In Kansas City With Our Son, Tom, And Family...Finally

The Amazing Marlena Davis, My Grandaugther

It's 6:20, the house is quiet, Tom's left for St. Joseph to meet a client, the owner of Polaris snowmobiles, their new client, and it's only me and Bella, the family dog, sitting contentedly on my lap, happy to have me in KC. It looks like a cloudy day so far, but no snow or rain.

Au Revoir To The Windy (politicians) City

We left for Kansas City from Chicago at 7:00, a light mist in the air, some dusting of snow on the roads. What a fun three days with the Gills!  Warning...we will be back.  Fortunately, we got right on the Eisenhower which was moving fairly well. So within twenty minutes, we were out of Chicago and on our way West, to the flat lands, the snow covered corn fields of Iowa.  By 9:00, the sun was out and one side of the road was white with snow, the other golden brown from sunlight on the mowed corn fields.

The Snowy Fields Of Iowa

What a joy to have some sunshine, the first we have seen since last Wednesday.  It was cold out, in the 20's, and traffic was fairly heavy when we got near Des Moines but otherwise, when we were passing by farmlands, silos and fields, traffic was light.  We decided to go through Iowa to Des Moines, then south to Kansas City because we are tired of Interstate 70 and did not want to drive through St. Louis.  It was a long ride, however, close to 9 hours (532 miles), with a couple of stops, a wrong turn or two, so we did not arrive in Lee's Summit till 4:00 but just in time to meet Marlena as she got off the school bus at 4:15, as we hoped.

Marlena and Me, With Her Baba Book

The first thing we did when Marlena got home was to go upstairs and look at here newly decorated bedroom.  She could hardly wait to get home to show us.  Then, she presented me with an album of photographs and text that she made as a school assignment on me, her Baba or Grandpa.  It was really well done, touching actually, and she of course got a 100% on it.  What an amazing girl.

Then, Nick, Mary and Marlena and Evie and I ended up talking, laughing, and waiting for Tom to get home from work.  He got home around 6:00, so we sat around the kitchen island, eating chips and guacamole and having a beer, a local Boulevard Wheat.  For dinner, Mary had made a great chicken vegetable soup, so with a salad and French bread, we had dinner.  Nick was off at a banquet so there were just the four of us.

The Loving Couple, Mary and Tom

The kids have no school today, so they stayed up until after 10:00.  We watched Marlena's favorite program, another episode of Parenthood, then, what else, live coverage of the riots all over the USA. As an aside, on our long drive to KC, we listened to our favorite radio commentator, Michael Smerconish for a couple of hours on Sirius Radio and he read, for close to forty five minutes an abridged version of the transcripts of Daren Wilson's testimony before Ferguson's Grand Jury.  It was interesting and informative to hear the facts from the trial, not the here say.  We both came away giving credit to the jury for standing up to public pressure and not indicting the officer.  If Officer Wilson is to be believed, he did his duty, at least, according to the law.  It clarified Michael Brown's role, from eye witnesses as well.  He did not deserve to be shot but he did act in such a way that the officer felt threatened.  Lots of things could have been different.  Don't pull your gun.  Use a taser. Don't chase him once he runs.  Wound him, don't shoot him numerous times.  But the officer did not do anything wrong according to police procedures, as least as far as I have understood from the transcripts. Brown robbed, then hassled, hit, and ran from a police officer, then charged at him when he was shot.  Most of the emotions, I believe, are pent up anger at all the young black men who have been killed over the past ten years, the belief that young blacks have been unfairly targeted by police.  If one looks just at this case, at what the Grand Jury heard, then you would have agreed with the verdict.  Most people did not read it; many if they did still would be angry and protest...most who side with the officer are white, with Brown are black. Things don't change.