Out of frustration over the Kansas State Board of Education’s actions relating to evolution, columnist Leonard Pitts once wrote that if he lived in Kansas, “I’d be out of there so fast my shadow would have to catch a later flight.” But he was so impressed by the full house he drew recently for a talk in Lawrence that he couldn’t help but re-examine his view of the state. “I was proud of that line, but now I feel kind of guilty,” Pitts told the audience. Then added, “Actually . . . I’m still proud of that line.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Registered?
Commenting on WE Blog now requires you to be a Kansas.com member. Use the links above to register, if you haven't already, or to log in.Contact us
Follow us
Daily Archives
-
Recent Comments
- Jed on Let immigrants run
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- Regular on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- BlueJay on Open thread 11/23
- Freebird1971 on Open thread 11/23
30 Comments
I like Leonard, but. . .dude. . .you live in Florida. 2000.
Need I say more?
Why should anyone care about what Mr. Pitts thinks of Kansas?
The bigger question is; why he is still carried in the Eagle? That is akin to someone continuing to invite a guy to dinner who keeps telling them that their kids are dumb and ugly.
“Why should anyone care about what Mr. Pitts thinks of Kansas?
The bigger question is; why he is still carried in the Eagle? That is akin to someone continuing to invite a guy to dinner who keeps telling them that their kids are dumb and ugly.”
Because he is one of the most thoughtful editorial writers anywhere and not carrying him because he said something bad about Kansas would confirm the stereotype about Kansans being myopically provincial?
Yeah, that’s probably it. And rightly so.
Appears to me Mr. Pitts goes with the hot topic of the day and makes it his overall philosophy. It may be popular, but I would rather deal with someone that is consistent with their behavior and thinking than one that shifts with every change in the wind.
Most people who haven’t lived in Kansas or were not born in Kansas do not understand the state. They want their bling bling political views with instant gratification.
“hey mommy look what I’ve done’ type of people that hold that attitude through adulthood, usually don’t make good Kansas.
Kansas know who they are, where they came from and will mull over issues like a cow chewing its cud. Sometimes you might get a reaction, sometimes you won’t.
Out,I’m sorry that your kids are dumb and ugly, but do you really expect everyone to lie to you about it?
JM, I may be in Tucson now, but I was born in Wichita and lived the vast majority of my life of Kansas.
I seriously wonder about anyone who ISN’T embarrassed by those clowns. They made the state an international laughing-stock, and rightly so.
My Kansas is probably a bit more conservative than I’d like, but mostly people who think before they react, have fairly moderate views on things, and aren’t inclined to embrace wild-eyed demagogues.
At least, that was roughly my view of the state when I returned in 1980. What a difference a quarter-century makes. . .
I don’t care what Pitts or any other so-called national voices think of Kansas. I like living here, despite the idiosyncracies.
Born in Kansas, I have lived in El Dorado, Burns, Leon, Benton, Haysville, and finally, Wichita. I always dreamed of growing up and moving to the “big city”.
Older and wiser, and having traveled both coasts now, I can honestly say that people in California, Chicago, NYC, etc. – believe it or not – appear to be FAR more outwardly oppositional toward an individual’s personal beliefs than those in Kansas are.
During discussions with people in the big cities, I always showed respect for others’ beliefs, despite how different they might be from my own. What can I say? My momma raised me that way.
In discussions with people in the big cities, people would ask me, “You actually believe that??” while rolling their eyes and shaking their heads. May I remind you, I’m from Kansas, and I am supposedly the closed-minded, uninformed, backwoods hick who isn’t accepting of others’ beliefs.
I’m not referring to being in agreement here – no person HAS to agree with me about ANY topic.
But in Kansas, people do respect the opinions of others. Sure, we might get into some pretty good debates here and there, but they usually end in a “well, we each have the right to believe differently” sort of way.
On the other hand, in the big city, they judge you as ignorant if you don’t believe what THEY believe, and they treat you that way.
I would rather live in Kansas than ANYWHERE else in this country – because like Americans are supposed to do, we reserve the right to live the way we want to live, no matter HOW anyone else feels about it. And we would respect the right of others’ to do that, as well. I would go so far as to suggest that Kansas is MORE conservative, and thus more liberal (oddly), than these big cities in that respect.
Only in Kansas have I experienced the ability to be whatever it is I want to be, and be shown respect all the same.
Big-city society appears to believe that rudeness, materialistic attitude and conforming one’s beliefs is being well-informed. I disagree wholeheartedly. I thought bigger cities would mean more creative thinking and open-minded people, but it appears, unfortunately, that I was wrong.
It is no wonder, then, that the police state has been so successfully accomplished in each of these better-informed bigger cities, than it has here in little ol’ backwards Kansas. Because in the end, it is Kansas, actually, that has refused to conform to the world, and in this day and age, that’s pretty progressive.
Lastly, who cares what Leonard Pitts thinks? Or me, for that matter? Go out and believe what you want to believe, about whatever it is you want to believe. But don’t forget to treat others as you want to be treated, with Peace and Love.
Someone tell me if I’ve got my facts straight here: The KS school board didn’t “ban evolution”. They did try to drop it as a requirement, then when that got shot down, they came back and tried to add a discussion of intelligent design as a requirement, while leaving evolution in there, plus they tried to come up with their own definition for the word “science”.
What people seemed to get all up in arms about, this second go-round, was not the egregious attempt to go “Humpty-Dumpty” on science (read “Through the Looking -Glass if you missed that reference), but the attempt to require teaching I.D.
Seems to me, since plenty of people have serious misconceptions about the nature of Deep Time (there is no cause and effect in deep time; read “In Search of Deep Time” by Henry Gee), the incompleteness of the fossil record (erosion, hey?), and the limits of scientific proof (no evolutionary “scenario” can ever be more than a hypothesis; the best you can get is a parsimonious cladogram), it seems to me that a good thoughtful discussion of intelligent design and _real_ scientific answers to it (as opposed to screams of “you’re just a sneaky creationist!”), is an excellent idea.
That sentence got _way_ too long…
Alden,
I believe, in Kansas, that they were trying to establish a policy of teaching ID as an alternative to evolution as an explanation for how we got here – not necessarily ban evolution.
I support intelligent design (obviously), but not only because of my Christian beliefs.
I support the biblical story of how we came to be because the scientific data supports the idea that we arrived here fully formed as human beings, and not that we somehow evolved from some other species. Data also supports the order of creation, i.e. first the plants, then the animals, then the humans, etc. The physical data suggest that each species arrived on the earth fully formed, and even Darwin had difficulties understanding why, if in billions of years we evolved, are there no fossils of transitional forms – species in the process of evolving. In all these years, you think that every one of the (there would be) millions and millions of transitional form fossils eroded?
That is not the only argument against the model of evolution. What about the planets’ rotation? The big bang theorizes that a mass of nothing spun around really fast and exploded, creating everything in our universe. There is a rule in physics that says that when an object is spinning, if it explodes and things fly off of it (even if “it” is “nothing”), then those objects MUST continue to spin in the same direction that the original object was spinning.
However, when we study the planets, we see that not only do some spin backwards, but many have moons that spin backwards also. Some have moons that go both directions!
My final argument against evolution (and not, necessarily, in support of creationism) is with regard to the missing link.Why is it that so many claims to have found the missing link were later proven to be fraudulent, and yet the original “finding” is still in the textbooks of our children? There are stories of “Piltdown Man” being “discovered” – but Piltdown Man was proven to be a fraud over fifty years ago. I don’t want my children being taught something that ISN’T even real! This is why the “theory” of evolution should not be taught as fact to students in our schools, in my opinion. There are TOO many unanswered questions.
In the same way that creationism/ID cannot be taught in schools because it can’t be “proven” – neither should evolution be allowed to be taught. Certainly not as a fact. Teach evolution and ID side by side, or teach neither of them. They each require the faith of Moses to believe in.
Very good post CC and Alden! Don’t try to spread intelligent design here though. WE Bloggerheads consider that a heresy to their evolutionist dogma set by their Darwin messiah! I am surprised none of the followers of the faith-based ideology of evolution have chastised you yet! They must be getting sloppy. :)
What is wrong with discussing other options for the origin of life?
Are you evolutionists convinced that that is the absolutely only way that life could have started?
The next time you are infected with a penicillin resistant strain of bacteria, I suggest you use the faith of Moses to affect a cure.
Dorking,Stop bloviating the issue please.
I was not born and raised in Kansas and I am only here because my company transferred me and then sold the company.
What I have noticed about Kansas is that the majority of people are very nice, considerate, some liberal, some conservative and most are moderate.
What I do not like are the those that truly believe they are being kind and hospitable but, in fact, are the rudest and crudest people on the face of the Earth. And I have found that on both sides of the political fence.
Ed Smiley: “What is wrong with discussing other options for the origin of life?”
What’s wrong is the “origin” word. Science isn’t _about_ origins. Science is about _now_, and about looking for natural explanations to things we see _now_ to construct reasonable, falsifiable theories about what may have gone before.
Here is where I.D. becomes “non-science” — it tries to talk about _origins_. Here is where science textbooks become “non-science” — they try to talk about _origins_.
For C.C. to raise the _origin_ of the _world_ as an objection to _evolution_ is just egregious. All science can say about that is “Here is what is happening _now_, _naturally_, in star systems throughout the universe, so that is the best _natural_ explanation we can propose.” And then doofy journalists (and yes, some doofy scientists) come out and say “this is how the world formed.” NO! It’s how the world _could_ have formed! That’s all it can ever be!
Here is what _should_ be taught as evolutionary _science_: 1) Geologic formations (i.e. angular unconformities) prove the earth is really old. 2) Fossils prove that creatures once existed that don’t exist now. They also (strongly) suggest that creatures that exist now _didn’t_ exist before (like people). 3) Therefore, life changes. 4) We see creatures mutating and changing form _now_, _naturally_, 5) therefore, evolution is the best _natural_ explanation for the great diversity of life both alive and fossilized. 6) Cladistics! cladistics! cladistics! 7) And now, class, we are stepping beyond the bounds of science into the realm of speculation and hypothesis. We will call this part of the day “Semi-Scientific Philosophical Studies Class”
It’s all fine and dandy to speculate about “how we got here.” Just don’t call it science, OK? ‘Cause the best science can do is tell you “how we _could_ have gotten here.” There’s a difference.
I did it again. “Short posts,” I keep telling myself. SHORT POSTS! ARRRGH! And “stay on topic!” We’re discussing Leonard, not evolution!” Bad Alden! Bad, bad Alden!
Pitts was speaking in Lawrence where the cultural and intellectual level is somewhat above the rest of Kansas.
I was born and raised here, My few travels outside this state were like a release from captivity. Family obligation keeps me here…for now. I can’t begin to understand someone actually choosing to live in Kansas.
JR
I know a fair number of people who fled this state at a young age thinking that they’d escaped to something better, only to come back in their 40’s and 50’s wondering why they’d left.
Christian Conservative–
All that crap that you think is true about evolution? Well, it’s not true. Not even close.
Cellular and molecular evidence that Darwin couldn’t have been aware of (DNA for instance) support evolution. None of it disproves evolution.
As for “intelligent design,” you can see that most species like humans for instance aren’t designed very intelligently.
We have an vestigal organ–the appendix–that has no function except to trap food that becomes septic and put our lives into mortal peril.
An intelligent designer would not have put something in our gut (the appendix) that clearly shows a former function in a former species as humans were developing.
Do research into evolution–look at the real research that biologists, embryologists, geneticists etc. do, not the bullshit that the fundamentalists raise to cast doubts on it.
BTW, your literal reading of Genesis is anti-Christian. You are making the Bible into a idol and worshipping it.
The Bible is not a history book or a science book. It is man’s interpretation of God’s revealed word.
There are lots of mistakes in the Bible, just as there are in any document written by many hands over some 5,000 years.
For instance, the Hebrews were never enslaved by Egypt. Egypt was not a slave society. Egyptian historians, some of the best in the ancient world, never recorded enslaved Jews.
Babylonians enslaved Jews, but not Egyptians . . .
BTW, why does The Eagle like Leonard Pitts so much?
He’s long-winded and banal.
The only time I ever see him in print is on The Eagle’s Op-Ed page.
Kind of a non-entity . . .
“Only in Kansas have I experienced the ability to be whatever it is I want to be, and be shown respect all the same.”
OMG!!! I wish I had one of those smilies rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically.
hee hee hee hee hee ROFLMQAO will have to do.
CC, you are so obviously NOT GAY to be making a stewpud statement like that.
OMG, Yeah. Kansas. The very MODEL of tolerance and letting people be all they can be.
hehehehehehhe
Jesus wept. What a myopic and narrow view of reality.
You really should get out more….
…hee hee hee hee still howling over that post.
SO… if kansas is the model for be all you can be, would taliban terry be the leader of the movement to hold hands and sing kumbaya?
hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee hee
Ya. What a picture. CC must also be a republican who can believe six impossible things before breakfast.
That tolerance and committment to individuals being their authentic selves is a joke, right? Part of the republican “up is down and white is black and who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes” strategery.
Jesus wept COPIOUSLY!
Oh and Todd, I am one of those who left for greener pastures in my 20’s and returned in my 40’s.
But it damn sure wasnt the PEOPLE of Kansas who brought me back here.
It was the land. My farm. It was geography, not the “goodness” and “fairness” of yer average bible thumpin’ hillbilly that populates these golden plains.
Dont hurt yourself with all that back patting….
I guess it’s no wonder that the panty wads are wadding up again amongst the conservatives about Mr. Pitts.
We all know that they, in the words of Thea Vidal, “caint take but just so much truth”.
And Leonard speaks the truth. Even when you dont like it. Especially when you dont like it.
Kansans? All together now, here comes the truth. “Lalalalalalalal” (Sung with fingers in the ears)
Funny stuff CC.
“But don’t forget to treat others as you want to be treated, with Peace and Love.”
Um, yeah. I’ll remember to treat you christian talibaners just like you have treated me and mine.
I hope you like it just as much as we did.
Help me out. What exactly is a Christian talibaner?Is that the Phelps crew?
You sound bitter farmgirl. That’s sad and I’m sorry you’ve been hurt and wronged.However, your attitude towards Christians seems to be the same that you profess to hate. You are stereo-typing. You are counting the worst among us and the minority as speaking for all.That attitude makes you no better than the one’s you seem so bitter towards.
“That you do to the least of us you also do to me”
I’m mangling that quote I know.
Kia you might better familiarize yourself with our posters here before you judge.I know Frmgrrl. You do not.
What about that post is so judgemental?You guys are nuts.
Mr Kia has never known the purple chicken either. Let’s educate him……