For a short while, the Kansas legislative session is behind us and we can take a political breather. It has been another battle where every issue is polarized. We are locked into a Western way of looking at problems, from “far right” to “far left”—a system that grew from the 1789 French Revolution and the seating arrangement in their National Assembly.

But is there another perspective for solving problems?

Yes there is—the “Asian way.” And the recent book “Legal Transparency in Dynastic China” by University of Kansas professor John Head and Hong Kong scholar Xing Lijuan offers a window into that other way of thinking.

Problems in Asia are viewed from two opposing philosophies: Confucianism and Legalism.

About 2600 years ago, Confucius developed a moral basis for behavior based on relationships. If there is a correct relationship between citizen and ruler, father and son, husband and wife, and so on, then the world will be at peace. There were no absolute laws for specific situations. Guiding moral principles allow you to judge individual situations differently. He wrote the “Golden Rule” centuries before it was stated in the New Testament. Education, and especially education in morality and relationships, was an important requirement of Confucianism.

Strict laws and punishment were a last resort. The Confucian code “focuses on preventing crimes from happening; while law punishes crimes that have been committed.” Unity and harmony were the central themes. It was the code of the professional that judged each complex issue on its merits. It required education.

In direct opposition were the Legalists. They contended that you could not rely on an education to run a society. Instead, you must spell out exactly what is permitted and what is illegal in “the Law.” Today, we recognize this strict Legalist philosophy in our “zero tolerance” policies for guns or drugs on school grounds. Military law is another example that spells out every instance of what you can and cannot do.
By imposing clear and severe punishments, no one would dare do wrong. And a government could then “govern without governing.”

Over time, these two schools of have thought blended in different ways into “Imperial Confucianism.” The Legalist cookbook of uniform penalties for the same crime could be seen to be unfair in different situations. If you hide your father who commits a crime against the state, does not your loyalty to your father temper your penalty?

Confucianism could lead to an elitist society of the educated. So today most of China’s institutions are Legalist. Due to their huge population, there is a need for uniformity in laws. Fail to pass the college entrance test and you do not go to college, no matter how rich and powerful your parents are.

I find many cases where this political dichotomy explains our problems better than the left-to-right Western view. Until recently, American teachers were unique in having the professional responsibility for deciding what, when and how to teach. That is the school of the professional, where each child is considered unique. In contrast, state or national standardized testing is one-size-fits-all Legalism that destroys professional judgement.

The professional-to-legalist spectrum frames many more of our current problems better than our left-to-right politics. Our overcrowded jails are causing us to rethink mandatory or legalist sentencing; perhaps we should allow judges more professional discretion.
A Western mindset frames our education debate in such a way that we are moving from education as a public good to a private asset—job training. The Asian view values intellectuals and scholars.

We think of rights. They think of responsibilities.

Professor Head and Xing’s book provides the philosophical background for Chinese law. Reading this book could change the way you look at our world’s problems. It certainly can help you understand how a billion other people look at them.

Wow! What a night!

Thank you to all of our coaches, sponsors, players and parents who attended our first annual HRC Opening Day celebration.

The turnout was awesome, and it was so nice to see so many in attendance.

We thank you for your patience in dealing with our concession delays as well. With last night being the first of many, we didn’t quite know what to expect, and we sincerely apologize for the delays.

Again, thank you for your continued support of HRC, and we are already planning for our second annual opening day event next year!

Staff of the Hays Recreation Commission

Daniel Harper, a student at Cameron University in Oklahoma, is the latest victim of the censorship pandemic currently infecting America’s colleges and universities.

Earlier this semester, Harper handed out flyers expressing his religious objections to the World Mission Society, a religious group active on Cameron’s campus. Harper, an evangelical Christian, believes the group is a dangerous cult.

After receiving a complaint, administrators prohibited Harper from distributing any more flyers citing the university’s Expressive Activity Policy and Equal Opportunity Policy, which bar students from engaging in “offensive” and “discriminatory” speech, require students to join a student organization, and then get prior permission to distribute flyers.

Harper is fighting back with help from the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a Christian legal group. On May 15, he sued university officials for violating his constitutionally protected right to free speech and religious liberty.

If the allegations prove true, Cameron officials have displayed a stunning disregard for the First Amendment — which, as administrators of a public university, they are required to uphold.

“I like the amendments to the Constitution,” the Equal Opportunity Officer told Harper, according to the ADF complaint. “They are foundations to democracy. But that’s all they are, foundations. You can’t live on them. You’ll freeze to death in winter and burn up in summer.”

The administrator went on to explain that the University’s policies are above those “amendments to the Constitution” and that Harper needed to follow university policy regardless of his First Amendment rights.

Even stranger (and more chilling), university administrators charged Harper with religious discrimination for disseminating views critical of a religious group. On the Cameron campus, apparently, “religious freedom” means freedom from being offended.

Under the First Amendment, however, religious freedom means the right to be free from government control or repression, not freedom from criticism in the marketplace of ideas.

As constitutional scholar Eugene Volokh points out in his commentary on this case, “freedom of religion and of speech itself protects the right to denounce religions. Religious beliefs and religious groups, no less than political beliefs and groups other beliefs and groups, are eminently proper subjects of criticism. A public university is forbidden by the First Amendment from trying to squelch such criticism, whether it’s of conservative Christianity, Islam, Catholicism, Mormonism, Judaism or the World Mission Society.”

Sadly, Daniel Harper’s case is not an isolated incident. Censorship of constitutionally protected speech is commonplace today on college and university campuses across the nation. Of the 427 colleges and universities analyzed by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) in a 2014 report, almost 59% maintain policies that “seriously and substantially restrict” protected speech and another 36% overregulate speech on campus. (www.thefire.org)

In an apparent zeal to ensure that no one is ever offended for any reason, many universities create “free speech” zones to isolate student speech, ban “unwanted” jokes, off-hand comments and teasing, and, in myriad other ways, attempt to silence protected speech.

Students at Cameron University and many other campuses must jump through hoops and get an official stamp of approval before being allowed to distribute materials in public spaces. At two universities in the past year, administrators even barred students from distributing the U.S. Constitution because they didn’t get the proper authorization and stick to the designated distribution area.

The good news is that Daniel Harper will likely win his case. But when students like Daniel must go to court to secure their right to free speech, it’s bad news for the future of the First Amendment.

Colleges and universities, after all, are supposed to be testing grounds for exercising First Amendment rights — places of open inquiry about the full range of religious and political convictions, including those that spark robust debate or offend prevailing sensibilities.

Shutting down the free exchange of views on campus is the beginning of the end for a vibrant marketplace of ideas in America’s public square.

Maybe we can’t “live on” the First Amendment, as the Cameron administrator put it. But he needs to remember — as do we all — that we can’t live free without it.

Charles C. Haynes is director of the Religious Freedom Center of the Washington-based Newseum Institute. [email protected]

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

Sunrise. Sunsets. Serenity. That is an appropriate motto for the peaceful, scenic location where the Ringer family has created a bed and breakfast in rural Kansas.

Ron, Charlotte, Roger and Rodney Ringer are the family members who have put together this wonderful bed and breakfast. They have deep roots in rural Kansas, having farmed for four generations in western Sedgwick County. For year, the Ringers raised and milked Guernsey dairy cows. Ron Ringer then delivered bottled milk and subsequently went into sales in the Wichita area.

“My folks retired three times, but it never did take,” Roger said with a smile. “They enjoy people a lot.” For 30 years, the Ringers lived between Garden Plain and Cheney. They enjoyed wildlife and the great outdoors.

As the city of Wichita moved west, so did the Ringers. Charlotte said, “We should be close to church, close to a grocery store, and close to a doctor.” The Ringers eventually found such a place and bought it in Barber County, north of Medicine Lodge.

One day, Ron Ringer took his cousin hunting at their Barber County place. It went so well that he came home and said to his sons Roger and Rodney, “Next Saturday you’re going to see what I saw.”

When Saturday came, they all went to the property very early in the morning. As the sun rose, they saw the deer come to water and watched geese and ducks fly overhead. There were even two raccoons who came out to greet them.

The Ringers loved it. Ron’s wife Charlotte had always wanted to have a bed and breakfast, so they decided to build one on their Barber County property. Based on their old house plans, they built what looks like a wooden log lodge, complete with a balcony overlooking the landscape.  The Ringers moved here in 2007. Over the years, they added a shop and another cabin for guests next door, plus a pretty gazebo.

Roger is a skilled woodcarver. Their buildings are filled with genuine antiques, some of which came from their farm, plus pieces of furniture which include those which Roger built himself.  The Ringers are active members of Ducks Unlimited. Lots of wildlife art can be found throughout the buildings.

The place is named the Bunkhouse Bed and Breakfast at Wildfire Ranch. All of the buildings have beautiful wood walls, rustic decorations, modern amenities, and commanding views of the landscape around them.

“We serve a simple country breakfast,” Roger said. “One of our recent guests from the Dallas area said it was the best breakfast he had ever had.”

When a person drives onto the place, he or she meets a sign which proclaims “Open Range.”  Cattle guards are used on the road to keep cattle in, but otherwise the cows can roam the place.  They are not confined in a pen, which sometimes causes cultural confusion with city visitors.  “Our guests sometimes say, “Do you know your cows are out?” and we will say, ‘No, they are in where they are supposed to be,’” Roger said.

The historic community of Medicine Lodge is located east of the spectacular Gypsum Hills, one of the most remarkable rock formations in Kansas.  The Bunkhouse Bed and Breakfast at Wildfire Ranch is located between Medicine Lodge and the nearby rural community of Isabel, population 99 people. Now, that’s rural.

“The community has welcomed us with open arms,” Roger said. “We’ve loved every minute of it.” Roger is an active writer, western performer, and vice president of the Kansas Chapter of the Western Music Association. He enjoys interacting with guests.

“We’ve had guests from 43 states, 146 cities in Kansas, and 22 foreign countries,” Roger said.  Those countries range the alphabet from Australia to Uganda. Guests seem particularly impressed with the peace and quiet.

For more information, go to www.bunkhouseatwildfireranch.com.

Sunrise. Sunsets. Serenity. Those are all things that can be found in this peaceful, scenic location in Kansas. We salute Ron, Charlotte, Roger and Rodney Ringer for making a difference by sharing this location with others. It’s a place where sunrise, sunsets, and serenity are superb.

Dear Dave,
What do you think about auto club memberships like AAA?
Jeremy

Dear Jeremy,
I’ve got nothing against AAA. But honestly, I tend to self-insure through savings for these kinds of things. I’ve probably used, or had need of, a tow truck twice in the last 20 years. When it comes to this kind of product, I always look at it from the perspective of, “Where does it leave me if I don’t sign up for their service?”

Again, I don’t think AAA is a big rip-off or anything like that. It’s just a type of insurance, if you will, for which I have no need. I guess it could be a handy thing to have if you were in a situation where you were using their services a lot. But if their average customer were like that, they’d probably end up losing money on you.
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He has authored five New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover, EntreLeadership and Smart Money Smart Kids. His newest best-seller, Smart Money Smart Kids, was written with his daughter Rachel Cruze and recently debuted at No. 1 on the New York Times best-seller list. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 8 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.

You can tell a child handwashing is good for him but that doesn’t stop him from coming to the table with dirt under his nails.  Tell him vegetables are good for him and he’s likely to turn up his nose.

Tell him vegetables taste great–especially when paired with some of his favorite foods– and he may just try them.

Children develop food preferences at an early age. While children are drawn to certain foods early on, vegetables can be a different story. A good way to introduce children to veggies is to serve them with their favorite foods. Research has shown that children are more likely to develop a taste for veggies when they are offered with foods they know and like.

A recent study published in the March Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics reports that pairing veggies with something a child already likes can be an effective way to get her/him to eat more vegetables. Researchers at Arizona State University introduced preschoolers to Brussels sprouts served with cream cheese. The findings? The children were more likely to say that they liked the sprouts and ate more of them, even when the sprouts were served later without the cream cheese. According to the researchers of this study, such a flavor-pairing strategy can work, not only for Brussels sprouts, but for other bitter vegetables as well.

This concept may be difficult for parents, who often struggle to balance flavor with nutrition, thinking that they surely must be mutually exclusive.  Parents may ask, “Isn’t plain steamed cauliflower better for kids than cauliflower with cheese sauce?”  And child nutrition experts respond, “Maybe, but not if they skip the plain cauliflower entirely.”  One author tells parents to think of dips, sauces and seasonings on vegetables like training wheels on bicycles. They teach us to appreciate the real thing, but make the learning so much easier to take.

Chefs know that bitterness in vegetables is mellowed by a bit of fat and by adding salty, sour or sweet flavors.  No wonder cauliflower tastes better with cheese and spinach is so much more delicious when sauteed with bacon and garlic.

Young children have a natural aversion to bitter flavors, so many vegetables don’t top their list of favorite foods. My own children were no different– when they were young they frowned on many plain vegetables, but when the veggies were prepared in delicious ways, they ate them up.  Plain carrots- no, glazed carrots- yes. Plain Swiss chard, thumbs down.  Chard sauteed in a garlicky Italian pasta dish, thumbs way up. Rutabaga in beef stew? The kids ate it up without even knowing it was there, because it tasted so good!

If your child is a picky eater and doesn’t seem interested in trying veggies, combine them with familiar favorite foods. For example, try serving broccoli with a tasty dip. Research has shown that offering a dip with vegetables increases veggie consumption in children by 80%. (Kids also like celery sticks paired with peanut butter!)

Liking vegetables can take time. In the early  years, my kids took bites so small they were almost invisible to the naked eye. Then, one day, I added Swiss chard to a simple Italian skillet meal and they both said, “Mom, this is delicious!” Now, as they reach adulthood, the conversion is complete.  Last week when my daughter got home from college, I offered her tater tots or roasted sweet potatoes to accompany lunch — and she chose the sweet potatoes. (Yes, my work here is done.)

Helping children learn to like vegetables takes patience, like most other parenting tasks.  It also takes resisting the urge to force your children to eat vegetables, which usually backfires and creates power struggles.  It takes preparing vegetables to taste really good– paired with dips, seasonings, sauces or whatever “training wheels” you like. It takes cooking vegetables the way you like to eat them so your kids can watch you eating and enjoying them.  Watching their parents enjoy vegetables makes a lasting impression and sets kids up with the expectation that, even if they may not like them much now, they will eventually grow up and like to eat vegetables, too.

For more kid-friendly ideas for vegetables and fruits, see the Ten Tips series from ChooseMyPlate.

Linda K. Beech is Ellis County Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

Most Kansas farmers and ranchers have seen about everything. Still the sight of the white combine headed for a wheat crop or soil leaving the home is enough to make their blood run cold.

That’s just what April and May have ushered into the Sunflower State – day after day of winds 20, 30 and 40 miles per hour with gusts more than 60 miles per hour.

These winds never quit. They’re relentless.

Traditionally, Kansas winds slow when the sun goes down. Not the last couple months. All across the state winds continue to howl long into the night and strengthens when the sun rises the next day.

“I’ve never seen this kind of wind in my lifetime,” says Joe Newland, Wilson County farmer. “A couple weeks ago, the day turned dark and you couldn’t see to drive in a few areas.”

Newland grows, corn, soybeans, wheat and some hay while running approximately 350 head of momma cows in southeastern Kansas. He’s farmed nearly 50 years.

Winds in his region of the state sometimes blow for a day or two in a small field or section of a field. Never for too long or too strong, but that’s not the case this spring.

It’s blown for days on end throughout the entire county, Newland says. In fact, it’s blown across the entire southeastern part of Kansas.

“You see plenty during a lifetime,” the 60-year-old farmer/stockman says. “But when you see the soil blow off your farm, it’s like getting hit in the gut. It’s a harsh feeling when you can’t do anything about it.

During previous years when the winds kicked up and started to blow, Newland would hook a rotary hoe behind his tractor and run strips across the blowing land breaking the soil into clods that would stop the dirt from blowing.

Wind -control measures haven’t worked as well this year but farmers keep trying. Plain and simple, there just hasn’t been enough moisture.

Spring rains in April totaled one inch and 50 hundreds across his fields this spring. Little precipitation has fallen so far in May. Typically, southeastern Kansas receives the most rain in the state during this time frame.

“Most years, we receive several rains of 2 and 3 inches in March, April and May,” the veteran farmer/stockman says.

These abundant rains fill farm ponds and pave the way for plenty of pasture growth and healthy corn, bean and milo crops. This year, unfortunately, a few pond levels have dropped nearly 50 percent.

While his cow herd still has enough grass, due to the lack of rain his fescue isn’t the lush green color it typically is.

“Some of it’s turning that off-green color,” Newland says. “Our grass needs rain.”

While this region of the state looks great compared to western Kansas, the grass in Wilson and Neosho counties is about half the height it typically grows to in mid-May. Grass 6 inches tall is the norm so far this spring rather than 8, 10 or 12 inches.

Cropping conditions continue to suffer as well. Corn is below average in maturity and doesn’t look as lush and healthy as it should.

“We’re getting a taste of what farm ers and ranchers in central and western Kansas have coped with for many years,” Newland says. “It’s a taste we don’t much care for.”

Oftentimes fall crops in southeastern Kansas receive too much moisture with spring rains. Then flooding can occur and wash away corn and bean crops.

Not so this year. While Newland hasn’t planted his soybeans yet, it’s drier than it typically is this time of year. He would sure like to see a couple of two-inch rains before he pulls his planter into the fields.

Having farmed for four decades, Newland is far from throwing in the towel. He knows the weather can change in a heartbeat. He hope and prays his farm and that of his friends and neighbors across Kansas will be blessed with rain and soon.

And those wicked winds?

Shhh. Listen. Are they dying down?

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

If there is a simple key to wooing voters in Kansas this campaign season, it’s coming up with a memorable, catchy phrase that even voters who don’t parse candidate qualifications will remember when they enter the voting booth.

That key phrase might just have been hatched last week when Libertarian Party gubernatorial nominee Keen Umbehr, Alma, filed his campaign papers and paid his filing fee.

The phrase? It’s based on the state income tax bill that Gov. Sam Brownback signed into law two years ago — the massive state income tax cuts that are part of his program to bring prosperity and jobs to the state.

Those tax cuts, Umbehr noted, creates two classes of Kansans: 13 percent who don’t pay Kansas income taxes anymore and, oh yes, 87 percent of Kansans who still pay taxes. Wonder which group likes the tax plan that Brownback touts?

Hmmm….13 percent and 87 percent. That percentage split personalizes what reporters for the past two years have been routinely tossing off as 190,000 Kansans not paying taxes — it puts the number into a clearer context, doesn’t it?

Now, the governor’s tack is that those farmers and self-employed folks who work for themselves, and/or have just the right business corporate structures, are the people who will be hiring new workers, buying new machinery, spending more money on things like groceries, cars, and such.

That means more jobs, more prosperity.

But, Umbehr found the flip side of that roadmap for Kansas: Making everyone aware that 13 percent of Kansans pay no state income tax, and 87 percent probably aren’t happy about that.

It’s not quite the national 1 percent of the super-rich we hear about on national television and in the newspapers, but it’s a clear division, and you 13 percent who don’t pay Kansas income taxes are probably going to be quiet about it at picnics and neighborhood gatherings this summer.

Plus, your neighbors are probably going to be looking around the picnic crowd, trying to see if they can identify those tax-free folks. (Oh, if the neighborhood picnic takes place inside a gated community, the percentages are likely to be different.)

But Libertarian Umbehr has found a wedge there, one that is likely to be picked up by at least Democratic candidates who didn’t think of the catchy phrase first. While as a Libertarian, Umbehr talks about eliminating all state income taxes, Democrats would say Brownback split Kansas into the taxed and un-taxed.

Now, chances Kansans will elect a Libertarian governor are statistically slim, and while Umbehr would like to live in Cedar Crest, the governor’s mansion, chances are that his party would claim a victory if he garners 5 percent of the vote in November, which would catapult the Libertarian Party into the big leagues—a major party which can place candidates on the primary election ballot instead of having them selected by a party convention. That’s a win for Libertarians, if not Umbehr.

But, the catchy statistic: 13/87 is likely to be memorable … possibly clear into the voting booth — at least by the 87 percenters.

Syndicated by Hawver News Co. of Topeka, Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report. To learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit www.hawvernews.com.

Campus collisions over commencement speakers. Over-the-top public reaction to celebrity shockers. And genuine fear of physical reprisals over controversial issues.

Clearly, we’re a nation vigorously exercising our lungs as well as our rights.

Vigorous give-and-take in the “marketplace of ideas” is part and parcel of the First Amendment. The amendment’s 45 words protect our right to speak out, but certainly don’t mandate politeness in public comment or shelter those in that marketplace from less than full-throttle debate in the hope of changing minds or winning elections.

The U.S. Supreme Court over the years has reaffirmed our right to speak out even when it brings pain to others — at military funerals or by allowing Nazi-wannabes march through a predominately Jewish neighborhood near Chicago.

But we can go from “rights to wrong” — by preventing speakers from being heard simply because we oppose their views. By threatening harm rather than challenging ideas. And by trying to extinguish voices in place of speaking out ourselves.

William Bowen, former president of Princeton University, used his commencement speech at Haverford College just days ago to criticize a small group of students and professors who campaigned against the original speaker, Robert Birgeneau, former chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley. The critics attacked Birgeneau for his 2011 decisions in an incident involving police and student demonstrators.

Vocal protests and the threat of more led former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to cancel her commencement speech at Rutgers University. International Monetary Fund Director Christine Lagarde withdrew as speaker at Smith College’s graduation ceremonies. Brandeis University pulled back an invitation — along with the offer of honorary degree — after opposition arose to Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Muslim women’s advocate who has made comments critical of Islam.

If nowhere else in our society, universities should be places where differences of opinion and opposing views are aired and discussed, not shunned or victim to political correctness and closed minds. But lest we think this rampant aversion to being offended by those whose views we oppose is limited to academia, let’s take a broader view.

Mozilla co-founder CEO Brendan Eich resigned some weeks ago after an orchestrated campaign by some staff and businesses to damage the company’s business. Criticism erupted earlier this year over a $1,000 personal donation Eich made in 2008 to an California petition effort opposing gay marriage.

One column writer, in the online publication The Daily Beast, advanced the theory that Eich invited such retaliation because he didn’t just express his views, but rather urged using the “power of the state” in support of them. I believe Madison and Jefferson and others called that the democratic process — advocating policies and laws based on one’s views, in a freely conducted political campaign in which all arguments may be heard.

The Dixie Chicks’ country music career hit a slump in 2003 after singer Natalie Maines slammed then-President George W. Bush during a concert in Great Britain. Critics stopped buying “Chicks” records and concert tickets — but others made death threats.

As Maines later asked in song: “How in the world/ can the words that I said/ Send somebody so over the edge/ That they’d write me a letter/ Saying that I better shut up and sing/ Or my life will be over.”

Threats of over-the-top retaliation have led to legal attempts — unsuccessful thus far — in California and Washington state to hide the names of those who signed petitions in support of referendums opposing laws legalizing gay marriage — advancing the theory that public debate will be diminished if one side fears violence or intimidation simply for participating.

In court filings, those advocates presented multiple accounts of vandalism, threats of being “gunned down,” ongoing public harassment at home or work, and even of people being fired from jobs though no political activity had taken place at work. In other words, mob over mind.

There’s no ready answer — or bright “don’t cross” line — in determining when sharp and pointed debate turns into what’s colloquially called a “heckler’s veto,” hushing a speaker by shouting them down.

But there is value in allowing an opponent’s views to be fully heard — if only to be better prepared to counter those ideas, and to ensure the right to be fully heard oneself.

Long-deferred national conversations over race, gay rights, religious diversity and more have been prompted remarks and proposals that have been uncomfortable to hear, at times even repugnant to many. Time and again, the key to countering such views — and advancing our nation — has been more speech, not less.

Freedom of speech means all can set up and “hawk their wares” in the marketplace of ideas. It does not empower someone to, figuratively or literally, burn down the opposition’s display.

Gene Policinski is chief operating officer of the Washington-based Newseum Institute and senior vice president of the Institute’s First Amendment Center. [email protected]

What makes me, an amateur writer, think I can get across to readers there’s a monumental story out there that’s not getting coverage; a scandal that mainstream media doesn’t want to go near? Unfortunately for this country, there are a lot of people who don’t care to know, but worse, are those who want to know and just aren’t getting the word.

Over a year and half ago Islamic extremists attacked our overseas consulate in Benghazi of Libya and killed four Americans, one of them Ambassador Christopher Stevens, but MSM treats it as a non-story.

Fast forward to May, 2014. With numerous congressional House committee investigations and hearings for months on end, there are still more questions than answers to what happened on 9/11/2012, the 11th anniversary of the deadliest terrorist attack on American soil ever.

Should we care that four Americans, serving our country, were killed by Islamic extremists? Should we be concerned that not one terrorist to date has been brought to justice and it’s not as if we don’t know who was involved?

How do you suppose the families of the four who died feel as they still wait for some word from the White House and State Department about what really happened?

It is clear that the attack was not something that happened spontaneously. It was clearly planned by terrorists. However, it is also clear that Obama and then Secretary of State Hillary Clinton misled Americans that an anti Islamic video caused a spontaneous demonstration. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Why were Americans misled? It is also clear that with Obama’s re-election weeks away terrorist groups, particularly al-Qaeda, were supposed to be decimated and on the run. With the capture and death of Osama bin Laden, the president wanted Americans to go to the polls thinking Islamic terrorists were no longer a problem.

Readers, at this point, might ask “Les, why should this be such a big story?” The big story is that the lives of four great Americans took a back seat to Obama and Hillary’s politics! What a huge travesty!

It’s all about a huge cover-up, greater than Watergate, as I see it! Nobody died with the Watergate scandal, yet President Nixon resigned. And, I say it is Obama who is making this the biggest story even though he wants it to go away. If, I ask, “Mr. President, if there’s no cover up, there’s no wrong doing, why don’t you lay it out there for all to see what really is the truth? You have been stonewalling. Congress subpoenas documents and you ignore the subpoenas. Why?”

A smoking gun email was secured recently by a private source called Judicial Watch, an email Congress was unable to secure from the White House. Why is current Secretary of State John Kerry stonewalling? He said at the outset of his new job all documents requested by House committees would be forthcoming. Guess what?

“The smoking gun email Mr. President by your staff member Ben Rhodes, instructed UN Ambassador Susan Rice to go on five TV shows and blame it on a video and not Islamic terrorists. CIA knew from the get go it was a terrorist attack and never ever referred to a video. Why, the lie Mr. President and for many days after?

“Why not come clean about where you were and what you were doing during the eight-hour attack? Where was Hillary? Why the secrecy? Why would you and Hillary be completely incognito for eight hours? Why were military stand-bys told to stand down when there was the possibility of helping the four who ended up dying? Why did Hillary turn a blind eye to the many requests by Ambassador Stevens for more security months prior to the attack?”

How ironic, Democrats are accusing Republicans of using this story for political gain, yet it was Obama and Hillary’s political agenda that started the whole thing. Hopefully, the new select committee of the House, with powers the other committees lacked, can get answers to questions heretofore ignored by the White House and State Department.

I don’t want to sound like a broken record, considering my other writings, but I ask, how in the case of our current president, the death of four great Americans, followed by stonewalling and lies, can this be a non story; however, in the case of Bush 43, the story would be so very big, there probably would be impeachment? Anybody with half a brain, looking at this issue with an open mind, must know Benghazi is a huge story and not just political posturing.

Les Knoll lives in Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

“Oh, darn, I forgot. There’s one more thing I need.” Have you ever had that experience – where you started on a project and found you had forgotten one essential item? It happens all too often when cooking in the kitchen or doing a project around the house. Today we’ll meet a young woman who had that experience and turned it into a business opportunity for her family and her community.

Sherrie Conklin is the owner of Forgotten Item Market in Burden, Kansas. Sherrie grew up at Burden, lived at Winfield and studied at Cowley College. When she met her husband Scotty, they decided they wanted to raise their child in a small town environment like the one they had grown up in, so they moved back to Burden – a community of 536 people Now, that’s rural.

Scotty worked for Morton Buildings.Inspired by watching barbecue on television, he wanted to open a barbecue restaurant in Burden. He and Sherrie bought an old building on Main Street which he remodeled for their barbecue place.

As customers came into the restaurant, they would ask, “Who did your remodeling work?”  When they learned that Scotty had done it, they asked if he would do remodeling work for them.  When the demand for his carpentry work exceeded the demand for barbecue, they closed the store and Scotty formed his own business called Conklin Carpentry.

Meanwhile, Sherrie was working full time herself. Due to Medicare cuts, she lost her job. It happened at the worst possible time, just before Christmas. One day she was doing her Christmas baking when she found that she needed some powdered sugar. She had all the other ingredients, but she was out of that one item. Unfortunately, her home is 25 miles from stores in Winfield and 55 miles from Wichita.

“We need to do something about this,” Sherrie said to her husband. “We need a store so we can get the supplies we need locally.”  Scotty was reluctant, but she made her case.

“We asked some friends to commit to prayer about this,” Sherrie said. “We also sent out a poll to the community and got a good response.”  On March 26, 2013, they opened a new store in Burden. Sherrie asked friends for suggestions to name the store, and someone suggested Forgotten Item. The name stuck.

Today, Forgotten Item Market operates in 500 square feet in the former barbecue restaurant on Main Street in Burden. “We started in a smaller building across the street but then we moved into the front third of our old barbecue place. Now we’ve already outgrown that,” she said.

Forgotten Item Market offers produce and other grocery supplies plus household goods, pet food and gift and craft items. In other words, a customer can get milk and bread – and powdered sugar – plus other staples, but the store also offers custom-made items from local artisans. “We have things that were made by a local woodworker, a quilter, and a jewelry maker,” Sherrie said.

She also offers a custom shopping service for her customers.

“We have some elderly people in town so I go grocery shopping for them,” Sherrie said. “They will give me a list on Friday or Saturday and I will shop for them on Saturday afternoon or Monday when I purchase supplies for the store.”  On Tuesday, their goods are picked up by the elderly families or delivered to them.

“I’m a couponer,” Sherrie said. “I’ll scour the ads, clip coupons and find the very best prices on supplies.” She then drives to Wichita and restocks her store, while buying what the elderly families want.

“We’ve been blessed that my husband has always been able to find work locally so he’s available to help,” Sherrie said. “It’s a God thing.”

Forgotten items. They happen when we start a project or recipe and find that something is missing. Sherrie and Scotty Conklin are making a difference by using this experience to help create a business that would serve their community in this way. Such entrepreneurial ideas can serve other communities as well – don’t forget.