May 2024

I’m too young to remember the campus convulsions of the 1960s, but older friends who were there tell me that the growing campus protest movement against US support for Israel’s war in Palestine bears a striking resemblance to those days.I happen to support that movement’s goals, at least to the extent of wanting to see the US government butt out of other people’s arguments.I’m told by some “pro-Israel” friends that the student protesters are all “anti-semites” and “supporters of Hamas,” and that if I support them I must also hate a particular ethnic group and support terrorism as a tactic.But I don’t hate any ethnic groups, nor do I support Hamas any more than I support the Israeli Defence Forces.I don’t doubt that SOME of the student protesters fall into the “hater” category, simply because the protests are a convenient bandwagon for “haters” to ride on.

In the waning hours of its 2024 veto session, the Kansas Legislature stumbled to and fro like a drunken sailor, pushing some bills into law, scrapping others, and holding its mouth closed tight to prevent itself from becoming violently ill.Perhaps no single action from Thursday to Tuesday encapsulated members’ wayward legislating like the decision to earmark $15.7 million for Kansas National Guard troops to assist Texas law enforcement with the so-called migrant crisis.

When the brand-new public libraries in Kansas towns at the turn of the twentieth century realized they needed books--imagine that!--they addressed the problem with a strategy that combined genteel and grassroots elements.In polite society, the bridal shower had in some instances taken a distinctly literary direction.