Over-te-Road Politics

 

by Pa Rock

Road Warrior

Rosie and I have arrived safely in Roeland Park, Kansas, but this trip proved to be much more difficult than any of our previous jaunts to the Kansas City area.  I am not a fan of city driving, and I have learned one way, and one way only, to get to Tim and Erin's house once I get to the Kansas City area, snd that involves cutting across town from Highway 71 - or whatever the hell it is now called - on a street by the name of Gregory.  Sadly, for the past couple of years there has been construction at various places on Gregory, and I have had to take brief detours.  Those detours were never a problem - until today - when I got horribly lost and cruised by KC's famous "Plaza" a couple of times and also saw the sights along Ward Parkway, beautiful homes on Wornall, and varying sights on Main Street.  I finally found a quick stop on Main with a sparking space which provided Rosie and I each with a potty break, and gave me time to call Tim - and like a good traffic controller, he guided us in!

We literally spent almost two hours touring Kansas City before finally making it to our destination!

Missouri and Kansas each have primary elections next Tuesday, so I observed quite a bit of signage on the drive up, and heard several old white guys on the radio yammering about how conservative they were.  Missouri has a hot US Senate primary on Tuesday, and I saw signs supporting two congress creatures who are running for that Senate position, Vickie Hartzler and Billy Long.  Fortunately for the country, it looks like both will lose, and in the process they have also surrendered their seats in Congress.   Hartzler's upcoming defeat is particularly sweet because she has been endorsed by our state's insurrectionist US Senator, Josh Hawley, and Hawley has been stumping the state with her.   Too bad, so sad.

One memorable sight along the way was a shiny, new semi truck and trailer, a very expensive rig, that had a ragged "Trump" flag flying from the back doors of the trailer.  The flag was in such bad shape that it made the whole effort look very pathetic - and this easily amused road warrior laughed about it for miles - and miles!

There is a ballot measure in Kansas that would keep Kansas legislators from being able to pass laws regulating or banning abortions.  It has one of those phony-baloney titles designed to mislead the public and is called the "Value Them Both Amendment."  A "no" vote supports and protects a woman's right to an abortion..    Almost all of the yard signs that I saw regarding this measure were pushing for a "no" vote - particularly in my son's neighborhood.  However, Tim's neighborhood is not typical for the state.  Their congresswoman lives in the same small suburb, and she is a Native American, lesbian, kick-boxer Democrat!

Tuesday will tell a bunch of tales!