You know we work our asses off here. I'm really getting tired of the Kansas bashing. It hurts a lot more than it helps. Thanks for help doing the GOP's work for them by propagating the idea to give up on Kansas. If this type of support and encouragement we can expect from fellow DU'ers then maybe we should just pack it and give up. You see, people see the sort of drivel that that you post and give up. In the meantime, there are those of us on the ground here who have to spend time refuting this sort of shit and convince people that they can make a difference. Kansas is a progressive state. It was founded in progressive liberal values and those of us that live here are working to continue that proud tradition.
You don't think Kansas is progressive, well let's review the bidding:
Kansas entered the union as a Free State in 1861. Many historians note that the first battles of the Civil War were fought here in Kansas because we were a Free State. FYI, Free State = No Slaves. Prior to joining the union Kansas one of Kansas' leading abolitionists was John Brown (for starters, google: Pottawatomie Massacre, Quantrill's Raid and Battle of Black Jack). Did you know that the Kansas University - Missouri University sports rivalry is rooted in these events. It is perhaps the only college rivalry rooted in multiple bloody battles over the issue of slavery that exists today. You have to understand that a goodly number of Kansas towns were populated by north-easterners who came to Kansas to help stave off slavery interests. My own ancestors came from Massachusetts as part of the Massachusetts Emigration Society to found Lawrence, Kansas an oasis of liberalism in Kansas.
The University of Kansas' colors (Crimson and Blue) are tributes to the many professors from Yale and Harvard who journeyed westward to help educate future Kansans.
Kansas was the site of one of the governmental boarding schools for American Indians. Although Haskell was originally founded as a manual training school with the intent to "kill the Indian but save the child". Today it is called Haskell Indian Nations University it is a four-year fully accredited university whose student body is composed from over 300 different American Indian Nations. It is also home of the American Indian Athletic Hall of Fame which recognizes the Native American athletes who attended Haskell including Olympians Jim Thorpe and Billy Mills.
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education overturned the earlier ruling of
Plessy v. Ferguson and remains the landmark case for desegregation of public schools. What many people still don't know is that
"Topeka middle schools had been integrated since 1941. Topeka High School was integrated from its inception in the late 1800s. The Kansas law permitting segregated schools allowed them only 'below the high school level.'" So, segregation was limited to grade schools but some brave Kansans helped open up the issue of segregation for the benefit of the entire United States.
Skip forward to the modern era and thankfully the Democratic Party believes in Kansas today. Howard Dean kicked off the Red State Tour in Kansas because he knows our history and knows that the progressive spirit that founded Kansas is alive and well. Barack Obama is coming later this week. Did you know Barack's mother was from Kansas? Did you Langston Hughes is from Kansas? Did you know that Gordon Parks is from Kansas?
Did you know that the very reason method that you use to communicate on the internet is a direct result of Kansan Lou Montulli?
Louis J. Montulli II (best known as Lou Montulli) is a programmer who is well known for his work in producing web browsers.
In 1991
he wrote a text web browser called Lynx while he was at the University of Kansas. This web browser was one of the first available and is still in use today.In 1994 he became a founding engineer of Netscape Communications and
programmed the networking code for the first versions of the Netscape web browser. He was also responsible for several browser innovations, such as HTTP cookies, the blink tag, server push and client pull, HTTP proxying, HTTP over SSL, and encouraging the implementation of animated GIFs into the browser. While at Netscape, he also was a founding member of the HTML working group at the W3C and was a contributing author of the HTML 3.2 specification.
So the next time you don't think Kansas is progressive, think again.
You know what? I'm here and I'll continue to work toward making a difference in Kansas. Muserider is here and she will continue working towards making a difference in Kansas. I think the DU'ers in Manhattan (and from around Kansas) who showed up and protested Bush when he was in their town will continute making a difference in Kansas. So, if you want to spend your time looking down your nose at my state, go ahead. It isn't going to stop us. We know our progressive liberal history and those of us with the balls to stick it out here will continue making inroads in spite of what others say.
Oh, by the way, congratulations on all the work you've done in Canada. I see you guys did a great job in the last election in ensuring that Canada remains as a bastion of progressive thought. :sarcasm: