COLBY, Kan. - Kansas Free Press is a little more active than its mother media site, Everyday Citizen. The publisher's original intention, I believe, was to allow Kansans to put more local concerns and opinions up for discussion on this site.

I've been around a lot of years, all in Kansas, and I have been made aware of issues and events that I was not aware of, until I read it here. The comment section is certainly not limited to Kansans.

The comments, quite often, are much more detailed and revealing than the original articles. That is good. Most of us regular writers are hoping to get a dialogue going to help people become more involved in society's everyday happenings. Some visitors might think we, the writers, are all cheerleaders praising ourselves. But as you'll discover, we sometimes get into some pretty heated debates amongst ourselves.

COLBY, Kan. - 'Tis the season! What's the season? It's the season that motivates all the arguments about proper salutations. It's the season that merchants hope to make up for the slow economy of the past seasons and years. It's the season that some hope to reclaim their dominance in setting agendas and controlling the content of programs to celebrate the season. It's the season that mental and social professionals tell us more people suffer depression than at any other time in the year. (How sad that is!) All the bitter battles over whether it's 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Holiday', a 'Christmas Tree' or a 'Holiday Tree,' whether any particular group has absolute ownership of a particular day, whether we'll sing my choice of songs or your choice of songs, or all the other battles that rage on don't benefit any of us.

MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - Much of artist Betsy Roe's work centers on the contact zone between humans and other animals. Now Betsy is creating an outdoor installation at Bird Runner Wildlife Refuge, and this time that zone is a bloody one -- the place where animals meet our vehicles on the road.

Betsy! Why are you making us think about this? Roadkill? Yuck! Sad -- but what can we do about it? People aren't going to stop driving and animals aren't going to stop trying to cross the road. So why dwell on it? What's the point?

Betsy's art makes us think of one answer after another.

COLBY, Kan. - For the most part, we are a group of liberal leaning free thinkers and progressive minded individuals who enjoy sharing our opinions and experiences with one another and visitors to our site. I don't believe any of us think we have all the answers to society's problems.

We, the citizen journalists who write at Kansas Free Press, welcome comments from all, friend or foe, as long as they are not laced with foul language or abusive criticism. One visitor referred to our content as "common with older Everyday Citizen blogs." I'm not sure what 'old' for Internet media is, but Everyday Citizen (EC) and Kansas Free Press (KFP) have not been around very many years.

MCDOWELL CREEK, Kan. - "What do you do for entertainment out there?" my husband's friend asked him. Ron was traveling east to help his mother with a long drive and had stopped to visit an old friend in DC.

"The land is our entertainment," Ron replied. His friend looked blank. "Do you drive into town to go to movies?" he asked, as if he hadn't heard what Ron said.

Why couldn't he hear the answer? Perhaps he was in the grip of the old stereotype of Kansas as flyover country, the middle of nowhere. Or perhaps he had a concept of entertainment as a commodity, a pre-packaged experience for which one purchases a ticket. In any event, Ron was aware that he had a mentality that was not easily recognized by his city-dwelling friend.

When Ron came home, it became a joke between us. "What do you for entertainment out there?" we would giggle every time we found ourselves transfixed by something right outside our back door.

COLBY, Kan. - Some of my friends here on KFP don't go to Everyday Citizen, so I thought I should share these thoughts with you. Most of my posts are political and argumentative, but there is more to me than that.

We've been enjoying beautiful moon lit nights, here in northwestern Kansas. It reminds me of songs: Roll Along Silvery Moon, The Moon Sees Me I See the Moon, and many others. You folks who live in cities or smog filled areas seldom get to enjoy such serene and beautiful moments. I'm living in the house I was born in, nearly 80 years ago. Our nearest neighbors are 3/4 mile away. Except for a little village of about 85 people down the road a few miles, we have less than a dozen neighbors within 6 or 8 miles. Isolation? No! Serenity and peacefulness? Yes!

SHAWNEE, Kan. - After hearing talk about a faith based marriage initiative in Kansas, I can't help but wonder if perhaps Beyonce's "Single Ladies" is stuck on repeat on Governor Brownback's iPod.

Sitting comfortably in one of the many rooms at Cedar Crest mansion, the married father (our Governor) thinks he can curb child poverty and crime rates by encouraging single parents to get or stay married. While I want to believe his intentions are pure, his actions once again show how out of tune he is with us, the common folk.

Obviously, this man does not truly grasp the reality of our lives and the problems that single parents face.

With a baby on my hip, and lacking a college degree, I was 24 years old when I walked away from the unhealthy nightmare that was my marriage.

GREAT BEND, Kan. - How do you celebrate the 4th of July? Is being proud of your country an every day occurrence, or is it one day of waving a Chinese-made American flag?

Many of us can "talk the talk" when it comes to patriotism, but how many can "walk the walk"?

If you do walk, you will need comfortable American-made shoes to do it in.

I am getting ready for vacation to Yellowstone and need to purchase various items for the trip. I searched for only American-made items.

It was much easier than I thought to find great deals. Some American made items are much more expensive than the Chinese version. Some aren't. The items I found were more than affordably priced. I thought I would publish my findings for others to read.

TOPEKA, Kan. - I've written a couple of stories about Freddy and the gang that calls itself Westboro Baptist Church, and in the last one I stated my intention to refrain from ever writing about them again and thereby giving them what they most crave: attention. I'm sorry, I can't help it. Just one more time. I was in Topeka a few weeks ago for my father's funeral, and as I was walking out to the car to get something, some one pointed out to me a crowd of demonstrators with placards about a block away and indicated that it was them, Topeka's own little tribe of weirdos.

WICHITA, Kan. - Christmas time is supposed to be a time of peace and joy, giving, family etc.. While I'm not a cheerleader for Christmas by any means, in fact most of the time I do the bare minimum required in celebrating the holiday. I think hanging with mostly forgotten Krampus would be much more fun than hanging with Santa or the obnoxious elves. But I appreciate the spirit and message of Christmas, which after my somewhat rambling introduction leads to the point of this article.

Despite the nature of Christmas supposing to be one of giving and peace, the fact that for one individual it is a time of bullying and bigotry. Rudolph because of a minor disfigurement was laughed at and called names, excluded from athletic endeavors despite the fact that his disfigurement was mostly cosmetic and in no way affected his performance. Only in that Rudolph's disfigurement allowed for the passage of a sleigh through inclement weather was he not further ostracized, I however think that people should be accepted for who they are and not just because they are found to be useful.

That would be a good Christmas message.