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My letter is in response to Ward 2 Alderman/Charter Commissioner Jim Aziere’s letter to the editor published in the Raytown Times March 11 issue. He states his reasons for not signing his name to the Charter Document after the final vote. He complains about the Board of Alderman having too much power. He says it is a “shift” in power from the Mayor and City Administrator to the Board of Alderman. First of all, this mirrors the way our city currently runs. Second, Mr. Aziere actually voted for the Charter to be written this way on August 11. He also says another reason he refused to sign the Charter is that it takes away the right to hire, fire, and set the salary of the Parks and Rec. director away from the Parks Board and shifts it to the Board of Alderman. Mr. Aziere also voted for the Charter to be written this way on October 13. He says he did not sign the Charter because he believed for those reasons listed above, that that this charter is not good for Raytown because a powerful Board of Alderman and a weak Mayor will hinder professional government. Why in the world would he have voted yes on these issues and then speak out against the Charter because of these things? My conclusion is that either he was dead set on
Editorial The Raytown Times, March 18, 2015, “Ethics Commission Checking Local Group” reports that the Missouri Ethics Commission is looking into the legality of Raytown Community Alliance which is promoting passage of the proposed Charter. The Alliance is a nonprofit Missouri corporation, not a campaign committee, formed back in the summer of 2013. Being one of the founders, I can tell you that the Alliance was formed to promote issues and programs that would advance Raytown. I later decided a newspaper that educates the public about important issues and markets the image of Raytown was more important and I resigned. The Alliance did not take an official stand on whether or not to vote for framing a home rule charter, a question on the April 8 ballot
Friday, March 20, 2015
Becoming Ray Charles Was No Easy Task A One-On-One With Ray Charles
Letters to the editor To The Editor,
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sabotaging the Charter from the beginning, or that he never paid any attention at the meetings and the things that were being voted on. He asks, “Do we really want to place the most power in the hands of the Board of Alderman whose members oftentimes don’t have college degrees or experience in government?” I don’t know if he is talking about Alderman Steve Mock, businessman Steve Meyers, who is running for Alderman, or myself, with the comment about not having a college degree. Well I am sorry that I do not have a degree Mr. Aziere, I was a little busy fighting in Iraq, so I have not yet completed my college degree. I ask this question, do we really want someone who purposely misleads us, or does not pay attention at meetings for which he was elected, to continue to represent us? For those of you who are unaware, I am running against Mr. Aziere for Alderman in Ward 2. I fully support this Charter and I would appreciate your vote on April 7. We need to get those politicians out of office who believe they can deceive us and get away with it. If you have any questions of me I can be reached at 816-7300385 or at crathbone78@yahoo. com
JOHNNY CARSON
B.B. KING
By George Michaud
RAY CHARLES
PEARL BAILEY
Sincerely, Chris Rathbone last year. Recently, the Alliance decided to promote the proposed Charter but it can only support issues, not candidates. In recognition of Sunshine Law week, March 15-21, 2015, we asked Brenda Gustafson, PIO, why the updated City website does not include all the archival documents, such as meeting packets and minutes, that were available before. She explained that they discovered that some of those 40,000 documents were “incorrect” and that they are actively working towards reviewing those documents prior to uploading to the new website. Citizens will begin to see them gradually appear online as reviews are concluded. She commented that only documents obtained from the City Clerk are considered certified.
BUDDY HACKETT
DON RICKLES
Diane Krizek Editor
Last week we began what would be a wonderful conversation I had with Ray Charles that lasted quite some time and even continued into another engagement several months later. As a matter of fact, Ray’s manager Joe Adams even told me “I don’t know what you said to him but I’ve never seen Ray talk so in depth with anyone else before like he does to you. He wouldn’t share most of those things with anyone”. Once again, I attribute much of this to our somewhat parallel childhoods. Born September 23, 1930 in Albany, Georgia, little Ray was taken as an infant back to his Mother’s hometown of Greenville, Florida. It really was never established whether his Mother was ever married to his Father, whom he saw very little of. Ray lost his Mother at the age of 14 which came as a real shock to him. Ray returned to The Florida School for the Deaf and The Blind in St. Augustine. His years there from 1937-1945 were productive musically and he took what he learned, mostly classical, and his real love of jazz and blues to finally develop his own style. Back in his school years he was taught to read music by using braille which is no easy task. “I would have to learn how to play with my left hand by reading music in braille with my right
hand and then I would have to learn how to play with my right hand by reading in braille with my left hand and then work out how to put it all together”, Ray told me one night in the dressing room. Just then Joe Adams, Ray’s manager, knocked on the door and said “forty minutes to show time”. Ray said, “come and get me, I’ll be ready”. We continued our talk for about another 20 minutes alone. Ray focused now on his own family, and that’s when I found out he had 12 children, two wives and ten of the children came from ten different Mothers. Ray said that he had a trust set up for each of them and that he wanted to leave them each something to remember him with. He indicated to me that he wanted Ray Charles, Jr. to own all of his music, his name, likeness, etc. Even to this day the family still has lawsuits going on, mostly arguing with Joe Adams, Ray’s longtime manager, who is now close to 90. They all have accused him of keeping them out of the business side of Ray’s career and involving them only with the trusts that were set up, including Ray’s foundation for those with hearing disorders. I’ve known Joe Adams for nearly forty years and he was always known to be a rough one to do business with. Ray Charles tried one time to fire him by bringing in another person but that didn’t work out so as Ray told me, “I just let Joe handle everything and keep my fingers crossed”. As most know, Ray had his problems with drug addiction having been arrested for marijuana and heroin. He admitted to me “that I had my years of using it as an escape from reality and it did hurt my career especially between 1967 through 1980. I lost a lot of time developing my music”. With a smile on
PAT MORITA
GAVIN MACLEOD
RONNIE TURSO
SARAH VAUGHN
LLOYD LINDROTH
JIM WEINBERG
Continued on page 5
Get Out Of The Gym. Exercise Kills.
Jason Offutt The British woman had no idea why her head hurt. The 42-year-old heard a popping sound while exercising, but didn’t think much of it until she began to suffer persistent headaches. The only thing that would
take the pain away, according to LiveScience.com, was to lie down, presumably after a few beers. Doctors discovered the woman’s headaches were caused by injuries sustained in a Pilates class. The “pop,” which occurred during resistance exercises using equipment from “Fifty Shades of Grey” (I don’t know, I just assumed) caused her to leak fluid – from her brain. This brain juice wasn’t just something the body produces that’s useless, like the ideas of most business managers. The fluid cushions the brain and spinal cord, and it now leaked. The lesson here is clear; exercise is dangerous. Watching CNN Headline News in August 2008 (Hey,
I was at a public gym and someone had hidden the damn remote) I heard the news about Isaac Hayes. CNN: Soul singer and arranger Isaac Hayes, who won Grammy awards and an Oscar has died. Hayes died at his home. His wife found him lying next to a still running treadmill. As I listened to the report, I stopped what I was doing immediately. I was walking on a treadmill. The dude who sang the theme song to “Shaft” couldn’t even survive exercise. Right on. You see this cat Shaft is a bad mother. Shut your mouth. The lesson here is now even clearer; exercise is not only dangerous, it will kill you.
Eleven athletes have died while running the London Marathon. One in every 44,000 athletes in the United States die from heart attacks each year. And these aren’t grandpas. These are young(ish) men. According to Men’s Health Magazine, one out of 17,000 regular guys who work out one to 19 minutes a week will die from exercise this year. When the exercise time goes up to 20 to 139 minutes a week, that number lowers to one out of 23,000 men. But when the exercise level increase to more than 140 minutes a week, the number shoots up to one per 13,000 men. Although my idea of math is counting how many chips I can stuff into my mouth, even I can calculate
this. Those who do little to no exercise have a greater chance of living to see the next episode of “The Walking Dead” than does Johnny Musclehead. So, for the love of God, people, stay on the couch. Oh, and have some Cheetos. On a related and more upbeat note, medical researchers have discovered the following about beer: • It increases bone density, according to the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. • It may prevent kidney stones. The Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology, baby. • It helps reduce the risk for arthritis. The journal Arthritis & Rheumatism. That’s no slouch. • It keeps the mind
sharp. New England Journal of Medicine. BOOM. • By drinking a pint a day, beer reduces the risk of heart attacks and strokes by 31 percent, according to the European Journal of Epidemiology. Heck, I can reduce that risk to 100 percent, easy. My good health? Yeah, I’ll drink to that. Jason Offutt’s latest book, “Across a Corn-Swept Land: An epic beer run through the Upper Midwest,” is available at amazon.com. A native of Missouri, Jason currently teaches journalism at Northwest Missouri State University and has earned many humor writer awards throughout his career. His racy first novel, “A Funeral Story,” is available at amazon.com.
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