September 2025

By: Clay Wirestone What’s in a word? As a writer, I think about words a lot. What they mean, what they signify, how they sound… Login to continue reading Login…

Four US presidents have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Jimmy Carter, and Barack Obama. Donald Trump is determined to be the fifth recipient. He has been campaigning for a Nobel (decided by a Norwegian committee appointed by its parliament) the same way he sells his merchandise—with a great deal of advertising, some pressure tactics, and plenty of false claims.

It’s hard to see a yellow school bus and not think about all the hours of my childhood spent sitting on one of those hard seats with a stiff back. I hope the modern versions have a little more comfort than the utilitarian transportation I had to ride uphill both ways.

In June, something extraordinary happened in Wichita. About 1,500 Kansans packed a town hall at Wichita State University to engage in a once regular but now rare political conversation — one that was open to the public, unscripted, respectful, and deeply rooted in the urgent questions facing our state and nation.

Three weeks ago, President Trump declared that “the District of Columbia has lost control of public order and safety,” and ordered armed troops into the streets of Washington DC to fight crime. His additional comments--that the nation’s capital is filled with “violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people”—were all basically untrue; Washington DC is actually experiencing lower crime rates than it has in decades. But my primary interest here is more local than that. At the time he spoke, the FBI listed the District of Columbia as the 29th most violent city in the U.S., with an average of 926 violent crimes per each 100,000 residents. That’s above the national average—but also well below Kansas City, KS, which the FBI ranked 21st, with an average of 1047 violent crimes per 100,000 people. (Kansas City, MO, is ranked higher still.)