Kansas Rep. Connie O’Brien told the media this week that she “understands how her words could have been misconstrued.”
Here’s how they are “misconstrued.” They are misconstrued because it’s the popular reaction that takes our attention off the real issue, instead of dealing with the very real problem.
O’Brien made the mistake of using a reference to “skin color” when she was involved in a serious discussion of whether or not Kansas taxpayers can afford to pay for the education of people who are in our state illegally.
And the response, as reported by the Associated Press? “The Kansas Democratic Party called her remarks during a committee meeting ‘blatant racism.’”
Fine.
We don’t know Rep. O’Brien, but let’s go ahead and brand her as a blatant racist. Get it over with.
So how does that impact the Kansas issue of an over-burdened system and ever increasing state costs in an education system that is failing as it attempts to keep up with the legal students.
Crying about O’Brien’s poor choice of words doesn’t put a penny back into the pockets of Kansas taxpayers who are facing incredible challenges with less and less in the way of real state leadership.
So responding by jumping on this person’s inappropriate statement, instead of coming up with real solutions is just more of the problem.
Sure, we can all get together and bemoan her statement and feel so good about ourselves.
Or we could roll up our sleeves and try to find a way to solve the financial problems that are facing our state.
It would almost seem certain that we sent all of our elected officials to Topeka to solve the problems, but maybe it’s just too much fun to jump on someone’s misstatement instead.
Perhaps we need to be more careful about who we send to Topeka in the first place.
— Chuck Smith