Opinion

SAINTS PERSPECTIVE, SCCC President Brad Bennett

April is National Community College Month, which might equate to the largest annual celebration of amazing advancements in the United States. I think of it like this because the more than 1,000 community colleges in the country — 19 of them in Kansas — are possibly the strongest method of people to radically transform their lives for the better through education. As the national campaign says, community colleges are a gamechanger.

That is something we see every day at Seward County Community College. The students we serve are phenomenal players in the game of life. This is due to geography, politics, demographics, and what I think of as unmatchable grit.

GUEST COLUMN, Dave Trabert, Kansas Policy Institute

Most homeowners and businesses have been hammered with large property tax increases across the U.S., as many local officials have taken advantage of runaway assessed valuations over the last two or three years.  The same is true in some parts of Kansas, but the Truth in Taxation / revenue-neutral law passed in 2021 is producing smaller increases in many counties.

Data from the Kansas Department of Revenue and the Bureau of Labor Statistics show property tax increases for the operation of local government entities in 76 counties were at or below inflation over the last three years.  The Consumer Price Index for Midwest cities increased by 17.8 percent between 2020 and 2023.  For this purpose, local government includes everything except school districts and other educational entities.

MY PERSPECTIVE, Gary Damron

Following Easter last week, I became intrigued with the question, what do we do after the big event? There were many momentous occasions surrounding Jesus, so today we'll look at several, and question what should follow.

First was the Transfiguration (Matthew chapter 17:1-8). Six days after Peter's profession that Jesus was the Messiah, Jesus took Peter, James and his brother John to a high mountain. Suddenly, Jesus "was transfigured before them; and his face shone like the sun, and his garments became as white as light. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with him. And Peter... said to Jesus... 'I will make three tabernacles here'". From a theological view, Peter had missed the point. Three of his misunderstandings: 1) God doesn't need a manmade place. 2) Moses and Elijah were with Jesus, but only he was transfigured, illustrating that the Law and the Prophets were pointing to the Christ. 3) Until the death and resurrection of Jesus, Peter and the others would be telling the "wrong story", so Jesus instructed them on the way down the mountain not to let anyone know about the Transfiguration until after his death.

THE POSTSCRIPT, Carrie Classon

My husband, Peter, and I spend the winters in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. The center of the town is a designated World Heritage Site, which means the facades of the buildings must remain as they were in the mid-1700s. The streets are made of round and sometimes slippery cobblestones. The doors are stout and covered with hundreds of coats of paint, and on the top of every building is a rooftop terrace where people can watch the fireworks that go off for no reason that anyone has ever been able to figure out. It is wonderful.

But there is another world, just outside our little town, where there are big-box stores and a couple of very large grocery stores with food courts and bakeries and all the brands we are used to buying in the United States.

Peter and I have never been there.