GREAT BEND, Kan. - Sometimes, somebody just tells the truth. It's usually a child, like in the "Emperor With No Clothes." Everybody knows the truth down deep, but then someone just blurts it out, and there is a sense of relief and embarrassment.
Johnny Carson once said the only people who really tell the truth are the very young and the very old. There is some truth to that, but sometimes a middle aged person says what everyone knows to be true but is afraid to say.
Governor Mark Parkinson had such a moment last week. Discussing the Kansas legislature's 20 year "tax-cutting binge," Parkinson mentioned that the tax breaks have generally gone to the wealthy and corporate interests. "What have we done for the average person? Virtually nothing. The public has got to understand, they are being left out."
How true.

MOUND CITY, Kan. - In 2002, Tom Holland said that he ran to represent his neighbors in the Kansas House of Representatives, "because our schools were facing severe funding shortages."
GREAT BEND, Kan. - Circular firing squads are stupid. There are so few Democrats in Kansas that it is important that we stick together, and not shoot each other. 2010 was my seventh consecutive trip to Topeka for "Washington Days," the annual Kansas Democrat gathering. But this was the first one where I felt some overt dissension among the party faithful.
WICHITA, Kan. - My father's father was a pioneer in Kansas and much given to teaching essential lessons by using old folk sayings. One of his favorites was, "Always keep your word; without honor you are nothing." I have held that memory in my mind all of my life. We were taught to never make a promise we couldn't keep unless we apologized in person for not keeping our word.
