L&T Publisher Earl Watt
At last week’s USD 480 School Board meeting, Kathleen Alonso representing what she referred to as “New Frontiers,” a nonprofit agency, wanted to know how the school district would respond to ICE activity in the area and what access ICE would have to local schools or even being close to district property.
It is important to note that Kansas HR 2717 prohibits local jurisdictions from impeding federal immigration authorities. It also does not allow local jurisdictions to issue any type of identification cards to replace other forms of identity such as a driver’s license. The law also prohibits local jurisdictions from allowing noncitizens to vote in local or state elections. Noncitizen voting is already banned at the federal level.
USD 480 has no authority to circumvent state law on cooperating with federal immigration authorities. Alonso can request any policies she wants, but there just is no way to ignore federal and state law by trying to pressure local boards.
A glance at the Website for “New Frontiers,” found at https://www.loudlight.org/newfrontiers, states that New Frontiers “seeks to equip young southwest Kansans with the tools to gain political, social, and economic power through grassroots community building.”
It also states, “This group focuses on how we can get more folks in office who come from our communities and look like our communities.”
These two statements indicate bias within “our” community.
One mentions the attempt to empower “young” people, while the other wants to elect people who “look” like our communities.
Just exactly how should that be interpreted?
Everyone elected is required to be part of our communities. Only Dodge City citizens can serve on the Dodge City Commission. Same in Liberal. Those who run, then, are already “from” our communities.
Which then leads to the very troublesome “and look” like our communities.
What does a Southwest Kansan look like?
How could this not be interpreted as meaning the color of our skin?
I am a minority in my community by population. That wasn’t always the case, and if one industry ever changed, our demographics could see a major swing again.
I have never voted for someone based on what they “looked” like and never will.
But is that what New Frontiers is encouraging us to do? Are we supposed to interpret “our communities” as meaning some subset within our already small towns? Are they telling white should vote white, black for black and brown for brown?
Nothing could be considered more racist or discriminatory than that if that is what they are advocating.
Some in the community are working to reform our immigration policy even though most of the people affected do not “look” like us. Should we abandon that effort because of that? Of course not, because we shouldn’t be using how we “look” as a reason to support or oppose a person or a policy.
Some of the most influential people in my life didn’t “look” like me. I think of Coach Jonathan Ervin, Mr. Terry Witherspoon and countless others. The whole concept of diversity is not to judge someone by the color of their skin, or to believe our community is actually separate communities in the same place.
The idea that someone in office cannot represent me unless they “look” like me destroys the concept of unity.
Should I believe that if elected officials do not “look” like me they are not representing me?
We cannot build a society together unless we are willing to put these biases and resentments aside. Just like it is not healthy for a community to be guided by the naysayers, we cannot be divided by racial, ethnic or discriminatory lines, either.
What issues do we have that rise to racial differences? Are the parks not good for all? Are our schools not accommodating all educational needs?
We are an example of how a diverse community should work, and efforts to try to divide us by believing how we “look” should be how we vote is the exact opposite of trying to become a community of one, and that biased thinking should be rejected.
