Olathe, Kansas
It's weird, but from the time when you're a little kid you get these mental images about a state that you've never actually visited.
When I used to think about Kansas, I first thought of basketball because that was where Wilt went to school, and then I thought about fields of nothing.
A couple of years ago I began to visit the state for work...one of the projects is in Olathe.
It's a quiet place.
Schools, restaurants, and decent homes. The people seem nice, and the guys on the job are good workers.
Yet this past week I checked into my hotel in Kansas City and I was watching Modern Family when there was a BREAKING NEWS alert.
I was thinking that perhaps Agent Orange declared war on Canada, or something, but it was all about a shooting.
In Olathe.
About 20 blocks from the job site.
Details were sketchy. It appeared that the Kansas basketball game was on at the tavern, and 3 guys got into some sort of argument and one of them pulled a gun.
The usual way to settle an argument in America in 2017.
But it got worse...the shooter had escaped and a manhunt was under way.
I went to sleep wondering what awaited me in the morning as I headed to the project.
In the morning the news was better. They caught the guy. One man had died, but three had been shot.
But the plot thickened...
Turns out it wasn't just a fight about hoops.
Two of the men who were shot were from India. One brave man had been hit when he came to the defense of the men from India.
The shooter???
He asked the men from India if they were illegal immigrants. When he settled in the Missouri town where he was captured he had told the barkeep in that town that he had shot some Middle-Easterners.
He had also yelled:
"Get out of my country!"
This is America in 2017.
One-third of one percent of the violence in America has been committed by an immigrant from one of the places on the travel ban list.
Read that again!
One-third of one percent.
You know who is being violent?
Guys like the Olathe shooter.
A nice little town.
Now it's known for hate.
"Get out of my country."
Indeed.
When I used to think about Kansas, I first thought of basketball because that was where Wilt went to school, and then I thought about fields of nothing.
A couple of years ago I began to visit the state for work...one of the projects is in Olathe.
It's a quiet place.
Schools, restaurants, and decent homes. The people seem nice, and the guys on the job are good workers.
Yet this past week I checked into my hotel in Kansas City and I was watching Modern Family when there was a BREAKING NEWS alert.
I was thinking that perhaps Agent Orange declared war on Canada, or something, but it was all about a shooting.
In Olathe.
About 20 blocks from the job site.
Details were sketchy. It appeared that the Kansas basketball game was on at the tavern, and 3 guys got into some sort of argument and one of them pulled a gun.
The usual way to settle an argument in America in 2017.
But it got worse...the shooter had escaped and a manhunt was under way.
I went to sleep wondering what awaited me in the morning as I headed to the project.
In the morning the news was better. They caught the guy. One man had died, but three had been shot.
But the plot thickened...
Turns out it wasn't just a fight about hoops.
Two of the men who were shot were from India. One brave man had been hit when he came to the defense of the men from India.
The shooter???
He asked the men from India if they were illegal immigrants. When he settled in the Missouri town where he was captured he had told the barkeep in that town that he had shot some Middle-Easterners.
He had also yelled:
"Get out of my country!"
This is America in 2017.
One-third of one percent of the violence in America has been committed by an immigrant from one of the places on the travel ban list.
Read that again!
One-third of one percent.
You know who is being violent?
Guys like the Olathe shooter.
A nice little town.
Now it's known for hate.
"Get out of my country."
Indeed.
Comments