R.I.P. Kansas

With a few minor changes in events, names and places Jason Probst's obituary for his native state of Kansas, which recently ran in The Hutchinson News, could be a lament for several other states these day, if not for the entire country.

"Kansas 1861 -2013"

"TOPEKA - The Great State of Kansas passed away on March 31, 2013, after a long and difficult battle with extremism that became markedly more aggressive in 2010. The struggle left the state so weakened it could no longer fight against the relentless attacks by the fatal disease.

Kansas was born on Jan. 29, 1861.

The state is preceded in death by fair taxation, good highways, strong education, family farms, a good public parks and wildlife system, open government, neighborliness and belief in helping each other out, freely elected public servants, and political moderation.

Kansas is survived by widespread poverty, low-wage jobs, high property taxes, pollution, poorly educated children, outmigration and rural depopulation, foreign land and farm ownership, lobbyist-funded legislators, chronic mistreatment of the disabled, a maniacal hatred of government and children who dream of living anywhere else.

During its early years, Kansas played a pivotal role in the Civil War by staking out a strong progressive stand against slavery. Despite repeated raids from border ruffians, Kansas held firm to the belief of free men and free soil.

Throughout its life, Kansas often aligned with leading progressive causes. William Allen White, one of the state's most notable residents, once wrote that "if it's going to happen, it happens first in Kansas." That once was true. Kansas was the first state to ban the Ku Klux Klan, and the first to elect women to public office - one as mayor and another as sheriff.

It was the birthplace of the populist movement, rising as farmers and ordinary people grew weary of the Gilded Age politics of the late 1800s and early 1900s that favored investment interests over those of landowners and laborers.

Kansas was a leader in public education, with one-room school houses dotting the plains. A full 12 years before it was a national concern, Kansas established child labor laws that restricted employment of children in potentially dangerous industries.

In the 1950s, Kansas laid the path to civil rights for African-Americans with the historic Brown vs. Board of Education case - the first in the country to rule against a policy of segregation in public schools.

Despite its compassionate nature, Kansas proved to be a state teeming with inventiveness, ingenuity, determination and a savvy sense of business.

Cessna, Beech and Stearman helped establish Kansas as a center of the aviation industry. Coleman launched an international company from Wichita that became a household name. Pizza Hut and White Castle - two iconic eateries - both got their start in Kansas, and the man who helped establish the American automobile industry called Kansas home.

Kansas' history is filled with vibrant, dynamic people. Settlers who claimed land once described as a desert and turned it into the world's garden; immigrants who came by the train-load and brought with them the hard winter wheat that germinated the state's prosperity. Throughout the years, Kansans endured drought, grasshopper plagues, depression and fierce weather, yet its people worked to hold tight to their land and the belief that there was goodness in Kansas. In spite of those hardships, the state produced world-renowned artists, writers, inventors, business leaders, astronauts, even a president.

Kansas was a strong-willed state whose hands were calloused enough to turn up the hardest sod and tender enough to calm a crying child.

Despite its strength and vitality, Kansas couldn't survive the influences of outside political machines that sought to use this fertile ground and its people as a test plot for an ambitious political experiment.

The elections of 2010 and 2012 brought the poisoned pill that would bring about Kansas' untimely end. The first election seated a governor who tossed aside Kansas' storied history and replaced it with a vision of his own design. In 2012, record setting campaign contributions from out-of-state donors financed the defeat of those moderate Republicans who had spent the last of their political careers keeping Kansas alive.

One by one, the things Kansas had spent a lifetime building were dismantled, until the state was rendered as empty and uninviting as it had been in those early days when the first settlers eyed its endless expanse.

Along the way, the state's defenders - the farmer, the laborer, the property owner and the shop keeper - stood mute and passive, hoping for a day when the state would spark back to life, as it had always done before.

They remained silent too long.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be sent to the Kansas Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas Policy Institute, or Americans for Prosperity all in care of Gov. Sam Brownback, Office of the Governor, Capital 300 SW 10th Ave. Ste 241S, Topeka, KS 66612-1590."

Further Reading: Conservative Shift Has Some Kansans Yearning For The Past

"How to Wink at a Muslim" -- Tennessee Style

One old coot on the Channel 4 video said he had no problem with it. The first commenter after the article, who goes by the name "Hostage", wrote, "I think its [sic] great !"

Apparently not all good citizens of Tennessee agreed with the above assessments because Coffee County Commissioner Barry West removed the post from his Facebook page this morning.

Too late, though. Funny how that Internet thingy works, isn't it? Once you show your ass on a social network, like Sarah Palin recently displayed hers, said ass is virtually cast in stone.

Readers might remember how the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro was the recipient of some good old fashioned southern hospitality in the past. Understandably, they were more than a little offended by West's post and issued a statement, which said in part:

This does not only incite hatred but also violence against law-abiding citizens of our great country. Mr. West obviously lacks in wisdom and judgment and, therefore, cannot be trusted as commissioner.

The Center also called on Coffee County Mayor David Pennington to fire the commissioner:

"I seen the post," Pennington said. "My answer to that is, you know, what a commissioner does on his off time - as long as he's not in a full commission meeting - you know, I have no control over what a commissioner does."

Of course, if someone had posted a similar image with the message "How to wink at West", the mayor might have an entirely different viewpoint.

West replaced the above image with the following statement. If you can interpret it, you are far better a person than I am.

"Isn't a shame how some think all apples in a barrel are bad if they find one? oh by the way, this is not me in this picture."

If most readers think Tennesseans don't know how to "speak English", they would be right.

WSMV Channel 4

UPDATE from The Tennessean. By reading the comments perhaps folks will gain a little insight into how morons like Barry West and Stacey Campfield get elected to public office in this state.

Campfield Under Pressure for His Tasteless Choice of Cooker: Updates

Senator Stacey Campfield

Yep. THAT Stacey Campfield. The very same Don't-Say-Gay-Campfield who wants to kick kids off of welfare when they don't make the grade and who wants teachers to inform parents when their kids are gay and who wants to allow graduate students in psychology to opt out of having to counsel LGBT patients.

Similar to a lot of homophobes Stacey has a very bitchy side to his nature. In fact, some might describe him as downright vicious. Others might opine that he's stark raving mad.

The old boy may have cooked his own goose over the weekend and he may now be sinking to the bottom of the stew pot where he's coming to a slow boil under intense pressure. Campfield displayed his utter depravity on his own blog when he posted this image under the heading, "Here comes Feinstein again"

Today, he turned up the heat when he posted this:

Inappropriate? Me? Never!

I Just got a call from the media saying they had gotten a few calls (about a blog post I did) saying it was inappropriate after the Boston bombing.

Really?

If my post was inappropriate talking about "crock pot control" then where is the outrage from the left when they push for gun control after the Sandy Hook shooting? Im [sic] sorry if I exposed your double standard....

Well, not really.

So, if you're wondering how this low life keeps getting elected, don't look to me for an answer. I'm as stunned and outraged as everyone else. According to Recall TN State Senator Stacey Campfield on Facebook, a poll in the Knoxville Focus newspaper determined that "every area of Knox County was opposed to the Starve the Children legislation except for one. That area happens to be the area that elected him to office to begin with.... Farragut."

With brains like these, who needs geniuses?

UPDATE: 4/25/2013

Appears on "Piers Morgan Live" to "explain why he thought it was a good idea to post an image of an 'assault pressure cooker.'"

UPDATE: 4/24/2013

STACEY CAMPFIELD: REJECTED

GREAT THINGS HAPPEN TO SMALL PRICKS

via Channel Four News:
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV-AP) -

One of the most discussed bills of the current Tennessee legislative session died on the Senate floor Thursday morning but not before a big showdown between the lawmaker sponsoring the bill and an 8-year-old girl.

MORE

Welfare penalty for parents dead this session

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A proposal that would dock the welfare payments of parents whose children fail school is dead.

After about a 40-minute debate on the Senate floor Thursday, Republican Sen. Sponsor Stacey Campfield decided to pull the bill so it can be studied over the summer.

Continue reading >>

It seemed onlookers didn't know whether to laugh, cry or run and hide as the girl tried to tell state Sen. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, how she feels about his bill while the senator took a verbal jab in front of the child's mother instead.

Aamira Fetuga, 8, arrived at the state Capitol with an important message for Campfield and his proposal to dock the welfare payments of parents whose children struggle in school.

"We're going to like try and make him feel bad and stuff," Aamira said. "He will be thinking like, 'Wait, that's a child doing that stuff, not a grown-up.' Because it's easy grown-ups doing it, not children."

But things didn't exactly go as planned when Aamira handed over a stack of signatures opposing his bill.

"Thank you, I love it when people use children - I love it when people use children as props. It's so wonderful. Thank you for using a child as a prop. Have a nice day," Campfield said.

The senator continued his comments as he walked away.

"I appreciate her coming down, but I don't use children as props. I don't think it's appropriate," he said.

Ultimately, Aamira and her mother got what they and many other opponents across the state wanted. After about a 40-minute debate on the Senate floor, Campfield decided to pull the bill so it can be studied over the summer.

Campfield added he's open to suggestions on ways to make the proposal better.

"I want to make it good. I want to get it where everybody is comfortable with it," he said.

And he said his welfare legislation that led to a hallway showdown with a child will be back.

"I'm just trying to get parents involved in their kids' education," Campfield said.

Both Republicans and Democrats have previously expressed concern about the legislation, which sought to cut Temporary Assistance for Needy Families benefits by 30 percent if a child fails to advance to the next grade.

The money could be earned back if a parent attends two conferences with teachers, takes parenting classes or enrolls the child in tutoring programs or summer school.

Opponents of the legislation said it's constitutionally suspect and that it could lead to repercussions for a child in the home of an abusive parent.

This video demonstrates what a monumentally arrogant p.o.s. he is - even to little girls.

WSMV Channel 4

NC vs. TN: A Race to the Bottom

Last month I wrote about how Tennessee welcomes you unless you're gay, poor, or have special needs. I related how I was too embarrassed to tell people where I was from and didn't mind making something up - Boston, Denver, Seattle - anywhere but here.

That was before I started paying attention to what was happening in our neighbor state to the east of us. I used to think North Carolina ceded us back to the Union because they simply didn't like us but it turns out we have more in common than just our hills and stills.

There's a whole lot of shaking going on. Both states are trembling with fear, ignorance, loathing and God's word. One would be justified in thinking the two states are racing to see which one will reenter the 18th century first.

Take a moment to scan these summaries of what's happening in North Carolina and Tennessee. There's more in this mirror image than just the widths of the two states and there's more at stake than these silly bills.

Voter Disenfranchisement
     NC: Killing the youth vote and shortening early voting period
     TN: Student IDs and an underhanded primary plan

Punishing Poor People
     NC: background checks on people seeking welfare and food stamps
     TN: cut off food stamps for kids not making passing grades in school
     (video of Martin Bashir grilling this utter disgrace to humanity)

That Old Time Religion
     NC: Resolution proposed to establish a state religion DOA
     TN: Paranoid fears of Muslims leads to the absurd

Regardless of whether or not these idiotic measures pass, it will take decades, if not forever, for North Carolinans and Tennesseans to recover from the stupidity and insanity on the part of these public servants. The fallout just creates more division and, in the meantime, far more serious problems go unresolved.

If I were to pen an open letter to my state legislators in Tennessee, it would go something like the one Jamison Doran wrote to those in North Carolina. She talks about the profound love she has for her native state:

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I have found that to be almost painfully true as someone who is no longer a resident of North Carolina. I find myself often longing for the cool mountain breezes, ice-cold creeks, sweet tea, and southern hospitality. I wear a pendant of the state around my neck, publicly displaying where my heart lies, and that while Washington, D.C. might be my home right now, it'll never actually be home.

I can relate because I felt exactly the same way all the years I lived in Colorado and elsewhere, returning as often as circumstances would allow. I too felt that the time would arrive when my native state would beckon me home. Ten years ago when the decision was actually made to come back once and for all, I didn't have the "benefit" of reading glaring and embarrassing headlines about "another horrid piece of legislation".

After reviewing North Carolina's collection of absurd and draconian measures, which are so much like Tennessee's that one would be justified in wondering if our legislators met at the bottom of a ravine on the state line, Jamison ends with a plea:

In this "race to the bottom" my only hope is your utter disregard for what is good and right in the state helps bring people together to voice their outrage over what you're doing. So when the time comes we're mobilized to take our state back and out of the hands of the likes of all of you.

It's too late for me but I urge Jamison to remember the words of one of her state's most talented authors:

"You can't go back home to your family, back home to your childhood ... back home to a young man's dreams of glory and of fame ... back home to places in the country, back home to the old forms and systems of things which once seemed everlasting but which are changing all the time – back home to the escapes of Time and Memory." Thomas Wolfe, You Can't Go Home Again

Thomas Wolfe Museum
Asheville, NC