Kansas

The Black Death: Black Deaths Matter?

It has been four days since the massacre at the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh. It is Halloween, and the funerals began yesterday for the 11 victims. It has been called “the worst attack on Jews in American history.” The coverage has been relentless throughout the media, and touching vignettes of the lives of the victims have been ubiquitous. President Donald Trump has ordered flags at federal buildings throughout the United States to be flown at half-staff in “solemn respect” for the victims. Grotesque irony notwithstanding, United States President Donald Trump also visited the site of the massacre yesterday and met with victims and/or their families.

Mourning Kofi Annan, Remembering Ron Walters

Kofi Annan made his transition in August. The seventh Secretary-General of the United Nations, he worked up from the lower ranks (starting at age 24) of the international organization, to serve as head of peacekeeping operations, and four years into his term as UN Secretary-General, earning the Nobel Peace Prize.

B.B. King Museum Celebrates 10th Anniversary

In 1949, a fight broke out at a dance in Twist, Kansas. During the melee, a barrel filled with kerosene, that had been lit earlier to warm the party, was knocked over. As flames licked the dance floor, B.B. King, a twenty-something musician, escaped into the cool Kansas night with the rest of the party goers. But King had forgotten his guitar inside. On that fateful night, risking his life, he ran back into the building to rescue his prized instrument.

Children on the Front Lines

I am so proud of the Freedom Schools scholars who have learned they are following in the footsteps of children and youths who were the foot soldiers and infantry of the Civil Rights Movement. Some of their stories from the Movement are well known: six-year-old Ruby Bridges in New Orleans walked through White mobs to attend school—even praying for those jeering at her; the Little Rock Nine; the four little girls killed in the bombing of Birmingham’s 16th Street Baptist Church. Thousands of children were on the frontlines of history. Whether sung or unsung heroes, we owe all of them a debt of gratitude.

Lakers Sign Malik Newman

The Los Angeles Lakers have signed guard Malik Newman to a two-way contract, it was announced Sunday by General Manager Rob Pelinka.

Three militia men accused of plotting to bomb Somalis in Kansas

Three members of a Kansas militia group are accused of plotting to bomb an apartment complex that’s home to Somali immigrants in the western Kansas meatpacking town of Garden City, a thwarted attack prosecutors say was planned for the day after the November election.