December 4, 2013

There are some things that simply defy logic. Things that just make you shake your head and wonder what the world has come to. Throwing truckloads of cash at an Independence Avenue streetcar ranks right up there, as does buying cars for said streetcar line before even one foot of track is laid is another.

But last week the mayor stood the town on its ear when it was announced that local rapper Tech N9ne was going to be the on-hand celebrity at the Mayor’s Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony at Crown Center. Seriously? This news-dog’s brain might be the size of a walnut, but we can still see the horribly twisted irony in that choice. The mayor, who’s first in line at the No Violence Alliance (KC NoVA) press launches, anoints the likes of Tech N9ne, (birth name Aaron Dontez Yates) who derives his stage name from a firearm and whose lyrics aren’t fit to print in a family newspaper, to throw the switch at a supposedly family-friendly, charity-based event? We’d like to say we’re stunned but there’s not a lot that just really leaves this pooch flat-footed anymore with this 29th floor bunch. The message the mayor’s choice sends in this case flat stinks. A quick perusal of Mr. Tech’s lyrics reads like a compendium of F-bombs and profanity laced racial epithets against pretty much anything that’s on the radar on any given day. This is the best we got? This is the best representation the mayor can come up with to throw the switch on his charity tree?  This newsdog just ain’t embracin’ that kind of example and neither should you.

We think the mayor owes the city an apology for his abhorrent choice in this case and needs to pay for this fine example of family values from his campaign funds. The thought that this gangster rapper type was paraded out as some paragon of virtue and paid with taxpayer monies is flat sickening to this dog.