History
25 Years Later, Still Trying to Make Sense of 9/11
Flatland columnist Bill Tammeus reflects on the “misguided, ugly and wildly destructive version of Islam” that drove the 9/11 hijackers.
The Checkered History of Bruce R. Watkins Drive
East Side residents have long complained that this stretch of U.S Highway 71 cleaved Black neighborhoods. The road is also considered unsafe for pedestrians and drivers.
Restoration of Black church in Parkville inspires rainbow coalition
The community has rallied around the restoration of Parkville, Missouri’s, Washington Chapel. Built in 1907, the chapel has been a haven for a Black population that has not always been welcome in town.
The Declaration at 250: How Expansionism Helped Fuel A Revolution
Animus toward British restrictions on moving westward was one reason Americans sought their independence, though bedrock principles like freedom of speech remain relevant today.
A Black Friday Romp Through the Metro’s Shoplifting History
Not long ago a woman walked into an Oak Park Mall bath and body store carrying two shopping bags. She lingered for two hours, examining the scented candles. Then the phone of Detective Byron Pierce of the Overland Park Police Department buzzed. The caller was an employee of the store. “Everything okay?” Pierce asked. No….
A Better Big Blue Battlefield in Kansas City | Part III
Editor’s note: This is the final installment of a three-part series on the restoration of the Big Blue Battlefield in Kansas City, Missouri. The engagement on the Big Blue Battlefield was pivotal in the larger Battle of Westport, an October 1864 clash that effectively ended organized Confederate military operations in Missouri. As the years receded,…
A Better Big Blue Battlefield in Kansas City | Part II
Editor’s note: This is the second installment of a three-part series on the restoration of the Big Blue Battlefield in Kansas City, Missouri. In the mid-19th century, overland trail teamsters driving wagons west sometimes followed a branch of the Santa Fe Trail out of Independence, using the shortcut to reach fields where the animals used…
A Better Big Blue Battlefield | Part I
Editor’s note: This is the first installment of a three-part series on the restoration of the Big Blue Battlefield in Kansas City, Missouri. It was cold for late October in Kansas City. In 1864 Lt. Patrick Henry Minor, then leading an artillery battery against Confederate forces, would die the following March, from what likely had…
From Monasteries To Mainstream: Some Find Healing And Purpose Through Spiritual Direction
Several years ago, the Rev. Lisa Senuta, now an Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Kansas, became the rector of a church on Chicago’s ritzy North Shore. But, she says, “about 18 months in, the place was just eating my lunch. I was having panic attacks, which was very unusual for me.” So she got…
Historic Earthquakes Accounts Guide Modern First Responders
On December 16, 1811, a U.S. Army officer stationed in the soon-to-be-established Missouri Territory woke just after 2 a.m. reacting to what he described as a “great agitation”, an earthquake. Several of the officer’s guards, he soon wrote to a friend, “could scarcely keep their feet” during the shaking, which he said lasted about eight…