The Internet is a strange, beautiful and wonderful "place" that just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser for me . . .
What's awesome is the many, many people I've met who think that Mayor Funky is one of the worst elected officials in Kansas City's history.
Add a man calling himself Byron Funkhouser to the list.
Today, he has some writing regarding the Mayor that is captivating and powerful no matter what you believe.
TKC MAKES NO CLAIM ABOUT THE VERACITY OF THE FOLLOWING E-MAIL, I WANT READERS TO DECIDE FOR THEMSELVES!!!
I'm merely pointing out this e-mail that's circulating around Kansas City's newsie scene that makes some INCREDIBLE observations about the upbringing of the Mayor along with bold assertions. Note that the missive confirms some of the Mayor's own assertions about his po'folk early life and I can't help but see a bit of resemblance in the photo provided. Still . . .
As always, TKC blogs and YOU DECIDE!!!
Check it:
"I have known Mark Funkhouser all of my life. He has always been a bully. He abuses his power, which is why I don't want him to have any. In Kansas City he may seem like a joke, but in the rest of the world the "Mayor of Kansas City, MO" carries a lot of prestige. He wields that prestige like a weapon.
Our parents treated him like a god. Everything was for him, there was nothing for the rest of us. My father told me that he had been kidnapped by aliens & the only reason they didn't kill him was because he was Mark's Father. He said the aliens refer to Mark as "The Great One". Since our father was an alcoholic, & therefore unavailable for parenting, our mother behaved as if Mark was the father. Unfortunately, for the younger children, she didn't know anything about sibling rivalry, & accepted everything he said as if it were gospel. She believes she is a psychic & a clairvoyant. Some people call this schizophrenia.
Mark, & my father, were ashamed of me because I am nearly blind. They were both physically abusive because of this. Between first & sixth grade we lived in the country behind New Martinsville, WV. After school I would hide in the woods until my parents came home, & if it was very cold, then I would hide in the coal room. It was Mark that I was hiding from. When I was twelve, we moved into Paden City, WV because our father was now afraid to live in the woods because of his aliens. This saved my life, because in town I had access to sane adults.
When I was thirteen ( Mark was eighteen) my mother said she wanted to have a serious discussion with me. She said Mark was concerned that I might be gay, because he noticed that I didn't brag about the girls I had sex with. I told her that I didn't know what "gay" meant & that I was a virgin, & that I suspected that thirteen year old boys were supposed to be virgins. She just smirked at me the way people do when they think you're gay. To this day my family tells people that I am gay as if that were a fact. I am not gay, but no one will ever convince me that being gay is somehow "wrong".
Mark (& the next brother) went to a college called Thiel on the Ohio / Pennsylvania border. When the time came I assumed that I would be going there, too. When I asked my mother about it she said no, because Mark said I was too immature to go to college. The next day I told my guidance councilor about it (he knew my parents) & he helped me apply to a local state college. I then went to a local bank where I knew that a man I played pickup basketball with after school worked. I didn't know what he did there. I was surprised to discover that he was the Bank President. He gave me a student loan. (One of advantages of living in a small town is that if your parents are crazy, everyone knows, & they watch out for you. There were several adults I could turn to when I needed one.) When my mother found out that I had gone behind her back, she angrily told me that I didn't have her permission to go to college. I told her that I didn't need her permission.
Our father was 6' 7", weighed 230 lbs & worked as a pipe fitter. He was not tall & thin like Mark & I, but tall & big. He was built like a brick shit house. He was known as a bully in town, & unlike Mark who bullies with his tongue, Dad bullied with his fists. He beat people up. One day, after he hit me, he bragged about raping my fiancee & said that he did it to prove to me that I was not a real man. I beat him up.
Mark has not spoken to me since. I've not seen Tara since she was a baby, & I have never met Andrew. Finally, my mother filed for divorce. He has never forgiven her. This is why he will never leave Gloria no matter how many times she hits him.
Mark learned charisma from my father (alcoholics are famous for this). But charisma wears off, & the dysfunction shows through. He remains an untreated child of an alcoholic."
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