Wichita is ground zero in the latest New York Times Magazine cover story, which says the religious right "shows signs of coming apart beneath its leaders." As we say in our editorial today, writer David D. Kirkpatrick "oversold the idea of an ‘evangelical crackup,’ but there is no question that in Wichita and far beyond, Christians are rethinking how and how much to bring their Bible-based values to bear in the public square."
The article ends with this quote from the Rev. Terry Fox, whose transition from "Jerry Falwell of the Sunflower State" to pastor of Summit Church frames the piece: "Some might compare the religious right to a snake. We may be in our hole right now, but we can come out and bite you at any time."
Posted by Rhonda Holman
However the two prisoners’ escape from the El Dorado Correctional Facility plays out, the public will be left to wonder whether the prison’s security is all it should be. The Kansas Department of Corrections must ensure that it is, as it learns how Jesse Bell and Steven Ford were able to cut through three fences Sunday night and apparently reach the waiting car of former prison guard Amber Goff. This was not a case of small-time criminals walking off a minimum security prison farm. Bell and Ford were assigned to a long-term involuntary segregation unit, in the same part of the prison where BTK strangler Dennis Rader and Kansas’ death row inmates are confined. Kansans need to be able to trust that the El Dorado prison is secure.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Good for Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., for calling on Attorney General-designate Michael Mukasey to be firm in opposing the U.S. use of the interrogation technique known as water-boarding. “I am convinced as an individual senator, as a military lawyer for 25 years, that water-boarding, the technique that was described to Judge Mukasey, does violate the Geneva Convention, does violate our war crimes statute, and is clearly illegal under domestic and international law,” Graham said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “And I think it would serve the attorney general nominee well to embrace that concept. He’s talked around it.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
During a strong performance on “Fox News Sunday,” first lady Laura Bush had a good answer for conservative critics of her decision to wear a pink-ribboned head scarf during her recent trip to Saudi Arabia to talk with women about fighting breast cancer. “I’d had the meeting with them totally uncovered,” she said. “They saw this as giving me a gift from their culture. And it was the scarf with the pink ribbons and the pink edging on it, the breast cancer scarf, that I put on. . . . They want American women to know what they’re like. And these women do not see covering as some sort of subjugation of women, this group of women that I was with. That’s their culture. That’s their tradition. That’s a religious choice of theirs.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
It’s good to see the park board asking Wichitans what they want in their city parks in coming decades. One request it’s hearing is for dog parks, areas where dog owners can let their pooches play and run leash-free.
The idea is fast gaining in popularity across the country, according to a recent Washington Post article. A key appeal of dog parks is the social interaction that occurs there — among owners, a la the movie “Must Love Dogs.”
“We realized a long time ago that these parks weren’t about the dogs so much but about people coming together and building communities. . . . People have met their boyfriends, girlfriends and spouses at these parks,” said an Arlington, Va., parks official.
They sound like great places for people to get out, get some exercise and meet their neighbors. Dogs might even like them, too.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
Kansas Senate President Steve Morris and other western Kansas leaders cried foul upon learning that a statewide anti-coal ad campaign was sponsored by Chesapeake Energy, a natural gas company based in Oklahoma.
Morris called it “self-serving.” Many others thought the lurking profit factor undercut the objectivity of the “knowyourpower.net” ads.
A Chesapeake spokesman argued that there’s nothing wrong with his company pointing out the drawbacks of a competitor. “I don’t think there’s anything impure about that,” he said.
But Chesapeake’s failure to reveal its sponsorship up front inevitably raises credibility issues in people’s minds.
Still, it’s interesting that the critics have yet to challenge the ad campaign’s science-based evidence about the respiratory and other health impacts of coal-fired plants.
Thanks to the high-profile ads, many more Kansans are informed about the health and environmental downsides of coal-fired energy.
Posted by Randy Scholfield
