Andanh.com

We have become a nation that believes we can enjoy constant economic growth with no pain. Not only do we expect prosperity, but we expect a constantly increasing level of prosperity.

But prosperity without sacrifice produces many problems: high gasoline prices, the housing bubble, the broken health care system, Social Security and Medicare systems headed for bankruptcy, the environment headed for disaster.

The generation who lived through the Great Depression and World War II understood sacrifice, but wanted their children to have a "better" life. However, that better life is unsustainable, according to David Walker, former U.S. comptroller general.

In an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," Walker said that even though we don't face an immediate crisis, we suffer from a fiscal cancer that, if not treated, could lead to catastrophic consequences. One of the biggest problems is that we have massive entitlement programs that we can no longer afford.

We don't like to deal with reality. Because of that, politicians often pander instead of lead. Instead of facing the reality that the stock market is overpriced because of the housing market meltdown, they give us a $120 billion tax rebate. Instead of sustainable renewable energy strategies, a handful of congressmen in corn-growing states give us ethanol (which contributes to the world food shortage). Instead of better public transportation and more efficient automobiles, we get a proposed "tax holiday" on gasoline taxes.

Oh, no, she didn't. Or, as the young hip-hop generation might say, "Oh, no, she did-int!" But, oh, yes, she d-id. A day after her hoped-for monster triumph in the Indiana and North Carolina primaries fizzled, Sen. Hillary Clinton no longer seemed to care whom she offended. She dared to speak about race and gender in public with the candid language that even political consultants usually keep private.

Despite losing big to Sen. Barack Obama in North Carolina's Democratic primary and barely squeaking out a victory in Indiana, she said in an interview with USA Today that "I have a much broader base to build a winning coalition on."

And who might that "broader base" be? She cited an Associated Press story "that found how Sen. Obama's support among working, hardworking Americans, white Americans, is weakening again, and how whites in both states who had not completed college were supporting me."

She added, "There's a pattern emerging here."

Yes, there is a pattern here, and it's not a very pretty one. When Clinton is sounding like Ms. Cranky -- implying out loud that her opponent's supporters are not hardworking enough, white enough or undereducated enough -- it's hardly a high point in her campaign.

Joaquin Burse wants to go to Harvard and be a laser tech. You might think that's a lofty goal. Truth is, you have no idea how lofty it is.

Because Joaquin, 13, is black and lives in a town called Sunflower in the heart of Mississippi's Delta, where median family income is $25,000, the teen pregnancy rate is said to be about 25 percent, and half of all young people grow up in poverty. To get to Sunflower from Memphis, you drive past two prisons, dozens of cotton fields and innumerable junk cars. It is not, in sum, a place where most people have even heard of the career Joaquin dreams.

But he has an advantage: the Freedom Project.

If the name resonates, you're remembering Freedom Summer, 1964, when college kids descended on Mississippi to teach black children in "freedom schools" and register their parents to vote. The Freedom Project, created in the idealistic spirit of that era, was founded in 1998 by Chris Myers Asch and Shawn Raymond (alumni of Teach for America, which recruits recent college graduates to teach in urban and rural schools) and Charles McLaurin, an organizer of the original Freedom Summer.

The result? A nonprofit program, tucked into an obscure corner of an obscure place, offering academic enrichment, martial arts, media production classes, mentoring, exposure to writers like Rudyard Kipling, Alice Walker and Albert Camus, and field trips to such far-flung places as Mexico, Washington and Orlando. In short, something that works, as in my series of columns spotlighting what has proved successful at steering black kids away from the well-worn catalog of dysfunction to which too many of them are too often lost.

A defining moment for Christian history occurred when the Roman Emperor Constantine embraced Christianity in 313. However, his actions were calculated much more to consolidate his power in the empire than to express any true heartfelt feeling of religious conversion.

The Christian faith has suffered ever since from the loss of the original message of love and care that Jesus shared and the mission of the early church, which was to speak truth to power and be a voice for the disenfranchised and oppressed.

Sadly, since the fourth century, Christianity has often come down on the side of the powerful. Church hierarchies have even actively promoted Christianity through policies of death and destruction of other human beings, as in the Crusades of the 13th century.

One need only look at the history of what was done in the name of Christianity to the people of the continents of Africa and South America and the native population of North America over the centuries to see the tragic loss of the message of Christ: Black people bought and sold like cattle. Indigenous people in South America forced to convert to Christianity on threat of death. Native Americans subjected to genocide and herded into reservations, where they were indoctrinated into the ways and faith of Christian whites.

The legacy of oppression remains today, despite attempts by some of white privilege to deny that there is any racial and ethnic problem in our nation and the world.

As a state, we stood at a crossroad earlier this year. Facing a tight budget year and no increase in the tobacco tax, legislators had to make difficult decisions about the direction of health reform.

In the end, the Kansas Legislature chose wisely by approving a health reform package that will make health care more accessible to children in working-class families, provide expanded medical and dental services for low-income pregnant women, and more adequately fund safety-net clinics across the state that provide medical care for uninsured Kansas families.

This investment in the health of our youngest citizens is a first step toward health reform and an investment in tomorrow's health care system.

We know that children who have access to health care will experience fewer chronic illnesses and are more likely to grow up to become healthy adults. A healthier next generation will pave the way toward health reform through reduced insurance premiums for Kansas consumers and employers, reduced uncompensated care for our doctors and hospitals, and fewer incidents of overcrowding and costly care such as those occurring in our emergency rooms.

The Legislature's action will also position Kansas alongside the 26 other states that have moved forward in modernizing eligibility levels for their children's health insurance programs. It would have been foolish for Kansas to pass up the opportunity to offer affordable health care to more children while other Midwestern states -- such as Missouri and Oklahoma -- were poised to maximize federal resources earmarked for children's health care.

After the Tuesday primaries, Hillary Rodham Clinton now has maybe a 2 percent chance of winning the Democratic nomination. But if she pursues her losing battle, she has perhaps a 20 percent chance of costing the Democrats the presidency in the fall.

So should she soldier on if continued campaigning is 10 times more likely to benefit John McCain than herself?

My percentages are, of course, wild estimates, but they suggest the orders of magnitude. With Clinton trailing by 700,000 votes in the cumulative popular vote, and also behind in pledged delegates and number of states won, she just doesn't have a plausible route to the nomination. Even if you include Florida, she's more than 400,000 votes behind.

In contrast, Clinton does have a plausible route to winning the election for McCain.

The most terrifying numbers for Democrats in Tuesday's exit polls should be those showing how many of Clinton's supporters are planning to vote for McCain in November.

It was one of those little news squibs that flit by on the periphery and it isn't until you think about it again, if you do, that it makes you ask, "What the...?"

The U.S. Commission of Fine Arts has rejected the sculpture of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that was to be the centerpiece of his memorial on the Tidal Basin in Washington, D.C.

Too "confrontational," too much like social realism, wrote commission secretary Thomas Luebke, a piece recalling "a genre of political sculpture that has recently been pulled down in other countries." He probably meant socialist realism, and by "political sculpture" probably meant fascist and communist or somehow authoritarian.

Well, eye of the beholder and all that, but it seems a strain to find such mischief in the stone figure. The statue has King sculpted as merged with its solid block of granite, arms crossed, feet planted apart.

We shall not be moved indeed.

With gas prices topping $4 a gallon in some regions of the country, now may not be the best time to say something positive about "Big Oil," but here goes anyway.

Where is it written that the cost for a product or service should be frozen in place and in time, never to rise again, or to rise at a pace commensurate with our incomes? People who think this way know little to nothing about supply and demand and less than nothing about the profit motive. That's because at least three generations have been raised on the notion of entitlement, and when one feels entitled to something, one believes someone else should pay.

Senate Democrats last week sought to ingratiate themselves with voters, while doing nothing to produce more energy, with a familiar attack on Big Oil. They want to repeal $17 billion in tax breaks for the oil companies over 10 years, and on top of that impose a windfall profit tax on companies that don't invest in new energy sources. This is political expediency at its worst.

Peter Robertson, vice chairman of Chevron Corp., told me it's a myth that oil companies are not investing in new energy sources. He says that last year alone, Chevron spent $20 billion exploring new sources of energy.

Robertson said President Bush's trip this week to Saudi Arabia is "highly embarrassing" because he is "calling on the Saudis to produce more oil when we are not doing it ourselves." The last refinery built in America was in 1976. Tighter government regulations are the main reason. That's how unserious we are about our energy "crisis."

This week marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the modern state of Israel. There can be no better time to acknowledge and celebrate the success of this extraordinary project.

Israel was established to provide a safe haven for millions of Jewish refugees, whom the world had long refused to protect from persecution and mass murder. From that day to this, Israel has continued to perform that role. It has absorbed millions of Jews from all over the world -- from the Arab countries where they were second-class citizens; from the Soviet Union, where Judaism and Zionism were virtually illegal; from Ethiopia, where a Jewish community that had been separated from the rest of the world for centuries was reunited with its brethren; and from many other countries where economic or political uncertainty made Jewish life uncomfortable or unfeasible.

But Israel is more than a haven; it is one of the most vibrant and progressive societies in the world. Here are just a few examples of ways Israel is on the "cutting edge":

• Israelis have created an energetic civil society, with the freest press in the Middle East and a strong pluralistic democracy that includes Arab representation in parliament.

• It has developed a high-tech economy that ranks among the strongest in the world. Israeli inventions used every day include cell phones, instant messaging and zip compression. Israel has shared new agricultural technologies with poor countries and recently committed to building the world's first electric car network by 2011.

Inexpensive technology has put the tools of mass communication in the hands of the masses, diluting the power of traditional news media. We are in the early days of a rapidly expanding movement of do-it-yourself news, often called citizen journalism. I think it has great potential for serving democracy.

The noted press critic A.J. Liebling said, "Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

Now, everyone with a computer and Internet connection is a potential publisher; everyone with a video-enabled cell phone is a potential broadcaster.

This unprecedented power shift is not without risk.

In two Eagle columns (May 6 and 13 Opinion), Davis Merritt, my colleague at Wichita State University's Elliott School of Communication, raised alarm about the potential dangers of iReport.com. It's a Web site owned and run by CNN as a sort of YouTube for news. It allows anyone to post news video with none of the accuracy, fairness and taste filters provided by traditional news organizations.

You've probably never heard of Melvin Neufeld, but there's one thing you might want to know about the Kansas House speaker: He goes well with jam.

Yep, he's toast. Or, at a minimum, he's so charred around the edges that hardly anybody will go near him.

Neu-feld, R-Ingalls, was at the helm during one of the most desultory sessions in recent state history. He's responsible for placing passage of the twin 700-megawatt coal-fired power plants near Holcomb ahead of everything else.

Never mind if you care about immigration or health care reform or an improved social safety net.

It was coal, coal, coal, or it was the shaft.

To look at Sunday's Eagle Opinion pages as well as other recent news and commentaries, one would think that all the Kansas Legislature did all session was talk about coal. Although there was discussion about coal, this was one of the most successful sessions the south-central Kansas delegation has ever had.

We were able to preserve past funding initiatives, particularly in the aviation research area, as well as new funding. In addition to these successes, we also had a conversation about Kansas' energy future, and that's a good thing.

Convincing the entire legislative body of the importance of aviation for our state, the need to fund the training of family practice doctors, and the importance of preserving and sustaining a regional water supply is no easy task. In the end, investing in these programs boosts our economy and improves quality of life, not just for south-central Kansas but for all of Kansas.

Many thanks to leadership in both chambers for expediting the legislation to allow the state of Kansas the opportunity to compete with other states to ensure Cessna Aircraft's new production facility for the Columbus business jet is built in Wichita.

Another initiative that was new was helping the legislative body understand the need for sustaining and preserving a valuable water supply for our region. The Equus Beds is important to municipalities, industry and agriculture. This funding was unprecedented in that past funding has been focused on surface water reservoirs.

World Trade Week a great opportunity

Welcome to the ambassadors and ministers from the Arab Gulf States and the Middle East who are in Wichita today for the 2008 World Trade Week. The 32nd annual event is hosted by the World Trade Council of Wichita and highlights trade opportunities around the world. This year's event focuses on Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Morocco and Egypt. The gathering is a great opportunity for local companies to learn about doing business in those countries and to showcase what Wichita and Kansas have to trade.

However the presidential election turns out, the Barack Obama campaign has tapped into a constituency that holds powerful implications for the future of American politics. The youngest of these voters, those ranging in age from roughly the late teens to the early 30s, are part of the so-called millennial generation.

This is a generation that is in danger of being left out of the American dream -- the first American generation to do less well economically than their parents. And that economic uncertainty appears to have played a big role in shaping their views of government and politics.

A number of studies -- including new ones by the Center for American Progress in Washington, D.C., and by Demos, a progressive think tank in New York City -- have shown that Americans in this age group are faced with a variety of challenges that are tougher than those faced by young adults over the past few decades. Among the challenges are worsening job prospects, lower rates of health insurance coverage and higher levels of debt.

We know that the generation immediately preceding the millennials is struggling. Men who are now in their 30s, the prime age for raising a family, earn less money than members of their fathers' generation did at the same age. In 1974, the median income for men in their 30s (using today's inflation-adjusted dollars) was about $40,000. The figure for men in their 30s now is $35,000.

It's not hard to understand why surveys show that overwhelming percentages of Americans believe the country is on the wrong track. The American dream is on life support. Polls show that dwindling numbers of Americans (in some cases as few as a third of all respondents) believe their children will end up better off than they are.

Kathleen Sebelius was raised to be a Catholic and elected to be a governor. A church leader is turning that into an uncomfortable intersection.

Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of the Archdiocese of Kansas City, Kan., is requesting that Sebelius choose between his will and the oath she swore to govern the state of Kansas to the best of her ability.

Put another way, her choice is this: Sign anti-abortion legislation that is an affront to patient privacy, constitutional rights and good government, or cease receiving Communion.

In a column published in the archdiocesan newspaper the Leaven, Naumann chastised Sebelius for her recent veto of a bill that legislators titled the Comprehensive Abortion Reform Act.

Naumann described the bill as an attempt to "protect women" considering abortion by making sure they are well-informed about the development of the fetus they are carrying and alternatives to terminating their pregnancy.

I grew up in Southern California. Though I love it there and I love to visit every now and then, the air quality is legendary -- and not in a good way.

The smog is as much a part of Los Angeles as Hollywood. Government environmental regulation, out of necessity, is thick. There are restrictions on just about every facet of life -- home, business and recreation.

And it's not just in L.A. Ask the residents of any major metropolis along the East Coast or in the industrial areas of the North.

In the early 1980s, after the closure of some of the steel mills in Pittsburgh, Pa., a major project of local leaders was to clean the city's buildings that had turned black with soot. Car owners in Atlanta and many other large cities have to pass annual emission inspections to drive anywhere in the metropolitan region. In Europe, efforts are under way to protect irreplaceable monuments and statues from the destructive effects of air pollution. The list goes on.

Here in Kansas, we have yet to face the serious issues of deteriorating air quality. But the time to act is now.

One way of measuring the current state of the Republican Party is to note that in the past 10 weeks, 55 years of Republican seniority in the House of Representatives were wiped out in three special elections.

Another gauge is that President Bush's 31 percent job approval score in this month's Washington Post poll is one of the lowest ever recorded for a chief executive.

However one measures it, this is surely the springtime of the GOP's discontent.

There's no telling what may happen between now and Nov. 4, but we know that John McCain is bucking a powerful headwind as he seeks the White House, while Barack Obama (or maybe Hillary Clinton) can enjoy at least a favoring breeze.

The situation is reminiscent of 1980. Six months before that election, it was evident that the country had grown weary of Jimmy Carter and his administration. What remained to be determined was the degree of comfort voters felt with Ronald Reagan as his successor. Would Reagan be seen as a B-movie actor and TV host, peddling eccentric and maybe dangerous notions? Or as someone who had governed California successfully for eight years and could restore some sanity to a dysfunctional Washington, D.C.? Once he delivered the necessary reassurances, the election was over.

I was very troubled when I read the article regarding House Speaker Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, and his view on this year's legislative session ("Speaker: Economic bills were session's highlight," May 14 Eagle). In particular, I was disappointed with the speaker's continued disregard for the truth when he said that Hyperion developers, who have considered building a refinery in northeast Kansas, "were told they'd never get a permit."

No member of this administration has ever communicated this message to Hyperion. On the contrary, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment's communications with the company, both verbally and in writing, were positive and reassuring.

In a letter to Hyperion dated Feb. 11, 2008, I very clearly reassured company executives that there was no regulatory uncertainty in Kansas. Though I could not fulfill the company's request for an unconditional guarantee to issue a permit prior to reviewing its application, I did reiterate KDHE's commitment for a fair, timely review of any potential application. And I said that if the company's permit application mirrored the permit application it had filed in South Dakota and adhered to the company's public commitment to the environment, a permit would most likely be issued.

This is not the first time Neufeld has tried to mislead Kansans in regard to this issue.

To be clear: There is no "regulatory uncertainty" in Kansas. KDHE has continued to issue timely air-quality permits. Since the denial of the Sunflower Electric Power Corp. permit for a proposed coal-fired plant near Holcomb, KDHE has issued more than 300 air-quality construction and operating permits. Since January 2003, the agency has issued more than 3,000 air-quality permits. Under this administration, the only air-quality permit denied has been the Sunflower permit.

I think George W. Bush deserves a raise. You're waiting for the punch line, I know. You're figuring with a setup like that, about a president whose popularity lives down where moles and earthworms do, the payoff's got to be a doozy.

Sorry, but there is no punch line because that wasn't a setup. I think the president should get a raise. Congress, too. And, yes, I know Congress' approval ratings are similarly subterranean.

But the argument I'm making has nothing to do with this individual president or Congress. It is, rather, about us, about what we want and deserve in our leadership. Here's the short version:

You get what you pay for.

If you want the longer version, well -- bear with me.