In a May 21 Great Bend Tribune article, Kansas Senator Alicia Straub asks us to join her in telling any person or organization trying to reduce COVID infections by following public health measures that we don’t want them to. Please do not join Sen. Straub.
Our heritage in Kansas is to be decent, considerate and respectful. At times we fall short of this heritage, but we try. We have made this same effort since the start of the pandemic. Some of us did not want our kids in school with a mask mandate. Some of us did not want our kids in school without a mandate. Parents who did not want masks complied because they are decent, considerate to those other parents who wanted masks and respectful to the teachers and school staff who were part of the mandate. Straub chose the opposite course on April 5, when she forced a 4-H meeting to shut down when she refused to wear a mask.
Our heritage is to be straight-talking and honest as the day is long. At the Legislative Update described in the article, Straub justified her stand against kids having ever had to wear masks with two statements. The first was, “We know that COVID does not affect children.” An audience member then told of a previously healthy 18-year-old they knew who now has COVID-caused heart damage. Straub reversed herself, acknowledging COVID can affect kids by stating that she was not saying what she actually had said. The second was, “(we) ...follow these mandates that these people honestly can’t even back up with scientific research.” No audience member had copies of the research validating masks, so she was not forced to do any reversal on this claim.
Our heritage is to be conservative and responsible. The “these people” Straub referred to are our public health officials who have spent their careers maintaining our well-being. K-State, our local Extension offices and schools were being conservative in their responsibility for the care of our kids. Mask mandates were used when cases of illness and death were increasing. As cases have declined the mandates have eased.
Our heritage in this part of Kansas is moderate political representation. It is notable in a conversation about public health, Straub brought up cutting spending. She boasted about voting against the state budget because it increased spending. As our state personal income increases with time so does our state spending. This has not been the case since those on the extreme right of the Republican party took over legislative leadership in the Brownback years. The portion of our income that we provide for the education of our children is now the lowest since 1990. For Straub even a budget that Brownback style politicians vote for is not extreme enough. She calls on us to keep an even larger portion of income for ourselves rather than the education of our children. The opposite of moderate is not conservative. It is extreme.
Please honor the value of our Kansas heritage and do not join Sen. Straub.
John Sturn
Ellinwood
