>In a message dated 4/22/2004 12:41:01 PM Eastern Standard Time,
>chuck at mutualaid.org writes:
>
>Yes, that conversation took place in Kansas.
>
>Chuck0
>
>Chuck0,
>
>Johnson County is not Kansas. However, I agree with you. I lived
>in Overland Park in 1991 and it was pretty progressive
>(comparatively speaking of course). Must have been all the KU
>graduates. My wife and I could not stand it though, too yuppie.
>So, of course we moved to New Jersey!
>
>Sergio
The long excerpt from Tom Frank's new book on his home state of Kansas in the April Harper's paints a pretty different picture. As the opening notes, some of the poorest counties in the U.S. are on the Great Plains - and went something like 75% for Bush. Towns rave against fluoridation (no doubt Mitch Cohen & Gary Null would agree), the state board of ed purges references to evolution from textbooks, a prominent female politician doubts the wisdom of women's suffrage, etc. "If Kansas is the concentrated essence of normality, then here is where we can see the deranged graudally become normal, where we look into that handsome, confidnet, reassuring, all-American face - class president, quarterback, Rhodes scholar, bond trader, builder of industry - and realize that we are staring into the eyes of a lunatic." And Tom's no coastal elitist either.
Doug