Kansas — as big a punch line as you think

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