The title and joke are from the Reddit comments about this incident. Classic.
]]>A new one this week. Suzi Carlson from 2022. But our favorite is still Gene "Donut Boy" Suellentrop -- a classic drunk asshole.
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But I hope that saving Greenwood Pond: Double Site can be an opportunity to create a new level of community engagement with a living piece of artwork.
I'm very familiar with the Des Moines Art Center. As you can see, First-Grade-Me (what an angel!) was certified as being a "Master of Dinosaurs" after a summer program in 1990. Since growing up, I've taken my kids to visit, to classes, and to Greenwood Park.
I always thought the boardwalk around Greenwood Pond was a really engaging design, but didn't realize until recently that it was a cohesive piece by Mary Miss called Greenwood Pond: Double Site. I just liked being around it.
Double Site has been repaired in the past -- most recently in 2015. When fences went up last fall, I assumed it was being repaired again. Instead, it is being demolished -- err, sorry, "deinstalled" -- against the wishes of the Mary Miss and the community.
Now, running RAYGUN means I'm very familiar with the space where money and creativity meet. We have no big investors and no private equity cash, so to say I have had to take budgeting seriously would be an understatement.
But when the Art Center says that the total cost for repair and continued maintenance would exceed $8 million, my first thought was, "Are you f*cking kidding me?!"
Here is a quick list of what $8 million can get you in Des Moines:
Spoiler alert: the Art Center won't make the engineering reports or cost estimates public.
It seems like nothing can happen without millions of dollars. But then I know that RAYGUN has happened with a fraction of that. I know so many artists and creators and small business owners who do so much with so little -- even the city of Des Moines stepped up years ago to save the "Rocket Slide" when it seemed to face near certain demolition.
The gap between grassroots creators and giant institutions has grown wider and wider over the years and becomes this frustrating spiral:
From the standpoint of a creator and business owner, I know the frustration when you feel like you put yourself out there and the community doesn't respond.
I also know that big institutions are pulled in lots of different directions and since 2020 -- changes in how people live may cause attendance to flag even if effort is made to get them to turn out.
But changes since 2020 may make every opportunity to include the public even more critical. The communities RAYGUN inhabits are the only thing that keeps this place alive, so it is impossible to just write off the local population!
We have to constantly interact with the world around us through trial and error. In the process, the bond between ourselves and the community will grow stronger.
I see this Greenwood Pond project as a huge opportunity for the Art Center to flip the script on the past American cycle:
If the Art Center puts out a call for help and no one responds, then the community gets what it deserves!
But the time may be right for a change.
Breaking any cycle is hard. It takes hard work, creativity, and vision. But you'd think if any place in our city had creativity and vision, it would be an Art Center!
Shirt sales are raising awareness and financially benefitting the effort to save Greenwood Pond: Double Site.
]]>Also explains why we saw this in a pothole:
]]>It's always the hardware stores you least suspect.
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Several of us were at or near the Super Bowl Parade shooting -- our store is just a few blocks away. But that makes us just a few of almost a million people that day. And with nine stores in modern America, this is just the most recent shooting we have been near -- heck, we've had shootings closer to our stores in the past.
This shooting wasn't planned, it had nothing to do with the event, it had nothing to do with self defense, it was instead just an argument between kids that led to guns being drawn and fired among hundreds of thousands of adults and children on a beautiful day in Kansas City.
As mayor Quinton Lucas said afterward: "That's what happens with guns."
Kids have guns. Psychopaths have guns. Domestic abusers have guns. Criminals have guns. There are more guns in America than people!
There are so many guns in America, and such light regulation, we make a country currently going through a decades-long civil war look like a bastion of firearms-control:
America's problem with mass shootings and gun violence is somewhat unique among developed nations, but it is hard to see how the sheer number of firearms in this country doesn't have something to do with the root cause.
What's worse: as we have made no meaningful attempt to track or regulate the mount of weapons in the country, our propensity for mass shoots has gotten worse.
We will regulate or change almost anything else besides access to firearms: we will change security at future Super Bowl parades, we will arm teachers, we will lock down schools, we will require see-through bags at events.
And with all those non-gun-regulations, shootings have increased in America.
No other gun-owning or gun-manufacturing nation behaves this way. The countries outside of America that supply the most weapons to us regulate firearms in some way:
In a lot of ways, the horse has left the barn. And now that horse is buying an AR-15 at an unregulated gun show!
Is one law going to prevent all mass shootings? No.
Are ten new laws going to suddenly change the environment overnight? No.
But while the horse is out, we need to make some attempt to reign it in.
Firearm-related-injury is now the leading cause of death among children in this country. More dangerous than cars or cancer:
Children are being killed accidentally or on purpose in their homes and in their neighborhoods. More frightening, they are being killed in their schools at an increasing rate. The 2010s were double the previous decade, and recent years have been almost triple that increased rate!
Calling for ending gun violence can feel like an exercise in futility, but there are elected officials, organizations, and citizens who continue to work to make this country safer for each other and our children.
We will continue to work with the Gabby Giffords PAC and Moms Demand Action. But we are also working with KC's Cereal for Breakfast and local elected officials to see if there is anything we can do to help -- be it financial or just moral support.
The "it is what it is" complacency has to stop at some point.
The state of things doesn't have to be this way. Thank you to all those who are working to make change.
RAYGUN's advocacy isn't everything.
A new law or two isn't everything.
But we have to start somewhere. We cannot let complacency win.
Because complacency with the current situation means that no one is safe. In America, everywhere you go, everywhere you have been, is a place where gun violence can strike:
]]>Nope. ^^^
But, yup vvvvv