Opinion

GUEST COLUMN, Jackie Mundt, Kansas Farm Bureau

A milestone birthday earlier this month got me thinking about my parents and what their lives looked like at my age, which is vastly different from my life. In reflecting on the differences, it was really to see how my parents’ choices in their 20s and 30s have had a foundational impact on who I am and what my life is like today.

My parents' involvement in one organization, which I was never a member of myself, more than any other created lifelong friendships and influenced how I interact with my community and the world. Throughout my childhood, my parents were members of the local Jaycee’s organization. In a town of 800 people, the Jaycees chapter had 20 to 30 active members for the 15 years my parents were involved until they aged out.

L&T Publisher Earl Watt

Before I eclipsed the 50-year-old mark, I was one of the younger people in the room where discussions about Liberal’s future were taking place. I started working at the newspaper when I was 19, and that exposed me to a lot of the ideas that were being kicked around.

Several came true, like the restoration of the Rock Island Depot. Before that, I grew up watching Liberal become the home of Dorothy, the establishment of the Mid-America Air Museum, the construction of a fountain in Downtown Liberal, the construction of an overpass, the construction of the Seward County Activity Center and other community enhancements.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

I knew it was going to rain. I looked up the weather before I headed out, and there was a 94% chance of rain at 7:00. That was precisely the hour I planned to walk home.

“It’s going to rain,” I told my husband, Peter.

“Not until later,” he said. “Google says it’s not going to rain until 9:00.”

“Hmmm.”

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.