Iconoclast of Things

Before he ever saw the ICE Warrant ordering his removal from the United State, Victor Herrera describes this one point in his life as an immigrant in the United States like this, "I feel like I’m in a bucket full of shit, and I’m drowning in it. His story is the messy reality of immigration and deportation. It begs us to have a grown-up discussion about these immigration stories. It asks us all kinds of questions. The biggest? Can we - or even should we - summon compassion for someone once we see them completely; once we know their whole story? And how does the answer to that affect every question we have afterwards?

When I was in fourth grade, there was this box in the back of our classroom. It was filled with multi-colored tabs with stories and questions printed on each. Our teacher was Ms. Evans, yes, she was my mom  — and that box was the SRA reading lab. Dr. Don Parker created the SRA reading lab in 1950 for 32 seventh graders in a cash-strapped rural Florida school. Parker wrote that he created the SRA lab to overcome what he called, “the normal curve of individual differences.” Last Summer Mayor Sly James told me about Turn The Page KC, a nonprofit organization working to increase the number of Kansas City students reading at grade level by 3rd grade. When I started this story, I thought I’d learn why schools fail kids and how a small group of people are filling the gap.  I learned something many of our policy makers haven’t — that literacy has so much to do with what happens outside the school building; what infants and toddlers hear from their parents, their proximity to stress and trauma, their attendance, and something called the Thirty Million Word Gap.  This’s important because literacy is about a lot more than a school building or a talking point. It’s a function of what the SRA’s creator, Dr. Parker, found almost 70 years ago; meet kids where they are, help families lay out a series of stepping stones and help kids move along as they get closer and closer to the developmental milestone of third grade. Today’s thing, is the SRA Reading Box. And this episode is “The Book I Read: fixing third grade literacy.

This is the story of how Unbound, one of the midwest's largest non-profits, was formed from the vision of a man with a very different take on charity and giving. In November of 1981, Kansas City Missouri, Bob Hentzen and 3 of his 14 siblings, along with their friend Jerry Tolle, founded an organization known today as Unbound. Bob and his friend Jerry were former missionaries. They used the family Christmas card list to connect families in America with families in Latin America to connect someone who wanted to give help with someone who needed it. Fifteen years later, the 60-year-old Hentzen walked four thousand miles from Kansas City to San Lucas Toliman Guatemala. Then, in 2009, at age 73, he walked eight thousand miles from Guatemala to Chile, traversing the Atacama desert. The boots he wore. These brown, Nike, nylon and leather. The toes have been cut away, giant hole near the heel on one side. Today’s thing is this pair of once hiking boots and today’s episode is “looking through windows; a 4000 mile walk to say I love you. Then 8000 miles more.”

On September 23rd Father Stan Rother will be the first American born martyr beatified by the Catholic church. Though it’s the story of Father Stan Rother, this one doesn’t end in death. Stan Rother was one casualty of the decades long Guatemalan Civil War. A war sparked in the halls of the US congress; fueled in part by our fear of communism and antipathy for any threat to American capitalism abroad. While the killers were Guatemalan, the deaths of Stan Rother and thousands more flicked blood on to American hands. But this is not a murder story. Or even a political story. It’s . . . kind of a love story. The love this Oklahoman had for the people of Santiago Atitlan, and the love they returned. Today’s thing, is this Church at Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. And this episode is “Washington Bullets: The Martyrdom of Father Stanley Rother”

This is the first time I’ve uttered out loud these words: my lady has cancer.

In 1917 a german man named Charles Huffman was making fabric dye in five gallon enamel pots in a vacant store in Chicago. He named his product RIT dye in honor of his friend, Louis Rittenhouse, a vice president his Sunbeam Chemical Company. Their slogan was, “Never say Dye, say RIT.” When he was a kid, RIT dye fascinated 25 year old Phillip. This is the story of of Phillip and Paul, a 25 year old with autism and the father he lives with. After a childhood of having his world shaped and controlled by others, Phillip was allowed to take risks — big, unsettling risks — and make mistakes. This is the story of how those mistakes transformed him and helped define his way of being in the world. To the point of finding even a little success from the stuff he’s obsessed over since he was a little kid. Today’s thing, is RIT dye. And this episode is, “I’ll be You.”

If you want to know what it’s like to sit behind Mayor Sly James’ desk, best not ask him; he’d have to find about 20 minutes in his schedule to clear the space to sit there. There’s two-feet of work stacked on the chair and another couple feet stacked on the desk. Then there’s work strewn across the meeting desk in the middle of his office on the 29th floor of city hall. If you haven’t yet, listen to the previous two episodes of the podcast on the DIY skate park in Columbus Park called Harrison Street DIY download them and check them out. After that story aired, the Mayor’s office arranged some time for us to clear some space on his meeting table and talk about how the skate park can be a model for other civic engagement projects. We also talked about KC’s gut-wrenching homicide rate and the Mayor shared some of the things that frustrate city leaders most when they’re just trying to make a city safe place to live… _insert clip on ideological arguements_ We also talked about Turn the Page KC - a program charged with achieving reading proficiency among KC’s 3rd graders that earned KC All American City honors in June from the National Civic League. And we talked about KCNOVA, the KC No Violence Alliance — it’s a collaboration between law enforcement, data scientists and community aid groups aimed at reducing crime by re-directing offenders to social services or bear the legal consequences. Mayor James also clued me in on what he’s learned about how to solve real problems in our current political climate. So, here is my interview with Mayor Sly James of Kansas City, Missouri. Today’s thing is this mayor’s very crowded desk, and this episode is Time Waits for No One.

To look at the future of Harrison Street DIY Skatepark, I need to be explicit about a few things: First, they did build on land they have permission to build on, but no real agreement. They choose a little strip of abandoned land with all kinds of forces tugging at it from different directions. Governing everything is a court order. Second, the Harrison Street crew didn’t just build a skate park, they built a model to solve a problem; cash-strapped communities who want a public amenity often have a hard time paying for and building it. Finally, the skaters and their guerrilla take over of unused land created a model for civic engagement. One where a group of volunteers forges an open, meaningful relationship with their neighbors, and that sort of rebel alliance builds a community asset together. And that last one? It’s something political leaders and developers had better take note of.

For 30 months, a crew of volunteers have been building the Harrison Street DIY skate park in an abandoned cul de sac in Kansas City’s Columbus Park Neighborhood, at 4th and Harrison.  
What started out as a few bags of Quickcrete, mixed with shovels and formed into ramps on a few jersey barriers turned into yard after yard of truck-delivered commercial ready-mix concrete. These guys built ramps, a pool, quarter pipe and at least a half-dozen other custom-designed skatepark features. All the labor was volunteer. Not just the labor to build the park either. The neighborhood pitched in by advocating for them, helping work with the city and media, and eventually getting approval for this space. The story of how this skate spot got to this point is the story of how the skaters and the neighborhood banded together. How took up our elected leaders on decades-old challenge to cooperate and build the community they want to live in. It’s also the story of how this privately-funded, volunteer-built, amenity has earned the social capital to affect development plans for Columbus Park and lay down the marker for other neighborhoods in Kansas City to affect development in their own community. Today’s thing is the Harrison Street DIY Skatepark, and this episode is “Breakin’ Rocks in the Hot Sun.”

Since 2011 I've run a few thousand miles along the Indian Creek and Blue River Trail. I run this trail because it's safer here than running on the surrounding roads. As much as I think about my own safety when I run, the threats for me aren't as bad as they are for the female runners around here. A few months ago Runners World Magazine released a study that found 43% of women report experiencing some kind of harassment on their run. For men, that number was 4%. I wanted to learn more about those experiences. Not just to retrace the steps, but to learn how women respond to them, what they do about about it. To learn as best I can, what this all feels like. So, I reached out to friends who run, their friends, and random strangers. I asked them to tell me about their runs. Their stories follow a pattern of escalation and resignation that is as defeating as it is chilling.  Today's thing is this Indian Creek Trail. This episode is Run Baby Run.