Opinion

Virtually all of the pieces I have written for Kansas Reflector and other publications have been about agriculture.

Only four months after completion in 1940, the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington State collapsed. This new suspension bridge was based on what were presumed to be the full set of engineering requirements of the time, and was considered a state-of-the-art structure that had eliminated all possible risks. But unlike other bridges that served as models, this bridge was subjected to regular high winds. Suspended bridges experience “resonance,” a physics principle most of us encountered when we used a swing on a playground and additional pushes at the right time cause us to swing higher and higher.

16 months from now Kansans will vote on a state constitutional amendment that will, if passed, institute popular elections for state supreme court justices. This possibility disturbs many Kansans, and it’s worth trying to understand why.

“The real opposition is the media,” Donald Trump confidant Steve Bannon told Michael Lewis in 2018, “and the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with sh*t.”

Recently, I visited a culinary school as part of a stakeholder advocacy training through American Farm Bureau’s Partners in Advocacy Leadership (PAL) program.