy to find this past weekend at stores in Wyandotte County.

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Opinion column

by Mary Rupert

Roses are scarcer this year, at least that was reported last week in the nation, just before Valentine’s Day.

But roses were available on last Friday at some Wyandotte County retail locations, and also were available in late afternoon today at some locations.

I don’t know why there is a panic around a scarcity of items, particularly when there are so many alternatives that might be tried.

For example, there’s always the alternative of candy as a Valentine’s Day gift, or jewelry. Why not a Valentine’s gift of a vacation to a nearby tourist location?

Then there’s the crafters who can make artificial roses out of various supplies, such as fabric, yarn and paper, fairly simple to do.

According to the Society of American Florists, Valentine’s Day is the top holiday for American florists, with more than 250 million roses sold. Christmas and Hanukkah are in second place, with Mother’s Day coming in third.

Valentine’s Day should be a national holiday, but somehow it missed the cutoff for the federal and state holiday lists. I figure that happened probably because of who was doing the selection on official holidays.

An interesting program at the University of Kansas Health System this morning explored the topic of why some men tend to forget Valentine’s Day, birthdays and other events that might be special to their spouses. According to the experts, there’s more at work here than Alzheimer’s – there could be some real differences between the genders on this. See more at https://www.facebook.com/kuhospital/videos/623066565452564.

Unified Government committee meetings are off tonight, clearly an indication that Valentine’s Day is an important day in our culture. However, the City Planning Commission meeting was not canceled tonight.

Love in the news

Love was in the local news this past week, as Mayor Tyrone Garner commented on the Safe and Welcoming ordinance passed on Thursday night: “I care about people, I believe this commission cares about people, I believe most people in this community care about anyone that wants to all Wyandotte County home, and that’s a message of love. Love that we need to have for one another in Wyandotte County, because we are a unified community. No one should be left behind, when we talk about people and people’s lives. No one should be feeling disenfranchised.”

Then, again during the proclamation honoring Chef Annie Der’s 75th birthday and Tao-Tao restaurant’s 50th year of business on Thursday night, the mayor’s proclamation included: “Whereas, Chief Annie continues to serve Chinese food with LOVE, working wholeheartedly, entered her 75th year of life on February 10, 2022.”

How was the Safe and Welcoming hearing like the Super Bowl?


The Safe and Welcoming ordinance public hearing Thursday night was a little like the Super Bowl. Like the advertisers writing the commercials on the Super Bowl, most of the speakers Thursday night had only one minute to make their point.

The one-minute speaking limit was set after residents packed into City Hall lobby and also went online to express their opinions about the issue.

Some speakers seemed completely flummoxed by the short time limit and couldn’t get a good message out. Others did fine with it.

In the future, perhaps the public could ask a professional communicator how to effectively state a message within a time limit, and then prepare a short version and long version. Advertisers had no problem on Sunday telling a little story in 60 seconds or so, trying to sell their products. Journalists also are used to identifying the most important issue and then putting it at the top of their story. The inverted pyramid structure was invented in the days when news stories were sent over telegraph wires, and editors could cut the stories from the bottom to fit the space they had available, being certain they still could get the main news in.

What are you reading for Valentine’s Day?


A good book to read on Valentine’s Day would be Leo Buscaglia’s book, “Love,” available at bookstores, libraries and online.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].

Local officials oppose gerrymandered redistricting map

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Opinion column

by Mary Rupert

Wyandotte Countians came together last Friday to support Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of a gerrymandered redistricting map that would split Wyandotte County.

The effort last Friday saw support from Mayor Tyrone Garner and other officials for keeping Wyandotte County together in the 3rd Congressional District, and not splitting it between the 2nd and 3rd districts, as proposed by the map that initially was rushed through the GOP-controlled Kansas Legislature.

Connie Brown-Collins, of the Voter Rights Network of Wyandotte County, commented after the meeting that they are hoping the House will sustain the governor’s veto, although they’re not as hopeful about support in the Senate.

If they can’t override the veto, legislators will go back to the drawing board to redraw the maps again, she said.

The earlier testimony from Wyandotte County residents at redistricting hearings hugely supported keeping Wyandotte County together in the same district and not splitting it. The proposed map that passed the Legislature earlier split Wyandotte County along I-70. It looked absurd to longtime Wyandotte County residents, because it took the highly urbanized north side of Wyandotte County away from the 3rd District, generally the Kansas City area, and put it into the 2nd District, away from the rest of the Kansas City area.

Brown-Collins, who is in the Welborn area of Kansas City, Kansas, said she heard legislators were moving fast to try an override this week, to try to rush it through as they did the original bill.


“We would love for the Legislature to slow the process down,” she said. “We had been told they would allow testimony after they drew the maps and before they voted. That did not happen.”

The Voter Rights Network worked with the League of Women Voters all summer and fall to come up with what they thought were fair and viable maps for Wyandotte and Johnson counties, Brown-Collins said.

They came up with a plan to keep Wyandotte County whole, keep the core of Johnson County whole but to carve off some southern portions of Johnson County, and a little on the far west, that tend to be pretty rural, she said. The League of Women Voters submitted maps to the Legislature under the Blue Stem Congress title, she said.

The Voting Rights Network is against moving all of Wyandotte County to the 2nd District, she said, even though it would be kept whole that way, because “we don’t have a community of interest with Topeka and Lawrence,” Brown-Collins said.

Generally, Wyandotte County doesn’t share a lot of communication with Topeka and Lawrence, does not share that much employment with them, and often do not share the same concerns, according to Brown-Collins.

“Our communities of interest are across county lines of the Greater Kansas City Metro area,” she said. “Those are where we share resources that are critical to all the counties.”

During the public listening tours on redistricting, it was stated that this whole redistricting issue could wind up in court again, like it did 10 years ago. The finding then was that Wyandotte County should be kept together in the 3rd District.

“If we can keep from having it to g to court, that would be wonderful,” Brown-Collins said, “if the Legislature would draw maps that are fair. Wyandotte County in terms of land mass is small, why split us up? The population is large, but we are probably the smallest county in the state. We need to stay together. Our communities are diverse and we care about each other.”

Neighbors run the gamut of nationalities and ethnicities on her block alone, she said, including Black, white and Hispanic.

“We like it like that,” she said. “We care about our neighbors. Most of our community are that way. We don’t want to be broken up and opposing each other, one on one side of I-70 and the other on the other. It’s something we will continue to fight against, and we don’t want to be in the 2nd.”

It would be a long shot that a Democrat could get elected in the 2nd District, she believes, and it’s short-sighted, also.

“Let’s look at the long-term welfare of Wyandotte,” she said. “We’re just fine where we are in the 3rd, and connected to the metro area.”

Brown-Collins says I-635 runs from Wyandotte County through Metcalf in Johnson County, and she travels it several times a week. “It does not make sense to chop us up the way we’re trying to do it,” she said.

It’s clearly common sense to leave Wyandotte County together in the 3rd District, as part of the Kansas City Metro area, which it so clearly is. Kansas City, Kansas, and Wyandotte County has common interests of the urban community, and shares road projects, convenes together with other KC area communities to fight COVID, and works on other problems together with Johnson County quite frequently. It stands to reason to include Wyandotte County together with the 3rd District, not split it off into part of another district.

To reach Mary Rupert, editor, email [email protected].

Homicide rate shows decrease

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Opinion column

by Murrel Bland


The good news for those who watch crime statistics in Kansas City, Kansas, is that the homicide rate has decreased from 58 during 2020 to 51 during 2021.


One of the more significant concerns of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department is staffing. Maj. Dustin Dungan, who recently reported to the Midtown and West Patrol Police Advisory Committee, said the police force has 369 officers authorized but only has 316 serving now; there are 25 prospective officers in training.


Maj. Dungan said the Police Department hopes that a grant will be awarded to the department that will add license plate readers at various additional locations; presently there are about 10 such readers in Kansas City, Kansas.


Maj. Dungan had praise for Village West merchants who were very cooperative with police in apprehending shoplifters.


The West Patrol building at 1011 N. 80th Terrace has been remodeled and will be the site for the Advisory Committee meetings starting at 11 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 24.


In a related announcement, Police Chief Karl Oakman said the department will have a new cold case unit; Capt. Angela Garrison will lead the unit. Chief Oakman said there are about 285 such cases that deserve a fresh review. He said DNA and other such forensic testing may have not been available when the crime was committed.


Murrel Bland is the former editor of The Wyandotte West and The Piper Press. He is an advisory director of Business West.