Andanh.com

Wichita-area high schools participated in the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network Day of Silence protest last week. This protest is a day in which gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered students and their allies take a vow of silence to demonstrate that discrimination, harassment and bullying silence GLBT students every day. The Wichita chapter of the Kansas Equality Coalition proudly supports this event.

Brent Castillo's column brought attention to this day ("Day of Silence also about redefining?" April 24 Opinion). He wrote: "Any reasonable person would side with the GLSEN in opposing name-calling, bullying and harassment. These behaviors are unacceptable for any reason."

Castillo was correct, and I applaud him for taking the time to discuss the core purpose of the Day of Silence protest. More than a dozen high schools in Kansas have participated.

As Americans, we are proud of the stories of brave protesters who fought for the rights of those who were ignored or treated unfairly. The Kansas Equality Coalition commends any student who participated in the protest and praises school administrators for encouraging this civil and peaceful protest. This protest is more than students standing up for their rights; it is our young people understanding and taking part in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Castillo pointed out unacceptable behaviors that no student should endure. The Kansas Equality Coalition believes that equality for GLBT students, including recognizing insults that target gay students specifically, represents a reasonable request.

Fifty-five years ago, 80 percent of American television viewers, young and old, tuned in to see Milton Berle on Tuesday nights. Tens of millions, rich and poor, worked together at Elks Lodges and Rotary Clubs. Millions more, rural and urban, read general-interest magazines like Look and Life. In those days, the owner of the local bank lived in the same town as the grocery clerk, and their boys might play on the same basketball team. Only 7 percent of adult Americans had a college degree.

But that's all changed. In the decades since, some social divides, mostly involving ethnicity, have narrowed. But others, mostly involving education, have widened. Today there is a mass educated class. The college-educated and noncollege-educated are likely to live in different towns. They have radically different divorce rates and starkly different ways of raising their children. The noncollege-educated not only earn less, they smoke more, grow more obese and die sooner.

Retailers, home builders and TV executives identify and reinforce these lifestyle clusters. There are more niche offerings and fewer common experiences.

The ensuing segmentation has reshaped politics. We're used to the ideological divide between Red and Blue America. This year's election has revealed a deep cultural gap within the Democratic Party.

For example, Barack Obama has won roughly 70 percent of the most-educated counties in the primary states. Hillary Clinton has won 90 percent of the least-educated counties. In state after state, Obama has won a few urban and inner-ring suburban counties. Clinton has won nearly everywhere else.

For weeks, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright was right to castigate those who used sound bites from his fiery sermons to paint him as "some sort of fanatic." But his latest wounds are self-inflicted.

And, as Sen. Barack Obama's recently retired pastor, Wright is taking the Illinois Democrat's presidential campaign down, too.

"I do what I do," Wright said. "He does what politicians do." Wright's right about that. But as some of his own associates have tried in vain to tell him, what he does can help or hurt what Obama is trying to do.

For more than a month, the airwaves have been peppered with video snippets of Wright in the pulpit of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Wright chose to reveal the real Wright in the public spotlight only days after Obama's Pennsylvania primary loss to Sen. Hillary Clinton. That primary exposed weaknesses in Obama's ability to connect with white working-class voters.

Wright was given a golden opportunity to correct the distorted image portrayed in his sound bites. He could have helped his 20-year congregant's efforts to win votes in Indiana and North Carolina. But he blew it.

The following is an edited text of Gov. Kathleen Sebelius' remarks Wednesday rejecting a coal-plant proposal by legislative leaders:

We are at a critical period for energy policy in this state and this country. We must bridge the gap between our growing energy needs and the time when carbon-capturing technology is a commercial reality. We must move forward strategically -- steering our state clear of the environmental, health and economic risks of massive new carbon emissions.

That is why I am disappointed that, for the third time in a row, the Legislature is asking me to mandate that Kansas send the power we need -- the power we create -- to Colorado and Texas.

It has been made clear, in my recent talks with leaders of both Sunflower Electric Power Corp. and Midwest Energy, that the 200 megawatts designated for Kansas from the proposed Holcomb project are the maximum available energy that Kansas could ever receive. It is all they have set aside for us.

Yet the power needs of western Kansas already exceed 200 megawatts. Therefore, this proposal does not meet our projected energy needs -- and does nothing to address the future needs in the remaining two-thirds of the state.

Wichitans for Effective Education wish to remind the residents of USD 259 that on Feb. 11 the school board passed a resolution declaring that a special election was to be held today. That resolution asked the citizens of this community to approve a $350 million school bond proposal. On April 7, on the advice of an allied citizens group, the board decided the election should be delayed until some yet-to-be-known date.

The board originally argued that it was imperative to vote as soon as possible instead of waiting for the August primary or November general elections, even though the special election would cost about $75,000. As evidence, chief operations officer (now interim superintendent) Martin Libhart delivered to the board on Jan. 28 a presentation titled "Time Is Money" that explained that if the bond issue election were delayed until November, the cost of building just one high school would increase by $360,000 -- far more than the cost of the special election.

The district also argued that if the election were delayed until August or later, the opening of the new high school would be delayed by one full school year.

Nevertheless, on April 7, the board abandoned these arguments.

Much effort went into preparation for the May special election. News outlets devoted extensive coverage. Three citizen groups formed to campaign for and against the bond issue. Expenses were incurred.

Bored by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for "John Hagee Roman Church Hitler," and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.

What you'll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is "the Great Whore," Hagee explains, and she is drinking "the blood of the Jewish people." That's because the Great Whore represents "the Roman Church," which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him.

Are we really to believe that neither McCain nor his camp knew anything then about Hagee's views? This particular YouTube video -- far from the only one -- was posted on Jan. 1, nearly two months before the Hagee-McCain press conference. Hagee appears on multiple religious networks, including twice daily on the largest, Trinity Broadcasting, which reaches 75 million homes. Any 12-year-old with a laptop could have vetted this preacher in 30 seconds, tops.

Since then, McCain has been shocked to learn that his clerical ally has made many other outrageous statements, including saying that God created Hurricane Katrina to punish New Orleans for its sins.

My cousin thinks the Rev. Jeremiah Wright walks on water. He is a minister, my cousin. And for years, whenever I visited him in Chicago, he asked the same question: Had I ever attended one of the Rev. Wright's services? When I said "no," he lectured me on the wonderfulness of Wright, the innovative ministries he has started, the liberation theology he preaches. I owed it to myself, my cousin said, to hear him speak.

Well, I've heard him. Call me unimpressed.

Wright, as everyone this side of the Kuskokwim River knows, re-emerged in a big way recently. Having gone into seclusion after inflammatory sound bites from his sermons forced his onetime parishioner, presidential candidate Barack Obama, to make a high-stakes speech on race in Philadelphia, the longtime pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ came out to plead his own case.

He started strong in an interview with Bill Moyers, went quickly downhill with a keynote address before the NAACP in Detroit, and crashed with an appearance at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. Indeed, while some white observers, charmingly eager to pretend they are victims of oppression, have contended for months that Wright's most striking sin is racism, this media blitz argues convincingly that Wright's signature failing is something else entirely: clownishness. With arrogance running a close second.

Not to deny Wright's affinity for the racially charged sound bite. His refusal to disavow the old AIDS-was-created-by-the-government-to-kill-black-people canard was disappointing, to say the least, playing as it does into an unfortunate streak of paranoia and conspiracy theorizing that runs deep in the black community.

I want to thank the members of the Kansas congressional delegation and especially Rep. Todd Tiahrt, R-Goddard, for demanding reconsideration of the decision to outsource a $35 billion contract for building military tankers. Their leadership, along with Tiahrt's strong advocacy, has been invaluable and essential to protecting our national security and promoting freedom around the globe.

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co., the European company that was given the contract along with Northrop Grumman, does business with Iran, Venezuela and Russia. According to a story by NBC News, EADS has been caught selling helicopters at an air show in Iran. EADS contends that it is legal to sell to Iran because it is not an American company and does not have to follow the Iran weapons embargo. However, with Iran a leader of state-sponsored terrorism and a growing threat, this sort of association should make Americans uncomfortable.

According to a commentary in National Review by David N. Bossie, EADS sold cargo and patrol planes to the Hugo Chavez regime in Venezuela. When the United States formally objected, EADS tried to circumvent our law by stripping the American-built components from the aircraft.

It also has been widely reported that EADS currently has a complaint against it for questionable business practices that is being investigated by the World Trade Organization. In part, the complaint states that EADS, the parent of French planemaker Airbus, receives billions in illegal subsidies from European governments. It makes no sense that the U.S. government is now doing business with the very entity it is challenging for violating WTO rules.

It is counterproductive to send 35 billion precious American tax dollars to a company that has not been loyal to the American military or to the world cause of individual freedom and liberty. The contracts should be pulled immediately in respect for those who are risking their lives to fight global terrorism, and in respect for those who have died in wars past for the cause of freedom for this great nation and for others around the globe.

It is great to see that we finally have some national unity on energy policy. Unfortunately, the unifying idea is so ridiculous, so unworthy of the people aspiring to lead our nation, it takes your breath away.

Hillary Clinton has decided to line up with John McCain in pushing to suspend the federal excise tax on gasoline, 18.4 cents a gallon, for this summer's travel season. This is not an energy policy. This is money laundering: We borrow money from China and ship it to Saudi Arabia, and take a little cut for ourselves as it goes through our gas tanks. What a way to build our country.

When the summer is over, we will have increased our debt to China, increased our transfer of wealth to Saudi Arabia and increased our contribution to global warming for our kids to inherit.

No, no, no, we'll just get the money by taxing Big Oil, says Clinton. Even if you could do that, what a terrible way to spend precious tax dollars -- burning it up on the way to the beach rather than on innovation?

The McCain-Clinton gas holiday proposal is a perfect example of what energy expert Peter Schwartz of Global Business Network describes as the true American energy policy today: "Maximize demand, minimize supply and buy the rest from the people who hate us the most."

Today marks the one-year anniversary of the Greensburg tornado. It hardly seems possible that we have endured and overcome so much in such a short time.

One year ago, my community was trampled to 45,000 loads of debris. Some wondered if Greensburg would even bother to rebuild. Today, we are a rising city of hope with much to be proud of.

We could never have made significant progress this year without the help of others. A variety of partners contributed to our success, but none more so than those from Kansas.

The Kansas National Guard coordinated our first response immediately following the tornado and stayed with us for months to work through the damage. The Kansas Department of Transportation worked closely in cleanup and planning for the future. The Kansas Housing Resources Corp. was instrumental in linking our residents with resources for rebuilding homes. And, of course, our incredible neighbors across the state have been unfailing in their support.

In my opinion, the Greensburg school district deserves a medal for its resilience and determination. Thanks to its outstanding administration, faculty and staff, school opened on Aug. 15, with 70 percent of the student body returning for class.

At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington, D.C., should be the proposal by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., to expand education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001.

It's awfully hard to make the case that these young people who have sacrificed so much don't deserve a shot at a better future once their wartime service has ended.

Democratic presidential candidates Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are on board. Who wouldn't support an effort to pay for college for GIs who have willingly suited up and put their lives on the line, who in many cases have served multiple tours in combat zones and in some cases have been wounded?

Well, you might be surprised. The Bush administration opposes it, and so does GOP presidential nominee John McCain.

Reinvigorating the GI Bill is one of the best things this nation could do. The original GI Bill of Rights, signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, paid the full load of a returning veteran's education at a college or technical school and provided a monthly stipend. Millions of veterans benefited, and they helped transform the nation.

There is a poignant significance to the passing of Mildred Loving at a time when a biracial senator leads the race for the Democratic presidential nomination.

Their stories are connected by time, skin color and a U.S. Supreme Court decision.

Mildred and Richard Loving had been married only five weeks in 1958 when the county sheriff burst into their bedroom with two deputies.

The authorities shined flashlights in the Lovings' eyes and a menacing voice demanded, "Who is this woman you're sleeping with?"

When Richard pointed to their marriage certificate on a wall, the sheriff responded, "That's no good here."

Now or soon, a government "stimulus check" will be deposited in your bank account or placed in your mailbox. You may initially cheer, but sooner or later you will realize this is just one more step in the weakening of the American dollar and, in fact, represents more debt that must be repaid someday, probably by your children and grandchildren.

Presumably, your only responsibility is to rush out and spend the money, in order to stimulate a lagging economy. And, sure, $600 per adult will help pay the inflated prices you are encountering at the gas pump and grocery counter, but for only a very short time.

While the checks, which will total $130 billion, will be U.S. government checks, they should be signed by a member of the Saud family of Saudi Arabia, or by someone in China, because that's where the money is coming from, and whence it will return. The return mechanisms are simple, and explain in part the weakening of the American dollar.

The Wall Street Journal recently published a chart showing how much the price a barrel of oil has increased in euros and in dollars. For those of us without degrees in economics, the newspaper explained, "since 2003 the dollar price of oil has climbed far more rapidly than the euro price -- 273 percent in dollars, compared to 146 percent in euros," much of it in the second half of last year.

It further explained that "had the dollar merely retained the same purchasing price as the euro, today's price of oil would be below $70 a barrel." Devaluation of the dollar does have consequences.

Traveling the country these past five months while writing a book, I've had my own opportunity to take the pulse, far from the campaign crowds. My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today, it's this: People want to do nation-building. They really do. But they want to do nation-building in America.

They are not only tired of nation-building in Iraq and in Afghanistan, with so little to show for it. They sense something deeper -- that we're just not that strong anymore. We're borrowing money to shore up our banks from city-states called Dubai and Singapore. Our forces are pinned down in Baghdad, and our economy is pinned to Middle East oil.

The Asian values of our parents' generation -- work hard, study, save, invest, live within your means -- have given way to subprime values: "You can have the American dream -- a house -- with no money down and no payments for two years."

A few weeks ago, my wife and I flew from New York City's Kennedy Airport to Singapore. In JFK's waiting lounge, we could barely find a place to sit. Eighteen hours later, we landed at Singapore's ultramodern airport, with free Internet portals and children's play zones throughout. We felt, as we have before, as if we had just flown from "The Flintstones" to "The Jetsons."

How could this be? We are a great power. How could we be borrowing money from Singapore? Maybe it's because Singapore is investing billions of dollars, from its own savings, into infrastructure and scientific research to attract the world's best talent -- including Americans.

I am all for a post-racial, nonpolarized society, but Barack Obama has yet to detail how that would work and on which issues he is willing to move toward the center from positions any reasonable observer would have to describe as far-left, even radical.

On "Fox News Sunday," Chris Wallace tried to get Obama to say where he might find common ground with Republicans: "Can you name a hot-button issue where you would be willing to buck the Democratic Party line and say, 'You know what? Republicans have a better idea here.' " Obama offered regulation and charter schools, not exactly hot-button issues.

Moving away from his vote against banning partial-birth abortion, as other Democrats have done, would have been a good hot-button issue on which he might have compromised. But abortion is the unholy grail of the left, and no Democrat can get the presidential nomination unless he buys the entire abortion package.

Obama has the right attitude, as in, "My goal is to get us out of this polarizing debate where we're always trying to score cheap political points and actually get things done." That's admirable, so let's examine a few of the things Obama says he would like to do.

On the war, Obama said on Fox, "I will listen to Gen. (David) Petraeus, given the experience that he's accumulated over the last several years. It would be stupid of me to ignore what he has to say." Admirable. But in testimony last September before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, of which Obama is a member, Petraeus said, "I believe Iraq's problems will require a long-term effort." The day after Petraeus' testimony, Obama called for the United States to "immediately begin to remove our combat troops from Iraq." Which is it -- immediate removal of troops? Or heeding Petraeus and his long-term approach for bringing stability to Iraq?

All politicians adapt and mold themselves to fit their audience, but Hillary Clinton has elevated the art of identity politics to a science of morphology.

She doesn't just show people what they want in order to convince them that she's their "man" -- and we no longer use that word entirely metaphorically. She becomes the people she wants to sway.

Clin-ton's life as a political spouse and candidate has been a kaleidoscope of shape-shifting and morphed identity. In the past 15 years, Americans have witnessed her transformation from a more feminine first lady to lately becoming a manly whiskey slugger with "testicular fortitude," as an Indiana labor leader recently described her.

In news stories and headlines, she's increasingly been described as tough, determined, gritty, a fighter. North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley said Clinton made "Rocky Balboa look like a pansy."

In other incarnations throughout the campaign, Clinton has been whatever she needed to be. She can summon an African-American pastor's cadence in church or produce tears in a coffee shop surrounded by working gals who are tired, too.

The endless Democratic presidential campaign has lurched from irrelevance to trivia, triggering a near-universal call to bring it to a halt.

The two states that voted on Tuesday -- Indiana and North Carolina -- are so unimportant to Demo-cratic chances of electing the next president that it is unlikely that Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama will make more than a token appearance there after one of them is nominated.

Unless John McCain butchers his campaign, he will be an odds-on favorite to continue the Republican winning streak in both states. Bill Clinton, Al Gore, John Kerry and a host of earlier candidates failed to make them competitive.

In a sensible nominating system, these states would never become important battlegrounds. Lots of people complain that Iowa and New Hampshire enjoy disproportionate influence because of their place at the start of the process. But both are closely contested in November -- not throwaways.

Indiana and North Carolina were doubly irrelevant this year, because the "issues" that Clinton and Obama were discussing in their two weeks there were some of the phoniest of this entire election cycle.