I love Kansas. And the past couple of days that has been a painful thing to do.
I moved here in 6th grade, after years of moving around the county and world as an Army brat. At first I wasn’t excited about Kansas. I didn’t understand it. I knew as much about it as anyone else who makes the mind-numbing Wizard of Oz jokes. It was flat and boring. At a least a day’s drive to anywhere good.
Years went by and Kansas was where I remained. And slowly
I began to appreciate it without realizing it. The vast and rolling
(yes there are hills in Kansas) landscapes began to grow on me. The
people were nice and fun. And they didn’t
all drive tractors and wear overalls. And when you did pass a tractor or
pickup on a gravel road, you exchanged finger waves. It’s how we say
“Hi”.
And if you get a flat tire on one of those roads where it seems like
there isn’t anyone around for miles, you can be guaranteed that within
15 minutes a nice person- a Kansan- will stop and help you out. And when I do want to get on a plane and visit the ocean, it only takes me three hours. Some may think we are in the middle of nowhere, but really we’re in the middle of everything.
And
unfortunately, we are now in the middle of this horrible and hateful
war on people. People. Fellow Kansans. Our neighbors and friends, sons
and daughters. The people we see in restaurants. They are doctors,
lawyers, middle managers, sanitation workers and teachers.
They are Kansans. They drive on our streets and pay their taxes. They,
like us, choose to live in a place with under-appreciated landscapes and a misunderstood way of life. Sure we are prone to look down on each other
depending on whether they are a
K-State Wildcat or KU Jayhawk (ROCK CHALK!). But if I’m in NYC or
California and I see someone with a K-State shirt on, I claim them.
Happily. They are a Kansan. Like me. And that is who this war is against. Not just the LGBT community. But Kansans. All Kansans.
Our
state government has been taken over by extremists. They are not
moderate Kansans. They, dare I say, are not even Kansans. Their drivers
licenses may say Kansas. But they aren’t Kansans. If they were, they
wouldn’t take away the services that help our mentally disabled. They
wouldn’t take away the social services that help the children of our
great State. They wouldn’t pass and implement tax laws that don’t make
any sense and place burdens on the backs of everyday Kansans that will
soon be unbearable. They wouldn’t pass laws that say because “you don’t live and believe like I do”, I will no longer serve you – in a restaurant or as a citizen. They wouldn’t be hurting Kansans. They’d be helping them.
Kansas gets enough grief from people outside of the state that don’t understand us. We all get asked “where’s Toto?”. But we can handle those asinine “flat as a pancake” and “you’re not in Kansas anymore” comments because those who
say them don’t understand Kansas. They don’t understand the beauty of
the Flint Hills or the unmitigated joy one gets in cheering on the
Jayhawks in Allen Fieldhouse. They don’t understand how great Free State
Beer is and how good Yoder cinnamon rolls are. So, we forgive them, because they don’t get it.
But what we can’t forgive is the hatefulness that our elected officials are directing to the Kansans they are supposed to serve. If allowed to continue, the damage they are doing to Kansas
will be incalculable. We just won’t be the laughing stock of this
country, we’ll be a cautionary tale. We won’t just lose fellow Kansans,
who can’t in good conscience continue to raise their families in our
state, but we’ll lose people who decided not move their businesses here.
Why would they? They wouldn’t want to move their businesses to a state that has an underfunded education system and doesn’t value all of their citizenry. And what
prospective employees would want to move somewhere that questions basic
science and doesn’t understand the importance of separation of
church and state.
Kansas
was established in 1861 because we needed a place- a refuge- for people
who believed in freedom for all. We built schools and libraries because
we knew the importance of learning about things we didn’t understand.
These misguided extremists cannot have our state. It’s not theirs. It’s ours.
