> This stereotype goes to show what New Yorkers know
> about the Midwest. Lawrence is an old abolitionist
> town, burned by Quantrill's raiders in the civil war
> -- they killed 150 some people -- and not only more
> radical than, say, Bensonhurst, it's probably more
> radical than the East Village. It's also pretty hip
> and very beautiful. The U of Kansas is located there.
> That's an institution of higher education. They grant
> degrees and everything. Lawrence may well have almost
> every radical _in_ Kansas, but it has a lot of them.
> Anyone know what the turnout for the demos was in
> Lawrence?
And Lawrence was where I became an anarchist back in the mid-80s during the height of Reaganism. Lawrence has a lot going for it.
> some frustrated cubicle slave in Lawrence, KS, with a
> fat wife and forty grand in
> credit card debt and a spare tire that makes
> him sick with self-loathing
> every time he sees the cover of Men’s Health,
> that he doesn’t want to bomb
> the shit out of somebody, anybody, at the
> earliest conceivable opportunity,
Whoever wrote this doesn't understand Kansas at all. This would describe where I come from, Leawood, KS, not Lawrence, KS. Johnson County, KS is the epitome of all that is bad about American civilization.
For a good take on Kansas City, I suggest Richard Rhodes' essay on "Cupcakeland." A classic essay about how Kansas City was once a beautiful town full of sin and fun, which was shopping-maulized to the point where the only place to find the old vices is in its museums.
Or Evan Connell's "Mr. Bridge" and "Mrs. Bridge" novels.
Chuck0
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"The state can't give you free speech, and the state can't take it away. You're born with it, like your eyes, like your ears. Freedom is something you assume, then you wait for someone to try to take it away. The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free..." ---Utah Phillips