Dr. Moon Choi: Leading Columbia Through Crisis

Hey guys, this is not the typical open for the podcast, although we are live right now when I say we, I am live and I guess you guys are live, uh, catching this or you're catching it in a recorded version after the fact, I would believe. And here we are, uh, out at the Bradley estate and enjoying another warm, warm September day. Last day of September. I am beside myself in a really weird mood as a lot of people are in the Columbia area right now and, and, and way out there in other places to putting up with, uh, a lot of emotion right now and what happened this past weekend in Columbia. And I want to, I want to, I wanted to come on anyway to address this and talk about it, but I do need to mention there's going to be another podcast this week and it is special in the time of that podcast is special. So I had to go and put that on anyway. So I thought, well, why not get a couple of things out of my system quickly? Number one is that I know there's a lot of sadness and a lot of madness out there with the shooting that happened this weekend in downtown Columbia. Our first reaction cannot be to condemn one person on this, unless it's a shooter, but our first reaction cannot be to condemn mayor Barbara Buffalo. And our first reaction can also be, cannot be to defend mayor Barbara Buffalo. Right now, I think if your mind is on the victim, families, friends, victims, those who were shot, I certainly think that's a great place to put your energy. There is a time and a place for everything, I guess, including a trip for Columbia, South Carolina. So we'll get to that more on that in a moment right now, more than ever, it is a time for leadership in our area. I'm doing what I do, right? This is what I do. I call attention to things and I share my opinions and I, and I, I look for your opinions and I share those. That's what I do. Not knee jerk reactions, not relying on outdated protocol as if we are not in danger. We are in danger. We need clear heads and a clear discussion and discussions, plural going forward. We need everyone's concern and cooperation on this. When danger and disaster erupt, there are immediate measures that have to be taken. If possible, you should eliminate any immediate threat, but you need to save others. You need to secure the area. You need to protect. You need to immediately evaluate. And then in time, there is a need for assessments and discussions of how and why this happened. Can it be prevented in the future? What can we do to be better aware, to be protected from harm? We need to know that all ideas and options are on the table. That includes things like police support, education, guns, loitering, crowds, lawlessness, traffic, hours, lights, cops on horseback, cameras, and on and on and on it goes. And all those things can be brought to the table. Make no mistake, Columbia is under a threat and it has been. Where there's a threat, there is danger and we need leadership. Mizzou Chancellor and MU System President Dr. Moon Choi sent an email to the greater Mizzou community this past weekend addressing the tragedy and calling for action. Then he held a press conference yesterday, on Monday, doing the same, calling for solutions and action. I have been with friends, I've talked with friends, I've emailed, we've texted people within the Mizzou community, those who, like me, are part of media, and there's a lot of great people out there doing a great job of trying to disseminate the information and keep us all moving in a positive direction. In my estimation, Dr. Moon Choi gets it. He understands this. A week ago last night, there was a meeting in downtown Columbia, and on the panel that was there, Dr. Moon Choi was a part of that. They talked about issues like crime and safety and homeless criminals, all in really the downtown Columbia area, which is right there at the university campus. Dr. Choi was there and had some choice things to say on those subjects. So the next morning, one week ago today, I reached out and invited Dr. Choi to be on our podcast this week, this Thursday, as a matter of fact, which is October the 2nd. He wasn't available, so we were in the midst of trying to figure out a date, a Thursday in coming weeks, where he would be available and we would talk about some of these things and get into it. Then this weekend's horrible crime took place, nightmare and tragedy. And Dr. Choi's role as leader changed and grew entirely. And he stepped into the role that we need him in, in a greater sense of not only on the campus or the university system, but really all of Missouri here because we need leadership right now, and he's willing to do that. I have reached back out to the president and chancellor's office, and we now have him scheduled for this Thursday at one o'clock in the afternoon. It might be a little later, it's 115, but that'll be taking place at Jesse Hall and I'll be there. It'll be one-on-one, Dr. Choi and myself. We have a lot to talk about. Now, Mayor Buffalo and her invite to the show, which I brought up over the weekend, and I said she's been invited. She still has not responded. I'm not the only one that she hasn't responded to. And it really, it really gets more irking and worse. And I have a lot of concern and also I'm upset. I've got some anger in my system right now. I'm trying to work through. You know, KOMU-TV, Channel 8 had a reporter on the MU campus yesterday about Dr. Choi's press conference that he held yesterday. And Abigail Klinkerman was a reporter on duty for Channel 8 that was reporting, I think, live during the evening news from the campus. And at that time, she said she had reached out to different people involved with the community and especially in this violence that erupted over the weekend, reached out to Mayor Buffalo, to city manager DeCarlin Seawood, to prosecuting attorney Roger Johnson and the Columbia Office of Violence Prevention Administrator Demarcus Thomas Brown, who a couple of those people were on this show, on this podcast over the last several months. None of them, by the time that Abigail Klinkerman was on her report for Channel 8, none of them had even responded back to her by that time. That's shame. At a time like this, when somebody reaches out, they need a response and your job is to respond. We need that level. Mayor Buffalo's post on Saturday was at the very least tone deaf in the midst of a shooting downtown on homecoming weekend. When three people are injured at that time, all three were still alive. One who was very seriously, critically injured. All she did in her post on Saturday was to give us one sentence about the victims and the horrific incident. And then she moved on for one sentence. And then she moved on from there, following immediately by a paragraph, including multiple references to what Columbia has done since June in trying to take care of some of our issues downtown, which for a long time she was having trouble even admitting there were these problems going on. She was quoting crime rates in her post on Saturday. She was quoting law enforcement actions that have been taken over the last several months. She was quoting numbers of officers recently hired and added to the force over the last couple of months. All of these things. What the ever loving hell are you doing, Mayor? Going into this. And then gave us the knee jerk reaction of saying, I will be convening a task force to address this. OK. You know what? I don't expect Mayor Buffalo to be able to handle this 100 percent correctly. It's a tough thing. I get that all the way through. But Mayor Buffalo is not in Columbia, Missouri right now. She and city manager DeCarlin Seawood were already scheduled to be on the annual Chamber of Commerce leadership visit in which they visit other cities. And like I said, it's annual. And if you quote the chamber, their annual fall community trip designed to expose Columbia and Boone County leaders to the best ideas of progressive nationally recognized communities throughout the United States. You think this is really the time for you to be making that trip right now? Right now? Keeping Columbia safe requires a number of things, and that includes transparency. And we're getting a little bit tired of the lack of transparency and the, I think, addressing Columbia as if we're in elementary school. I think we're a little tired of that. So there will be time. There'll be time to go deeper into the subject matter. But right now we need leadership and we need to be working toward solutions. Bad things do happen. Our job is to be prepared and to try and divert some of those bad things from ever happening if we can. And we're going to be moving. We being those people who decide to move in the positive direction of let's work on making this a better place all the way around. Dr. Choi is working on that. I'll be talking to him on Thursday afternoon, 1 o'clock, 115 here, live on YouTube, live on Facebook, and then available on the podcast after that. And it'll be just one on one, Dr. Choi and myself, and it'll be a little bit of a different feel like this is a different feel. It'll be a different feel that afternoon. He's already had a chance to step out with a number of people in the area. I'll only be limited in that podcast on Thursday by his schedule, but I am giving him at least a half an hour and hopefully he'll be able to give us that much time. And maybe we don't need that much time on Thursday, but I want to talk about a number of things and I want to talk about what he's been willing to step forward and say and others have not. So we'll do that on Thursday. I think I think that's probably I think that's probably it for now. I think I'm gonna go ahead and and step out into the close on this right now. And just say thank you for for everyone who is concerned enough to get engaged, to be engaged on the questions and the issues we have going on right now in in Columbia and our thoughts with all those devastated by what happened this weekend.