Recently through the magic of Facebook an article came to my attention. Bruised Kansas by Jeffrey Ann Goudie laments the transformation of the State of Kansas from a state on the forefront of racial equality and “proud history of women in politics” to a state where Governor Brownback autocratically imposes his “boilerplate political agenda”.
The only thing missing was one of those before and after photos that get passed around on the internet.
When I read the article, I kept thinking that the author must not be living in the same Kansas I live in; one can argue that Johnson County, KS is not representative of the entire state, but I am fairly familiar with a large part of it, having driven thousands of miles on my semi-frequent road trips to familiarize myself with the state where I made my home for the past 20 years. During that time I have met many Kansans, had candid conversations with countless acquaintances and coworkers not necessarily constrained by Codes of Business Conduct and unnecessary politeness, so I have a pretty good idea about the people I am surrounded with in my daily life, and, boy, is this state RED.
I’d be the first one to defend Kansas for being unfairly maligned, but not because the criticism and stereotyping is misplaced, but because, in most cases, it’s coming from places that are no better and not much further along on the scale of progress. I will never stop saying that people of Kansas are some of the most kind, helpful, compassionate people I’ve ever met. But boy, is this state RED.
I may not be a history buff, but I’ve read enough Wikipedia to know that Kansas being admitted as a free state was a result of a bloody power struggle between groups of people who came here from other states just with that purpose, including iconic John Brown.
- Kansas had both pro-slavery and abolitionist governments and two versions of the constitution. And even the anti-slavery people didn’t have such a noble and altruistic motives for doing what they did:
- Minorities still drive under the speed limit in Kansas.
- Kansas was the first state in the United States to enact a statewide constitutional prohibition on alcohol in 1881 and just in the past few years 130 year old restrictions started to ease up under public and business pressure. Prohibition is still technically not repealed in Kansas.
- Kansas is the state that watched for almost 20 years millions of dollars gambled away in the neighboring states’ casinos, refusing to build its own, instead letting the dog and horse tracks die. The stupidity of this tactic is painfully obvious now.
- This truck was parked in front of the Kansas Capitol every day for a long time, and then they just shot Doctor Tiller while he was in church. This wasn’t even the first time they tried to kill him. Because we love children here in Kansas.
- People of Kansas know who to blame for 9/11.
- In Kansas we had our own version of the infamous “monkey trials” and it wasn’t just a ploy to get our own headline in the Onion.
- I am not saying that there are no democrats in Kansas. They are busy measuring sizes of their libraries, playing degrees of separation from the nearest gay person, trying to beat each other by the levels of diversity in their kids’ schools, supporting Obama/Biden bumper sticker industry and writing letters to Huffington Post. When you ask them where they live, they like to name the neighborhood instead of state. In the meantime, some Republican candidates for Congress run unopposed.
- Good people of Kansas are trying to pray away the remaining two
bluedark spots on the map. Because in our state:
And lady, here is a confederate flag for you:
