One of the most difficult times for the public image of the First Amendment is when its protection for freedom of expression means sheltering speech that most people find offensive, degrading or vile.

Arizona State University just cut ties with a fraternity, Tau Kappa Epsilon, over a party that the local chapter hosted on Martin Luther King Day. At that party, based on photos later posted on social websites, frat members and others dressed in what’s been described as “gang clothing,” flashed gang hand signals and drank from watermelon cups.

The university also was considering requests to expel students who participated in the offensive behavior, though some community activists properly are having second thoughts about that demand.

Racist conduct and offensive images, particularly on a day memorializing a man who fought and died in the service of racial equality are, without doubt, worthy of condemnation. And ASU likely is within its rights to dismiss the TKE from its list of affiliated fraternities.

But there’s also little doubt that the students’ “speech” — as repugnant as it is — is protected by the First Amendment. Better that the university community and the community-at-large use their own First Amendment rights to loudly condemn racist stereotypes and thoughtless insults.

Government may restrict what we say only in very narrow circumstances: public safety, true threats and speech that could incite immediate violence are among the limited reasons. In most cases, it should be the court of public opinion rather than the court of law that passes judgment and reacts to our speech and ideas.

Only a generation ago, some universities expelled students who offended many in their communities by speaking out on what campus officials thought was an inappropriate topic, racial equality, including some courageous young people who participated in the historic Freedom Rides a half-century ago.

There’s no such positive message in the antics at Arizona State. But we demand that government to be viewpoint and content-neutral when it comes to freedom of expression. The First Amendment doesn’t allow for a government agency that decides “this speech is ok, this is not.”

Here’s another approach to fixing what’s broken at ASU: Just a few days before the party, a colleague and I welcomed to the Newseum the attendees to the National Association of Black Journalists annual Hall of Fame event. Among the inductees this year: a soft spoken photographer, Moses Newson, whose iconic images documented the high points of the civil rights movement 50 years ago. Newson was riding on one of the first Freedom Ride buses when, on May 14, 1961, it was attacked outside Anniston, Ala., by a gang of racist thugs who broke out windows, beat the Freedom Riders and torched the bus.

Newson stayed on the bus as long as possible, documenting the violence, but finally had to tuck his camera, for safety, under a seat before fleeing for his life. As the Freedom Riders left the bus, they were attacked and beaten. Months later, the bus company mailed him the camera — a burned and melted hulk. That camera is on display among the civil rights exhibit upstairs from where Newson was honored for his courage in documenting the great moments of the civil rights movement.

More effective than expulsion of the misguided and uninformed would be a program in which TKE members and their party guests learned about the Newson and the Freedom Riders, studied the meaning of the work of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and examined the history of the civil rights movement, and its use of all five freedoms of the First Amendment to change a nation.

Gaining an understanding of how freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly and petition can and did bring positive change to our society may not entirely erase the sting of a night’s thoughtless antics and insults. But it would be a good start.

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

For generations, picture-takers have instructed their subjects to say “cheese.”

Well, no people say “cheese” better than Wisconsinites, who unabashedly wear cheesehead hats in public, celebrate dozens of cheese festivals, have a Monterey Jack bacterium as the states’ official microbe, and generally honor the milk curd as a deity.

Naturally, Wisconsin would be the state to come up with the idea of spraying its city streets with cheese brine.

This isn’t some sort of cheesy tourist promotion, but an actual attempt to blend two problems into one clever solution.

Problem No. 1: Ice. Wisconsin gets lots of it, with Milwaukee alone averaging more than four feet of snow each winter. The city spends some $10 million a year to apply rock salt to clear its frozen streets.

Not only is that a lot of money, but about 30 percent of the dry salt bounces off the roadways and pollutes waterways.

Problem No. 2: Cheese brine. This state produces nearly 3 billion pounds of cheese a year, so Wisconsin has lots of this waste product from cheese-making.

It costs typical dairy farmers thousands of dollars each year to dispose of their brine. But this winter, farmers are donating their waste problem to cities like Milwaukee. Those urban centers are hauling the brine to their road maintenance facilities and blending it into the rock salt.

The idea is to create a mixture with just the right stickiness to keep the salt from bouncing away. “You want to use provolone or mozzarella,” says a Milwaukee public works manager. “Those have the best salt content. You have to do practically nothing to it.”

Voilá — two messes equal a neat solution. Wisconsin officials still consider their cheese-coated streets an experiment, but it seems to be working out fine.

And it’s just one example of the many innovative alternatives local governments across our country are producing.

OtherWords columnist Jim Hightower is a radio commentator, writer and public speaker. He’s also editor of the populist newsletter, The Hightower Lowdown.

Just to recap the president’s State of the Union address for those who missed it: “We’re right. They’re wrong.”

And, if you missed the GOP response: “They’re wrong. We’re right.”

Rush Limbaugh chimed in today, as well: “I’m right. He’s wrong.”

Editorial writers across the country tapped out their evaluation: “Right is wrong.”

The vast, silent, tax-paying middle of the nation reacted by going to work, taking kids to school, scheduling too much into not enough time. You know … Wednesday.

To say that what happens inside the Beltway has no effect on most Americans is naive. But it’s more asinine to assert that most people actually believe they can change government.

Politicians used to bemoan a lack of participation when it comes to elections. Now, the fewer people participating, the easier it is to focus dollars on districts where the deep-blood-red and night-sky-blue numbers are close enough to matter. Heck, several states including Kansas are actively and overtly trying to limit the number of voters allowed to pull the lever — this in a time when it’s common to see turnout results of less than 20 percent.

We have an election coming up in Kansas. Incumbent Gov. Sam Brownback will face longtime Democratic state Rep. Paul Davis.

Just to precap:

Brownback will remain positive, because he’s the incumbent and, by default, is already winning. He will talk about the thriving Kansas economy, plans to solve the water crisis, his commitment to education, the lowering of the tax burden on the middle class.

Davis will be forced to attack, because he’s the challenger and, by default, is already losing. He will talk about the stagnant economy of Kansas, the lack of a plan to solve the water crisis, Brownback’s disdain for Kansas students and teachers, and the increasing tax burden on the backs of those who can afford it least.

Both right and left will sing praises and lob insults. This will go on for months.

And the folks in the middle, the rest of us? We’ll go to work, drop the kids at practice, schedule too much into too little time. You know … Wednesday.

We often hear the word “apathy” tossed around. But what’s going on is not dispassion. It’s not a lack of interest. It’s not uncaring.

It’s a lack of faith that anything we do, say or feel matters to the folks who control our collective purse strings. It’s three generations of having ugly corruption exposed with no progress made toward course-correction. It’s knowing as sure as the sun will set each night that no one who contributes to the problem actually wants to fix the problem.

“Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them,” Henry David Thoreau wrote 165 years ago.

But, today, it’s Wednesday. Middle of the week. More ahead and too much behind. And it’s time to pick up the kids.

Ron Fields is news and information director at Eagle Communications.

By RON WILSON
Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development

SAN FRANCISCO — A large metrorail construction project is underway, with the rails supported by huge 40,000 pound abutments. A heavy duty metal framework attaches to the abutments and supports those rails. Where do you suppose that metal framework was constructed? Would you believe, halfway across the continent in rural Kansas?

Doug Routh is the owner and founder of R-TECH Tools, the remarkable company which built the framework for these abutments. Doug is a Kansan. He graduated from Wamego and went to trade school in Salina. He worked in Kansas City and came back to Wamego to work at what was then Baldersons Manufacturing. For five years, he worked in a heavy equipment repair shop in California.

When Doug heard that Caterpillar had purchased a controlling interest in Baldersons, he thought that might create an opportunity for related business in the area. Doug and his wife Rachelle moved to Wamego again. In 1993, they set up a business known as R-TECH Tool and Machine, or R-TECH for short.

“We started out repairing machines and equipment for contractors or farmers,” Doug said. For the first few months, it was just Doug and Rachelle. “I’d set up the machines, and she ran them,” Doug said. She also did the books.

The company grew, but it has remained a true family business. “Every one of my kids works for me in some way,” Doug said. Rachelle still helps too. Their oldest daughter Chantel is the office manager, which includes handling human resources and accounting. Son Joshua oversees purchasing and tooling. Daughter Cassie enters orders and helps with accounting. Twin sons Jacob and Jordan are freshmen at K-State, but also help on the shop floor and office. In fact, R-TECH now has more than 50 employees.

“We try real hard to take care of our people,” Doug said. “We have one of the only climate-controlled shop floors around.”

In 2008, the company made the largest investment in the history of the business, purchasing a multimillion dollar, state-of-the-art Versatech bridge mill. “It’s one of the few of that size in private hands around here,” Doug said. “That purchase has catapulted us to the next level.”

Today, the company does large parts manufacturing, CNC machining, welding and fabrication, and prototype design and engineering.

“We work real close with customers, building products that might not be practical for them to do themselves,” Doug said. “We try to build a long-term relationship, rather than running from one job to the next.”

R-TECH has been described as “the machine shop of choice for major manufacturers.” One of those is Caterpillar, just as Doug had predicted back in 1993, but their customers extend across the nation and beyond.

An Italian engineering firm was stationed in Manhattan doing repair work on Tuttle Creek reservoir. One of their engineers stopped in at R-TECH, saw the company’s machines at work, and asked if he could bring his boss. In a few days, the boss came in and was so impressed that he called the superintendent in Boston and said, “You need to get plane tickets and come here immediately.” One week later, the superintendent was there. R-TECH is now doing projects for this company.

What are some examples of R-TECH projects? In addition to the abutments for the San Francisco metrorail, the company has done work on undercarriages for locomotives, bulldozer attachments in Waco, drilling rigs in West Virginia, silicon wafer bases in New York, and amusement park rides across the country. R-TECH products have literally gone coast to coast.

That’s impressive for a company based in the rural community of Wamego, population 4,220 people. In fact, Doug and his family live south of the nearby unincorporated rural community of Wabaunsee which has a population of fewer than 100 people. Now, that’s rural.

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

It’s time to leave San Francisco where we found support frameworks on giant abutments built by this company across the country. We salute Doug and Rachelle Routh and all those involved with R-TECH for making a difference with entrepreneurship in manufacturing. Rural Kansas can be thankful to have that type of support.

Ron Wilson is director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at K-State Research and Extension.

A recent California appeals court decision ruled rapper Rick Ross did not violate the publicity rights of former criminal Ricky D. Ross, also known as “Freeway” Rick Ross, a former kingpin of a cocaine empire. This ruling is a positive development for artistic freedom and freedom of speech.

William Leonard Roberts II, better known by his stage name, Rick Ross, is one of the most popular hip-hop stars in recent years. But in 2010, Roberts faced a lawsuit from the real Rick Ross, a former drug dealer. Ricky D. Ross asserted that the rapper violated his publicity rights by misappropriating his name for financial gain.

Roberts’ first commercial single, “Hustlin’,” features the musician rapping about selling cocaine and using the refrain, “every day I’m hustlin’” – a phrase used by the real Ricky D. Ross.

A trial court rejected the lawsuit, finding that it was not timely filed. On appeal, the California Court of Appeals, 2nd District, also ruled Dec. 23 in favor of the musician in Ross v. Roberts – but for a different reason. The appeals court ruled that Roberts was protected by the First Amendment.

The right of publicity is an important protection of an individual’s right to profit from the commercial use of his or her name. However, unfettered application of publicity rights can trample and suppress the free-expression rights of others.

To balance an individual’s publicity rights against another’s right to engage in free expression, many courts apply the so-called “transformative test.” Under this test, courts determine whether the defendant’s expressive work has transformed a person’s name or likeness enough that the expression in effect has been changed into primarily the defendant’s own expression.

Using this test, the California Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Roberts.

“We recognize that Roberts’s work – his music and persona as a rap musician – relies to some extent on plaintiff’s name and persona,” the court acknowledged. However, the court reasoned that Roberts, though using Ross’ name and drug-dealing exploits, “created original artistic works.”

The court reasoned that “the value of Roberts’ work does not derive primarily from plaintiff’s (Ricky D. Ross’s) fame.”

This ruling promotes the interests of free speech and benefits creators of musical and other artistic expression. A ruling against Roberts would have chilled other artists from taking slices of real life and transforming them into artistic expression.

David L. Hudson Jr. is an expert in First Amendment issues who writes for firstamendmentcenter.org and for other publications. Hudson teaches law and was a scholar at the First Amendment Center. He is the author or co-author of more than 30 books, including several on the U.S. Supreme Court, the Constitution and student rights.

Dear Dave,
I’ve heard you say to never give collectors access to your checking account. Does that include payments with a debit card too?
— Susan

Dear Susan,
Absolutely! If you’re doing something like scheduling utility payments to come through your debit card or out of your personal checking account, that’s perfectly fine. But collectors are looking to get as much as they can on a bad, late debt. Never, under any circumstances, give them electronic access to your account.

I’ve been doing financial counseling for a long time now, and I’ve seen numerous situations where collectors have taken more than the agreed-upon amount from someone’s account once they gained access. This sleazy move left people without the money to pay their rent, the electric bill or even groceries. In fairness, the collection business does have a few good people in it, but it also has a high percentage of people who are scum—especially on the credit card side of collections. Some of them will lie and even make threats. It’s a huge problem.

There are other, much safer ways to handle these kinds of situations. Send a money order overnight or wire the cash to them. You can also send a cashier’s check. Some folks have even used a pre-paid debit card that isn’t attached to any of your accounts. This isn’t my favorite way to handle things, but it’s better than giving them the opportunity to clean you out and mess you over!
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. The Dave Ramsey Show is heard by more than 6 million listeners each week on more than 500 radio stations. Follow Dave on Twitter at @DaveRamsey and on the web at daveramsey.com.

Years ago, every town had one. They served as a meeting place for friends and neighbors. You could catch up on local news and wet your whistle at the same time.

This long-gone establishment was the general store. It carried candy, soda, cigarettes, gas, hardware and a few clothing items like gloves and hats. Some were even run by a “registered” pharmacist and carried medicine for what ailed you.

In the small northwestern Kansas community where I grew up, Albert Dreese owned and operated the general store. Mr. Dreese would take your shopping list, grab a brown paper bag and grope through dimly lighted aisles and the maze of store items carefully selecting and filling your order.

When Mr. Dreese returned he’d hand my mom the bag and me a sucker or balloon before bidding us good-bye and returning to his cronies and the pitch game at the small table in the center of the store.

Mr. Dreese never rang up your bill on a computer or cash register either. He figured everything in his head, wrote it down on a small note pad and made change out of the front pockets of his trousers.

While a card game was in progress, it was up to individual players to serve themselves a soda or beer and deposit the correct change on the counter top. No interruptions please – the game was all-important. Peanuts to munch on while playing cards were weighed out on a scale and poured into a small brown bag.

During the winter, no one stoked the pot-bellied stove except Mr. Dreese because a cherry red stove would melt all of his chocolate bars, or that’s what he told all the youngsters who visited his store. Why, he even ran old Mr. Reinhart out of the store one day for tampering with his stove.

Another source of entertainment in the general store was a one-armed bandit – yep, right in the little community of Seguin. Farmers around home didn’t need to travel to Las Vegas to gamble – they farmed for a living and dropped by the back room of Mr. Dreese’s store. The sheriff never knew about this one-armed bandit, or so I thought.

Every so often when I had a few coins burning a hole in my pockets, Davey Thummel and I would walk down to the store and plunk down a dime for a Coke and fill it with a nickel bag of Planters peanuts.

Albert Dreese isn’t around anymore. Neither is the store. His business and others like it couldn’t compete with the giant supermarkets and box stores offering lower prices and modern conveniences all under one roof.

No, Mr. Dreese’s store didn’t have air conditioning for those hot, northwestern Kansas summer days. It didn’t have air pudding (elevator) music, coupons or anything you could want, or didn’t need, to entice customers from Norton, Colby, Oakley and the rest of northwestern Kansas.

All Mr. Dreese had to offer was himself, a smile and dedicated service to his friends and neighbors who dropped by his small general store.

Yes, Albert Dreese is dead and a part of history died with him. We don’t have general stores anymore. His personal touch and sincere interest in his neighbors, friends and customers has been replaced by whirling blue lights, swarming shoppers and cars, screaming kids and aisles and miles of consumer items.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas. Born and raised on a diversified farm in northwestern Kansas, his writing reflects a lifetime of experience, knowledge and passion.

Nobody expected a reception to honor dolphins, but the crowd at the Kansas Republican Party state convention in Wichita last weekend was more conservative than it has been in decades … and even conservatives were being out-conservatived most of the celebratory weekend.

There was three-term U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins of the northeast Kansas 2nd District—and who is now dean of the state’s U.S. House delegation—who picked up a primary election opponent at the GOP love fest.

Freshman State Sen. Steve Fitzgerald, R-Leavenworth, announced his candidacy to defeat Jenkins, creating a GOP primary election. He linked Jenkins to the U.S. House leadership led by Rep. John Boehner of Illinois. That leadership link—Jenkins often is seen standing by Boehner at press conferences—made her too moderate for Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald, who ran twice for the Senate before winning the seat in 2012—with the help of a $1,000 campaign contribution from Jenkins—believes that a vote on an immigration bill in the House will come later than expected, essentially insulating its Republican supporters from retribution at the polls.

The result for the GOP brand name? Another primary election in which its members burn up money that they might need at the general election to retain the party’s majority in the U.S. House, where the numbers are the key, more important than their political leanings. It’s the R behind their names that is what the party generically is after, while the political shadings are important to the feisty conservatives and ultra-conservatives.

But for the plugged-in at the GOP weekend at Wichita’s Hyatt Regency, the Fitzgerald announcement was the smaller possible bump to a unified party.

The insiders were holding their breath to learn whether former eight-term 4th District Republican U.S. Rep. Todd Tiahrt, now the party’s Republican National Committeeman after losing the Senate primary election to now-U.S. Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., would run for Congress again.

Remember the epic, party-shaking 2010 fight between Tiahrt and Moran for the Senate seat that Sam Brownback abandoned to successfully seek the governorship?

The anxiety was whether Tiahrt would use the biggest gathering of Republicans this year to announce he is running for the Wichita-centric 4th District—challenging two-term U.S. Rep. Mike Pompeo, R-Kan.

After a weekend of party insiders holding their breath, facing a high-level, expensive, money-from-the-general-diverting primary election, Tiahrt said he was still thinking it over.

The Fitzgerald-Jenkins race? It would cost a fraction of a Tiahrt-Pompeo race, if one occurs.

And for the party, every dollar spent in Republican vs. Republican fights is a dollar not spent against Democrats, whether at the federal or Statehouse level.

Because we don’t figure it will be spent to comfort dolphins.

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

The beginning of a new year is the time to make resolutions to accomplish things that are important to us. Popular resolutions include things like losing weight, exercising, and improving finances.

This year, consider also setting goals to strengthen and improve your relationships with your spouse and family. Here is a top-ten list of goals for improving relationships from experts at K-State Research and Extension:

1. Weekly Family Time. Scheduled family time on a weekly basis is as excellent way to improve family closeness and fun.

2. Weekly Couple Time. Scheduled couple time on a weekly basis (such as a lunch date or movie night) is important to foster communication and build the couple relationship.

3. Family Service Project. Choosing, planning and carrying out a service project for someone in need can help improve family closeness and gratitude. Work together to help others often. As you help those in need, you will grow together and make the community a better place to live.

4. Spirituality. Examining how you are doing spiritually can provide a renewed feeling of purpose and improved stress management.

5. Improved Personal Traits. Improving ourselves– such as working on patience, anger control, forgiveness, stress management, worry, and such– naturally makes us better persons and better family members. Our commitment to change might invite others to improve as well.

6. Open Communication. Establishing a plan to be more open with each other as a couple on a more frequent basis can help build intimacy. You might agree to have your “couple talk” over an early-morning cup of coffee, at lunch, or before bed time. Choose a time when you are both relaxed and interested in sharing news of the day with each other.

7. Learn a New Hobby as a Couple. Build new bonds by developing a hobby or skill that you can share. Take dance lessons, go on a birding tour, learn to refinish furniture, take up gardening, sing in a choir, go antiquing — the possibilities of things to do together are endless!

8. Take a Walk. Walking as a family can improve overall life satisfaction and strengthen communication. Spend some active time together to build healthy habits for the whole family.

9. Couple Exercise. Exercising together in an activity you both enjoy can lead to better health and stronger relationships. Exercise like walking, bicycling, tennis, bowling, etc., reduces stress as it improves health and provides quality time together.

10. Family Vacations and Trips. A family outing doesn’t have to cost a lot of money or take a lot of time. The fun of discovering new sights and experiences can help families spend time together, create lasting memories and renew family bonds.

As you make plans to strengthen relationships this year, write your goals down. Once a goal goes into writing it becomes “real” and starts etching itself into your subconscious. Reread your goals periodically to check progress and to re-energize your commitment to improving your relationships this year.

Linda Beech is Ellis County Extension agent for family and consumer sciences.

The Hays Recreation Commission would like to thank everyone who participated in programs last year. We had more than 128,000 people ages 0 to 99-plus step through our doors here at the Recreation Center, Fitness Center, Hays Aquatic Park, Wilson Pool, Bickle-Schmidt Sports Complex and other venues throughout Hays.

We have enjoyed serving each and everyone, providing diversified leisure activities and high quality facilities and programs.

Attached, please find our 2013 End of the Year Report. Take a look at what all you helped us accomplish last year and what our goals for 2014 are. Hays Rec 2013 End of the Year report

Also, while we have your attention we would like you to help us create the cover for the Spring and Summer Hays Rec Times, due out April 4.

When you think of Hays Recreation what comes to mind? Fun, sports, leisure, wellness, family, sportsmanship … what else? Please email us back your list of five to 10 words you think of when you think of Hays Recreation. These words will be used to help create the cover of the new program guide.

Thanks again for participating in Hays Recreation Commission programs, and we look forward to serving you again this year.

Hays Recreation Staff
Roger Bixenman – Superintendent
Missy Droegemeier – Office Manager
Gail Wickham – Youth & Senior Program Director
Haley Nixon – Adult & IDD Program Director
Grant Lacy – Aquatics Director
Dave Quillin – Wellness Director
Kristen Koster – Fitness Specialist
Ben Moeckel – Sports Complex Director
A.J. Preisner – Adult Sports Director
Keith Smith – Youth Sports Director
Ashley Lutters – Graduate Assistant
And about 200 part-time/seasonal employees throughout the year

Dear Dave,
My husband has his own business installing windows. As a result, we now have IRS and state tax debt. We’re managing the payments, but where should these debts be placed in the debt snowball plan?
Olivia

Dear Olivia,
I don’t usually cheat on the smallest to largest progression of the debt snowball, but I’d recommend moving these debts to the top of the list.

Both state and federal taxes come with ridiculous penalties and interest rates, and the authorities at either level have virtually unlimited power at their disposal to screw with your life if something bad happens. The IRS can actually take your money without suing you. So, you don’t want to become a blip on their radar screen by being late with payments.

Get it cleaned up as quickly as possible, Olivia. You don’t want to mess around with these guys!
—Dave

Dave Ramsey is America’s trusted voice on money and business. He’s authored four New York Times best-selling books: Financial Peace, More Than Enough, The Total Money Makeover and EntreLeadership. daveramsey.com.