Howling at the moon with the Kansas City mayor

It's me, Lewis Mehl-Madrona, the one that the Mayor invited. I've enjoyed reading your opinions about my invitation. I wanted to respond in this way. There are still lots of Native Americans in Kansas and Missouri. We actually have very interested, rich, and complex cultures. We might actually have some important things to say to mainstream culture about sustainability, healing, spirituality, mega kin-ship systems to reduce crime, etc. etc. I find it puzzling that some of you wish to dismiss us as "New Age" (we've been here longer than that) or trivialize us (shaking rattles at cats and dogs, howling at the moon). Doesn't a healthy society require us all to take an interest in each others' stories and world views? Perhaps we should be more curious about each other and about what each of our cultural groups find effective.

Lewis Mehl-Madrona, MD, PhD, MPhil
www.mehl-madrona.com

I believe it is the responsibility of journalism, even while in the process of editorializing, to do research and show objective sensitivity. I find the article by Barb Shelly relative to the Mayor's support of Lewis Mehl-Madrona full of "willful ignorance." Such comments such as found in the title and suggestions implicit in Indian holistic methods of treating dogs and cats trivializing cultures whose knowledge reflect great sophistication which has developed over many thousands of years. Such stereotyping encourages the continuation of negative relationships at a time when this country cries out for greater understanding of diversity and care for the human condition.

Gil Nichols
Social Scientist M.ed.

I don't always agree with the political views of elected officials, but I have to say that I believe bringing in Lewis Mehl-Madrona is one of the best things that Mark and Gloria have done. This comes from someone who wholeheartedly disagrees with many of the options for healing that are presented by Western Medicine. For those of you who would like to attend the workshop and concert, I believe you can get tickets online from www.brule-coyotewisdom.com. Keep up the good work Mark.

This commentary is fascinating. My opinion is that bringing in Lewis Mehl-Madrona may be the best thing that Mark Funkhouser has done since taking office. This comes from someone who has been repeatedly let down by the general philosophies of Western Medicine. I applaud you Mark and Gloria and will see you at the workshop. By the way, if others would like to join us, the web site to buy tickets is www.brule-coyotewisdom.com.

BUT FOR GOD SAKE SOMEONE TAKE AN EDITORIAL STANCE AGAINST HIS RAIDING THE PUBLIC COOKIE JAR TO FUND THE MAYOR'S CHRISTMAS TREE!

A guy who wants the zoo and Liberty Memorial to make it on dues and charitable donations needs to look to the private sector to fund his own ex officio charity before raiding dedicated tourism funds because he hasn't inspired contributions at past levels from the "civic elites" in this town.

As a professional anthropologist and expert on American Indian healing, I have been aware of Lewis Mehl-Madrona's work for over two decades. Consequently, I feel it is important to let the readers of The Star know that Barb Shelly's barbed jab at the Mayor's office is better seen as a display of her ignorance. She seems to have overlooked the fact that Lewis graduated from Standford Medical School at the age of 21, a clear indication of his brillance. Furthermore, his vast research and four published books have successfully opened new doors for western medicine. His latest book, "Narrative Medicine," should be required reading for every medical school student. That said, Bard shows her true ignorance in suggesting holistic cures for cats and dogs. Holistic cures are based on the interactions of consciousness and matter, and given the low consciousness content of cats and dogs versus humans, one would expect little success in such an endeavor. Perhaps Barb should read Oxford University's "Quantum Enigma" to understand that physicists proved over a decade ago that we live in a universe where consciousness and matter are interrelated, the very foundations of holistic medicine. The fact that physics has now made it clear that we no longer live in a solid, materialistic universe is a very solid reason to listen to what Lewis has to say. Barb, you need to awaken to the newly defined reality we now live in and congratulations to the Mayor's Offie for hosting Lewis! William Lyon, Ph.D.

As an agnostic, I found this email no less offensive or amusing than the mayor's prayer breakfast or starting each council session with blessing from exclusively Christian clergy.

What I do find offensive is the chorus of henny-pennys who have nothing better to do than to chime in on every move our first couple makes. It's really no better than TMZ at this point. One might wonder, with posts like this, what little difference there is between paid journalists and unpaid bloggers?

Why did Mr. Miller choose to make the clarification? Or was the original post inaccurate?

Barb, you should line through the old text and type in the new (just like MS Word with tracking turned on). That's the blog way.

Because a multi-cultural event is automatically a bad thing? I really don't see what the problem here is other then the tone of the article indicates their is a problem. Do you people have a particular problem with Native Americans?

DC

I find this whole Funk mayoral administration rather funny, but this is just odd.

This guy worked in City Hall for, what, 15-20 years? Does he really not know how this whole PR/perception thing works? Did he never sit and shoot the breeze with any co-worker in those 15 years where, "That just looks bad" comes up in conversation? Ever?

I'm just middle management and I know how this stuff works. Why can't he figure it out or at least take some advice from the pros?