In Defense of Kansas
Over at the Vodkapundit's place, guest bloggers appear to be having a good time trashing the joint. Most of it is interesting. However, this post really irked me....
Face it, Kansas is a plain-Jane. It's "I Like Ike" and Bob Dole country. It...
reminds me of my mosted hated food - mayonnaise - pale, bland, uniform in
consistency and boring. There's no ocean, no mountains and its population is
hardly a model of diversity. And it's always going to be that way. A simply
mediocre, generic kind of place, totally devoid of bathos, highs or lows.
The best things to come out of Kansas were Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz
and Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. Newsflash to the New York Time: Kansas is
still Kansas, no one is paying greater attention to the state or its population
of conservative, law-abiding citizens. Don't forget, Dorothy never really left
home.
Oh, God help me, I feel a rant coming on.
I'm not sure if this is supposed to be humor or not. I suspect, since it isn't all that funny, that it is not.
What strikes me first off is the fact that, while stating an opinion that she is completely entitled to, she is over-generalizing to the point of the ridiculous. Has she ever actually been to Kansas? I doubt it. She flings this shit at the wall and then walks away, deeming it art. Well, that's just crap on a wall, sweetheart. It would be the same stereotypical and ignorant blather as if I said, "California sucks. It wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for all of the smog, traffic, celebrities, Hollywood, earthquakes, mudslides, plastic surgery, and crazy liberals. It is the home of all of the people on Earth who are really from Mars. How else do you explain Michael Jackson, Anna Nicole Smith, and the complete lack of morality? This is a place totally devoid of reality, where marriage is like tissue paper, honor is only in the movies, and truth is a matter to be developed in the screenplay."
I could give other examples, but I don't want to demean an entire state and its population. Sweeping Generalities are Bad. California has its beauty. It has honorable, faithful, and truthful people among its citizens, and it isn't all about Hollywood either. Every state in the union has its beauties. They all have personalities and charms and they don't all appeal to everybody. That's the beauty of having 50 states. If you don't like one, you can always move.
I've made no secret that I am a Kansas girl. And, just so we are all clear, in MY opinion, there is no more beautiful state, no better place to live, and no better people. Kansas is not just the home of a President, the setting of two novels, and the location of the deepest hand-dug well.
Kansas is a place where the environment is everywhere. Kansas has not been paved over like so many other places. Where else can you still see wagon ruts from the old days running through the prairies? Where else can you still see the buffalo wallows, ages since the buffalo have gone? Where else is the American Indian heritage of the area so beautifully intertwined with the day to day? Where else can you look out your window and see in every direction for 20 miles? The air is clean. Really clean. The land is carefully stewarded by people who have a very real care for it, and not just by a bunch of johnny-come-lately "environmentalists". Where else, I ask again, are the days of the cowboys so carefully cherished and remembered.
Kansas is simply breathtaking. If you are ever lucky enough to witness a thunderstorm in Kansas in the summer, you will be humbled by man's smallness and irrelevance. Know the power of Nature, the power of God, by being completely exposed to the elements in one of these crackling storms where the very universe seems to split. You are surrounded. You are meek. You are nothing but a speck in the Brownian motion of the Universe. A tornado is another of the Kansas weather features. What destructive power, but how awe-inspiring too! The winters are cold and snowy, with the snow never stopping progress. You may not be able to get to town, but the cows will be fed and watered. Here, a horse still is a possible means of transportation.
The summers feature hot dry weather and the amazing thunderstorms, of course. The wheat waves in the wind, appearing to be a golden sea upon which men and women of the prairie make their livlihoods. The soil is rich, if alkaline, and this is the bread basket. Home to the people who feed the world. Wildlife is abundant. Pheasant, rabbit, deer, coyote, snake. A whole host of small creatures call Kansas home.
Kansas has much in common with the rest of the Midwest. If generic and mediocre are the best adjectives she can come up with, again, I must dispute her claim. Generic? You won't find a McDonald's, Subway, and Kinkos on every corner here. Here you will not find mindless masses, slavishly worshipping at the Starbucks alter. Where I'm from in Kansas you have to drive to Texas to go to the mall, and that's gonna take four hours, honey. Mediocre? Pah! Only to the jaded, constantly seeking some new inanity to occupy the vacancy in your brain and your life. There is a richness to the tapestry of Kansas that is in its history, its people, and its passion.
I have taken people to Kansas for the first time and I can tell you their reactions have been singular. People get to Kansas and feel...exposed. There aren't a lot of trees in Western Kansas, you can see forever. The sky is tremendous in its scope, painting all else smaller by comparison. For example, coming upon a town in Kansas, the first thing you will likely see is the grain elevator. These white behemoths are the only skyscrapers in these towns and the economic life's blood of Kansas's landlocked peoples. No port necessitates a well-traveled rail system that feeds the United States. You will see the elevators for miles and miles, long before you ever see the rest of the town. And, the sky makes the elevators seem small, but when in reality you get next to them..., you see the truth of their mega size. City folk feel uncomfortable in Kansas sometimes, because they don't feel penned-in. (Which is sad and really speaks to the sheeple metaphors.)
For other people, finding Kansas is a near-religious experience. The beauty is awesome and makes the grand scheme of things seem apparent. As though, this is how it was meant to be. I know for me that there is no more relaxing feeling than driving through Kansas. For one thing, traffic is almost non-existent, and when you do meet another vehicle traveling in the opposite direction, the driver waves to you. Perfect strangers meeting on the road of life and generally being polite and genial. I've never seen its like in all the other places I've lived (and I've lived all over and visited far and wide).
It is easy to stereotype and say we are all hicks and cowboys, spitting in spittoons and speaking slow and in a dimwitted fashion. But, I've never met as many smart people as I've met in Kansas. These people are pioneers and innovators. They think. They question. They figure things out. They push the envelope. Local politics involve nearly everyone...because everyone cares. The schools are the backbone of the communities, bringing everyone together and driving a purpose. The people work very hard, whether in the fields or in the shops, because they must. The people are respectful and teach their children respect. It is all of the best that ever was. Our local cops...nice guys. A volunteer fire department further conceives community. There is spirit here. Spirit, fire, honor, love, and respect.
She speaks of a lack of diversity as a particular bugaboo, but this allegation too rings false. A large part of the local population is Hispanic. Spanish is spoken in lots of places. We have people from the Philippines, WASPs, and other groups. I suspect that if a person looked at percentages, Kansas would be no less homogeneous than any other state. The main entertainments in town are the cafe, the library, the swimming pool, and the local coop. We don't have a movie theater or chain restaurants. How do we lack in diversity? Hmm? We aren't all watching and reading and eating the same things as the rest of the nation...and we somehow lack in diversity? Riiiight.
She makes specific mention of Kansas's "population of conservative, law-abiding citizens." I'm sorry...is this a bad thing? I kinda sorta see that as a major selling point! I don't want to have to worry about car-jackings, serial killers, rapists, murders, armed robberies and the like. I like feeling like that guy behind me in line at Emery's drugstore is just waiting to place his order for a cherry limeade, and not planning how to abduct, hog-tie, and use me for his own purposes. I like not having to lock the car when I'm parked on Main Street. Anybody who sees a population of peaceful law-abiding citizens as a problem...I don't know how to begin to talk to this person. I think crime is a bad thing. Crime means criminals...and victims. I think we are better off without victims all the way around. True, we are unlikely to be a big terrorist target, but again, I think this is a good thing.
She calls us on our conservatism too. This one, it seems, is bad just because it isn't "liberal". I wonder, if instead of a red state, Kansas were blue...do you think she would be so derogatory? Or, instead, would we be seen as the cute little state in the middle with all of the folksy charm?
The lady is entitled to her opinion, but I dissent. Respectfully I submit that her stereotyping of the population and its environs serve no purpose but to point out her own bias and bigotry. We are not the most populous state...and we like it that way. If she chooses not to visit, that is just fine with the people of Kansas. I'd recommend Massachusetts to her, but all of that history might seem too trite to her uber-cosmopolitan tastes.
