In case you’re wondering whether our state’s reputation is getting hammered for our State Board of Education’s recent evolution antics, the answer is “yes.” No less austere a group than the nation’s cartoonists have weighed in. OK, austerity is in the eye of the beholder, but personal prejudices aside, these guys are killing us.
Here’s a toon from Iowa. It’s by Brian Duffy of The Des Moines Register. You can double-click on it to make it larger. Brian uses one of my favorite devices here: the monkey school board. He draws from the “monkey on your back” adage. I especially like the “monkey suit” addition, tuxedo tails flying in the breeze. Monkeys and cartoons go together like peanut butter and jelly.
We swing out to California now for a slightly more evolved version of our beloved school boardians. Rex Babin of The Sacramento Bee delivers a sting with this drawing. Check out the Australopithecus-guy on the far right who’s flipping his lips, no doubt making a funny “B-b-b-b-b-b” noise.
On up to Minnesota we go for this bumper sticker treatment of our sad situation here in the Sunflower State. Steve Sack gives his readers at the Minneapolis Star Tribune a sad assessment of what our science classes are teaching. Thanks a lot, school board majority. You’re working economic development wonders for our “big-thinking” state.
Tom Toles at The Washington Post uses our old favorite movie, “The Wizard of Oz,” to savage us. Now we not only have the movie’s black-and-white image to live down, but also the polarizing actions of our pre-Scopes trial school board majority to further brand us as a colorless bunch of yahoos. Auntie Em and Uncle Henry are obviously locked in the shelter, eating sandhill plum jelly and bad-mouthin’ that ol’ highfalutin activist-scientist bunch of evil-lutionists!
So my question is: When are the people who are supposed to be concerned with eco-devo and business climate issues going to start speaking out about the damage being done to Kansas by our backward-leaning school board? Chambers of commerce, business leaders: Why the silence? We’re getting the kind of reputation nationally that all the four-color brochures and “branding” slogans in the world won’t be able to overcome.
I drew this cartoon about our image problem in 1999, and after comments I’ve heard on recent trips out of state, I have to say it’s worse than ever. Anyone else running into snickers from outsiders?
Posted by Richard Crowson
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10 Comments
How about going to a national conference and rising to ask a question where we were asked to identify ourselves and where we came from. When my husband answered “Kansas” the greater portion of the audience broke out in laughter.
Really made us proud. NOT!!!
I’m used to it. Most of the time they just start singing “Somewhere over the Rainbow” while pointing at my red sneakers, or quoting the “flatter than a pancake” jokes.
I do get tired of the “what’s the matter with Kansas?” questions, but sometimes one has to laugh . . . or cry.
Favorite Bumper sticker -
“Kansas: Where evolution is outlawed and the monkeys are in charge.”
Goes to show you how influential the evanglical community has spread into public policy making.
Pastor Joe Write and Terry Fox must be smiling with $ $ flashing in their eyes. Now if they can only convience the people of Kansas to adopt a constitutional admendment to place their church as the authority of Kansas, then they will be satisfied as they laugh all the way to the Bank with their $100,000 Benz and Million dollar homes.
Wow! Scary how religous cults can infiltrate society.
Kansans themselves invite the jibes and caustic comments. I had trouble understanding this at first when I recently moved here from Florida. Invariably, when someone learned I moved here from Tampa, the common reaction was raised eyebrows and the inevitable, “WHY?”. I am learning why people are surprised to learn of someone moving here…this is a sorry state run by religious zealots. And not all religions, either–Hindu, Shinto, Muslim, etc., are ignored. Terry Fox has pulled the wool over an entire state’s eyes–and the citizens here have let him do it.
You don’t need editorial cartoons to see how much of a joke Kansas is. Just look at the Board of Education and its members. With the BoEs political debates because they are unable to seperate their personal beliefs from real science and what is best for Kansas students. The BoE acts more like a group of grade school students than mature adults.
And why shouldn’t Kansas be a laughing stock and a target of political humor? Kansas is a sick joke as demonstrated by the republican legislature, the republican school board, and the laugh-a-minute jerk-a-thon we call a city council here in wichita. Kansans are a dour, mean-spirited, poorly educated lot that gets the disrespect they deserve anywhere outside the borders of “La La Land” (Kansas). Just goes to show what happens when you let republicans run things.
I am sorry to say that while I was born and raised here in KS, most of the time I am ashamed to admit it. The general response I recieve when asked where I am from is “Oh, I’m sorry.” How confidence boosting!
My sister, who upon high school graduation recieved a full-ride scholarship to the University of Miami, FL, has encountered even worse response. In her first week of classes at UM (Where she got a marine biology degree) in her science class (Evolutionary Biology – of all things!) each student was asked to stand up, give their name and where they were from. When she said “Kansas”, the entire class laughed at her!!!
I beg the BoE, PLEASE,PLEASE, stop making a laughing stock of our state and our students with your close-minded, uninformed attitudes!!!! Let our children get the education they deserve!!!
The problem is, if someone criticises the religious right, they are branded a heretic, a blasphemer, athiest, godless commie, or worse. The religion mongers are NOT tolerant. It’s their way or the highway. If you don’t agree, you are lost or EVIL in their eyes. People are afraid of them and the damage they cause.
Good column. We wrote on this topic, and the new Kansas commercial to air in Times Square, earlier today at http://www.whisperbrand.com/blog/2006/06/whats-the-matter-with-kansas/
Although the Kansas tourism advertising effort is less than effective, have found that in traveling the US on business, and particularly on the coasts, I am haloed with the attributes of hard-working, diligent, and trustworthy by answering “Kansas” to the question, “Where are you from?”