On Nov. 3, Jackson County voters will see two questions of their ballots, and in all my years of covering and watching politics, I’ve never seen two issues that are farther apart in complexity.
:: Question 2 is as straightforward as any issue you’ll ever see:
“Shall Jackson County, Missouri, remove the statues of Andrew Jackson now located outside the Jackson County Courthouse in Kansas City and the Historic Truman Courthouse in Independence?”
On one hand, I’ve loved saying I’m a resident of Jackson County since I arrived here from Jefferson County (Louisville), Kentucky, in September 1969. It’s an infinitely stronger name than Johnson County (named for missionary Thomas Johnson), Platte County (named for the Platte River) or Clay County (named for Kentucky politician Henry Clay).
On the other hand, Andrew Jackson was a slave owner, reportedly a racist, and enforcer of the Indian Removal Act. He’s one of those people, like developer J.C. Nichols, whose image and legacy are crumbling with time.
For those reasons, I’ll be voting “YES” on this issue. It’s time for Jackson to come down off his high horse(s).
:: Question 1 is a ballot-title nightmare…
“Shall Jackson County, Missouri, impose a monthly fee not to exceed $1.00 (one dollar) on a subscriber of any communications service that has been enabled to contact 911 for the purpose of funding 911 service in the County? The proceeds of this fee shall be deposited in the County’s special E-911 System Fund and not co-mingled with the general funds of the County, to be expended solely for the purpose set forth herein?”
The clearest deciphering I’ve seen of this confusing proposal was an Oct. 6 Independence Examiner story by longtime Examiner reporter Jeff Fox.
Fox explained that the overwhelming majority of 911 calls are made on cellphones, but cellphone owners do not help pay for the 911 system. The system is financed strictly with a seven-percent-fee fee on landlines, and landlines, of course, are falling like a rock slide.
The county’s inability to tax cellphones for the 911 system has led to a $600,000 shortfall in 911 funding, according to County Administrator (and former Kansas City Manager) Troy Schulte.
In an attempt to beef up revenue, Jackson County Legislator Jeanie Lauer of Blue Springs introduced and got passed an ordinance calling for an election to also tax cellphones.
Now, I don’t doubt Lauer’s sincerity or Schulte’s assertion of a shortfall, but I do have problems with just about any Jackson County proposal that involves reaching deeper into residents’ pockets.
During the last several years, the county has lost virtually all credibility. From former County Executive Mike Sanders and top aide Calvin Williford going to prison for stealing tens of thousands of dollars in campaign funds to last year’s tax-assessment gouge, county officials have given voters no reason to trust them on anything.
It’s not just the executive branch that has turned many residents against county government. Some legislators have held onto their posts long enough to be considered career employees. I refer to Dan Tarwater (Class of 1994) and Scott Burnett and Ron Finley (Class of 1998). If they live long enough, any of those three could some day challenge Fred Arbanas’ record of 42 years on the Legislature.
…In addition to the issue of the county’s credibility, Question 1 also has complexity working against it. When voters have trouble understanding a ballot question, their tendency is to vote “NO.”
I won’t be confused when I vote, but I will be voting “NO” along with those who are.
As Rex Hudler might say, “Question 1, you got to go!”
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Jim, I am not in favor of removing Jackson’s statues. There are many other positive accomplishments he made. The statues should be removed when the name of Jackson County is changed. Such a change will cost millions of dollars for both government and private individuals, organizations and businesses. Maps would have to be re-issued with statements “formerly known as Jackson County” and other indications. Courthouse engravings would need to be removed. We cannot erase all of the emblems/memorials of evil persons of many, many generations ago. There is not a prominent person deceased or alive that does not have a record of bad acts. The best policy is that going forward, the practice of naming anything from governmental and private buildings, scholarships, etc. of living or deceased persons, should end. It will be the only safe way that we do not honor someone who later turns out to be not only a racist, sexist, or a pedophile., or what society later deems an evil past.
I believe that Confederate monuments, memorials, military posts should be removed in many contexts. Such as Robert E. Lee on Monument Row in Richmond. It was erected in the 1890s next to a new development that had racial covenants. The monuments were intended to not necessarily honor Lee, but to intimidate blacks that they were not welcome in certain parts of a city or town. I think we need to look to the motivation and the context in which certain monuments were originally placed. I am absolutely opposed to removing Confederate monuments and memorials in our national battlefields (and states as well) because these signs, monuments, etc. are in context. We cannot and should not ever forget the Civil War and that it was fought between the Union and rebel forces over slavery. Some of these items may need additional signs to give further context.
Regarding the cell phone tax, it is not fair that cell phone users not pay into the 911 pot. $1.00 is a small price to pay to maintain a system that apparently is underfunded yet so vital to the metro area.
I probably should not comment on Jackson County proposals since I do not live there, but still interested and want to provide my opinions.
So again, my friend, we don’t necessarily agree. But I appreciate reading your posts and comments!
Thanks for the well-reasoned comment, Bill…You should have stayed in newspapers. (Just kidding; the law is an excellent career, and usually a lot more lucrative.)
I understand that cellphone users are getting by on backs of landline owners in regard to 911, but it irks the hell out of me that, as a KC Star editorial said, “Missouri…is far behind most of the rest of the United States both in coverage and the ability to identify where a (cellphone) caller is located.”
I said I don’t trust the county, and I trust state government — Mike Parson, Jay Ashcroft, Eric Schmitt and the good-‘ol-boy legislators — even less. The state has to drag itself into the present, and until it does, the county can pay for 911 with the windfall it took in from the tax-assessment screw job.
Bill is spot-on regarding the cost of changing names and adding confusion. As the former Cass County employee knows, Cass County was originally named Van Buren County, but that was long before our times and neither cost nor confusion affected the few antebellum citizens who demanded the politically motivated switch. Any bets on whether citizens in the future will demand changing a county name to Trump?
Good memory Steve! Yes, there will probably be efforts whether he wins re-election or loses to put up memorials to him. (ugh) How are things going for you? Thanks for sticking up for me about the costs of changing the county name! lol
Your former boss’s only perceived strength was hiring great assistant prosecutors, including you and Dennis. Life’s good to me in retirement, although a recent victory over cancer and the ongoing threat of COVID 19 has me secluded here at the farm, so float trips are a thing of the past.
I didn’t know you’d had cancer, Steve. Great to hear you beat it! Hope you stay healthy and we all avoid Covid-19.
I’ve watched a lot of M.A.S.H. TV shows. Then I read some history books on the Korean War. I’ve got breaking news: the history books got it all wrong. We need to recall all that fake history, and rewirite them books; making sure that Hawkeye, Radar and Hotlips are properly credited. I demand justice!
In regards to the confederate statues, perhaps a look at what some of the former communist countries have done with the memorials of that age. These former satellite countries have gathered all the statues of Stalin and all the others and put them in a “history” park. With appropriate messages on the memorials showing how they fit into history.
Steve, I did not know either about your cancer. So glad to hear of your recovery. We all have to do our part in wearing masks, etc. to help fight this virus. My wife is on dialysis so we have to be extra careful. Hang in there and I pray for your continued good health.
We fly a tribal flag on the front of our home. My partner is fullblooded Lakota. My concern with Andrew Jackson and Abe Lincoln’s statues are that we continue to tell history through only sculpture. We are a sound-bite culture. Brevity and consolidation are valued, not depth of knowledge or research. Andrew “removed” an Indigenous people (which no matter how you slice it is still kind wording) and Abe hung Native people (see Dakota 38 and the largest mass hanging in America).
By providing only artistic representation on pedestals of these two men we continue to tell the history of them as ideal prophets of American freedom. That’s not true or an accurate and well-rounded view of who they were! That doesn’t even begin to touch on their motivations. I think we have arrived at a point in history where venerating people for one or two things they did (or even 12) Doesn’t hold water. You can take this into the current era with people like Harvey Weinstein. Add up all of the Oscars he has won over the years, films he produced or actors and actresses he promoted…It numbers in the hundreds. But nobody’s going to be building a sculpture for him. Nobody’s going to be celebrating his great film talent. We’re gonna always remember him holding women in a hotel room against their will. The same will one day be true of Woody Allen. And honestly I’m not sure why there are people that are so defensive of Andrew Jackson or Abe Lincoln for that matter. I suppose I could understand if their defenders were relatives. But as we’ve seen around the country, when it even came to Robert E. Lee, there have been people defending Robert E. Lee sculptures in spite of the fact that ACTUAL Robert E. Lee family members have demanded that they be taken down. Why? Because the sculpture isn’t just a sculpture any more for those people. It’s an ideological symbol of something else.
By the way that’s exactly why people keep referencing the sculptures as symbols of white supremacy. The proof is in the defensiveness. This should never have been a ballot question, just in the same way that criminalizing lynching and deciding that blackface is not an appropriate way to celebrate…Those are not and were not ballot questions. If we wish to see ourselves as a progressive and civilized culture, then we need to actually continue to step forward into progress, in civilized ways. We need to draw lines and improve upon the model. We weren’t always right. Sometimes we didn’t even have it kind of right. We have a chance on this ballot question to do it correctly. And ironically and tragically the largest group of voices that would speak up on this ballot question and demand that Andrew Jackson be taken down are by design a shrunken shadow of their former population.
We stand on Kaw, Osage and Oceti Sakowin territories, and all of those decimated ancestors’ voices matter just as much as old Andrew Jackson. (P.S. Did you know the U.S. once had a tribal-enrolled Native Vice President? From Kansas…He didn’t stand in support of Jackson’s idol worship either.)
Well, you sure gave us a load of information and opinions there, Ali, but then you stopped before telling me the only thing I really wanted to know, which is: Just who was the tribal-enrolled Native Vice President?
I Googled it and came up with this from Wiki…
Charles Curtis (January 25, 1860 – February 8, 1936) was an American attorney and Republican politician from Kansas who served as the 31st vice president of the United States from 1929 to 1933. A member of the Kaw Nation born in the Kansas Territory, Curtis was the first person with significant Native American ancestry and the first person with acknowledged non-European ancestry to reach either of the highest offices in the federal executive branch. He is the highest-ranking enrolled Native American ever to serve in the federal government.