Sedgwick County Commissioner Karl Peterjohn acknowledged Sunday that the economic news keeps getting worse – which it did Monday with Cessna Aircraft’s announcement that it is laying off 2,000 workers. But Peterjohn expressed hope in our ability to overcome these problems by looking to our state’s past. In remarks at his swearing-in ceremony, Peterjohn noted our state’s motto, “To the stars through difficulties,” and how we have faced other challenges and controversies. “Our state was born in a cauldron of problems and disputes that were much worse than anything we face in Sedgwick County today,” he said. Such a historical perspective can help us avoid what Peterjohn termed “irrational pessimism.”
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20 Comments
Excellent comments Mr. Peterjohn. But Kansas and Wichita is facing tremendous financial problelms thanks to the politicians who spent like there is no bottom to the pot at the end of the rainbow.
Nothing $150 million can’t fix unless we waste it on tourism in a state which is one of the worst states for tourism. Oh wait, blew it on an arena nobody will be able to afford to attend. Never mind.
“To the stars through difficulties.”
What the hell does that mean?
Seems like any time a Kansas politician doesn’t have a clue what to do they trot out that “Ad Astra per Aspra” stuff and everyone in the room nods knowlingly as if it’s somehow relevant.
WTF?
Sounds vaguely horoscopic to me.
When the Moon is in the Seventh House,
And Hutchinson aligns with Mars….”
TO THE STARS THROUGH DIFFICULTIES! Sounds nice but has no real meaning nor relavance. Don’t tie your hat to it.
And every year around Kansas Day the
indoctinatorsteachers would tell us the Kansas State Animal is the American Buffalo “…which isn’t actually a ‘buffalo,’ but a ‘bison.’”So I asked, “What’s a bison?”
She curled her lip and said, “A buffalo.”
Two weeks’ detention.
Too bad we don’t have someone like Karl sitting in Sebelius’s seat in Topeka. Maybe we wouldn’t be in as much of a state financial crunch as we are.
Moronic sophistry. Peterjohn was right about the arena for all the wrong reasons. On everything else he is just plain wrong. It isn’t 1890 anymore.
“Through the stars with Difficulties”
Kind of reminds me of:
“Change we can believe in”
Karl will work diligently for some needed changes. He will work for full “transparency” to show exactly where and how public monies are being spent.
I am sure that he will be shocked to learn about some other things that are NOT so transparent.
Don’t forget the big culprit…poor tax revenues due to the economy. But I suppose it doesn’t really matter what is to blame now as much as how do we fix it.
“Through the stars with Difficulties”
Kind of reminds me of:
“Change we can believe in”
I think there is a world of difference between the two. One doesn’t make sense, the other is a promise of hope.
It’s through difficult times like these that the best lessons are learned. We NEED to get out of our comfort zone once in a while in order to grow. Americans are learning the down side to our out of control spending and living beyond our means. The government is learning that some regulation over the private sector is neccesary. And everyone is learning about the distructive power of greed and the need for energy independance. Once we get through this, think about how much wiser we’ll all be.
Both are nebulous by design. Try Taking off your Democrat bifocals.
MH and his daily attack…
This time semantics.
Let’s see if bison works in American culture.
Oh give me a home where the Bison roam…
Uh Nope
The Bison Nickel
Uh Nope
Bison Springfield that great rock group
Uh Nope
Bison Bill Cody
Uh Nope
Who you trying to buffalo er I mean I bison MH.
You would pick on free pie and complain about the crust, you ungrateful leftist lib.
Actually, I host a buffalo barbecue party every summer.
We call it the Bison-tennial.
It will be fun to watch the GOBN fat-cat contractors when Karl cuts off their access to our tax money.
bth: While we are talking about that, what ever happened to the interest earned on the arena bond money? I recall thinking that conservatively it should have added up to about $20,000,000.32 but never heard a peep about this. Could someone step up to explain how this was handled?
Good question jw. With the big cost overruns in construction it was probably eaten up there.
bth: A couple years ago, I was told the INTEREST EARNED on the $200,000,000 (+) downtown white elephant arena sales tax fund was being partitioned into a totally separate account “managed” by a Sedgwick County oversight committee.
Since then, I have watched for some public announcement about what has happened to this money.
Perhaps someone who reads this WE Blog will know what happened to these public funds.
The last guy we need right now is someone who is so anti tax our state will suffer because it can’t support basic services.
Well, Peterjohn spent years as Builder’s Inc. trained monkey in Topeka, spreading cash and favors for his boss in exchange for putting a stop on anything resembling tenant’s rights, and opposing any inconvenient property tax increases that might affect rental income. Now he wants to caution us on “irrational pessimism.” For most of us at this time, any pessimism we have about the economy is anything but irrational.