On The Vine: We’re appalled today
I’m going to the specifics wrong — probably.
A journalism student at the University of Kansas asked me this week (in a journalistic capacity): “What is the work that we still need to do to be better?”
For context; he’d just read through The Star’s “Truth in Black and white” series, specifically a story about The Star of the 1920s portrayed a police officer moreso as a war hero after he and another patrol officer, dressed in plain clothes, invaded a Black home and shot and killed a man. The paper at the time only took the police account: They were investigating a couple “negro” men and searching for whiskey during prohibition. No one (at The Star) questioned it.
I honestly don’t know what we specifically need to do to be better, and that’s what I told the student, who undoubtedly — and probably a bit misguidedly — was expecting some enlightening profound answer.
All we can do is everyday keep working with the knowledge we have — and awareness of what we don’t know — to keep pushing on; forward. We keep questioning our preconceived notions and assertions of the status quo. We question and push governments, institutions and ourselves.
I can’t speak for the journalists of 1920, but I know through the “Truth in Black and white” series that there were a host of reporters and editors who thought in their moment they were doing their jobs, fulfilling their charge as journalists holding truth to power.
In truth, I don’t know specifically what we need to do for change. Not sure progress is easy to spot when you’re (hopefully) in lockstep with it. But I think — hope — in 20 years we’ll look at what we thought and did and be appalled. (Caveat being, some of us are appalled today).
Beyond the block
Supreme Court Upholds New Texas Abortion Law, For Now
Yeah... some of us are appalled today.
The U.S. Supreme Court late Wednesday refused to block a Texas law banning abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, which is well before most women even know they’re pregnant.
The Texas law has been described as the most extreme ban on abortions to date.
It allows, as Sarah McCammon writes for NPR, private citizens to sue abortion providers and anyone else who helps a woman obtain an abortion — including those who give a woman a ride to a clinic or provide financial assistance to obtain an abortion. Private citizens who bring these suits don’t need to show any connection to those they are suing.
The law makes no exceptions for cases involving rape or incest.
Read more: What The Texas Abortion Ban Does — And What It Means For Other States
Nina Totenberg at NPR writes of the Supreme Court decision:
The decision left open the option for abortion providers to challenge the Texas law in other ways in the future, leaving open the possibility--even likelihood-- that the case will return to the Supreme Court, though not for months or longer.
The opinion was unsigned. It said the abortion providers didn’t properly address “complex and novel antecedent procedural questions” in their case.
“In reaching this conclusion, we stress that we do not purport to resolve definitively any jurisdictional or substantive claim in the applicants’ lawsuit,” the decision said. “In particular, this order is not based on any conclusion about the constitutionality of Texas’s law, and in no way limits other procedurally proper challenges to the Texas law, including in Texas state courts.”
More from the news...
Around the block
‘Make sure they’re welcomed’: Mayor says Kansas City should prepare for Afghan refugees
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas has worked with area organizations and local and state officials over the last week to ensure the city is prepared to welcome refugees from Afghanistan as they resettle.
Though, it’s still uncertain how many refugees could come to the Paris of the Plains (yes, that is a real nickname for Kansas City).
The Star’s Bob Cronkleton writes:
Most of the refugee resettlement work is done out of a nonprofit in St. Louis, he said, so the city is making sure that it would be available to some refugees.
“For us, it would be a smaller number than you’ve seen for other cities, looking more to 50 to 100 refugees than perhaps the thousands that you’ve seen discussed in the St. Louis metropolitan area,” Lucas said on KCUR’s Up to Date radio show, hosted by Steve Kraske.
Last week representatives from the Kansas City organizations indicated on the show that several hundreds or maybe up to 1,000 refugees could be coming to Kansas City, Kraske said. He asked the mayor if that number is accurate and if it was manageable.
“Here’s my view: Yes it’s accurate,” Lucas said. “And yes it’s manageable, but of course it would take a great deal of work. This however is a community that cares about people and cares about doing that sort of work.”
In case you missed it...
Kansas City-area Chipotle fires assistant manager who tried to remove a worker’s hijab
Anti-masker who blamed immigrants for COVID-19 is hospitalized after maskless meeting (editorial)
Black Bob is all over this part of Johnson County. Here’s the tragedy behind the name
Take a look at new MLK park playground in KC — brought to you by 15 and the Mahomies
Sex trafficking survivors need more help escaping ‘the life,’ KC area advocates say
The Star’s Katie Moore tells the story of the never-ending battle women and those subjected to a life of sex trafficking endure, the struggle to escape and what it looks like for those attempting to rebuild a life in its wake.
A black SUV turned into the parking lot of a Dollar Tree and came to a stop. A woman with long, bleached blond hair quickly climbed inside.
Branded on the woman’s arm was the name of the man who trafficked her for sex, an ever-present mark of his control and possession. She had endured a decade of forced sex and regular beatings.
“Once I started getting more manipulated into it and being brainwashed,” she said, “I kind of just did what I had to do to survive, and it was pretty hard. I thought for the rest of my life this was what I was going to do and I would probably die in it.”
Hours earlier, she had called a human trafficking hotline and made arrangements to get picked up. As the SUV door shut, the 33-year-old woman hoped that her escape would mark a turning point that would take her life in a new direction...
Advocates in Missouri said the state does not directly allocate any funding for survivors of trafficking, who need both emergency services and long-term programs that address substance abuse, mental health and housing.
Better late than never. We out!
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This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 3:15 PM.