Next week the legislative session begins for Kansas.
One of my New Year’s resolutions is to keep better tabs on what goes on in Topeka and to let my representatives know my thoughts on matters.
To keep track of legislation, the best website is www.kslegislature.org/li/ where you can see what bills are being discussed and legislators’ votes.
From the little I know about how things work there, most of the time it’s lobbyists and other hired hands who have legislators’ attention. Those who work for special interests hone in on specific legislation, trying to see laws are written in their favor.
That’s not necessarily bad, but if a lobbyist’s sole focus is to reduce spending, for instance, then valuable state services and programs could be sacrificed to get to that point.
That’s why those with the Kansas Policy Institute and the Kansas Chamber of Commerce must be viewed with a healthy dose of skepticism. Overwhelmingly, their goals are to favor big business at the expense of what is important to the majority of Kansans.
I’ve always been a little timid about talking to my elected representatives. I put them on par with the “Great and Powerful Wizard of Oz,” and figured the wheeling and dealing taking place behind that curtain was beyond my ken.
Besides, I felt the state was being managed well enough.
Until recently.
Today, things aren’t so rosy.
The state budget is severely underfunded. Valuable programs for the needy have been slashed. Public education is being viewed as a burden. Expanding Medicaid, despite its overwhelming benefits, is seen as an endorsement of President Obama (horrors!). Our laws are being rewritten to favor gun rights enthusiasts. And our judicial system is in danger of being defunded.
AT CHURCH last Sunday our minister charged us to repeat three sentences to ourselves every day for the next week: “I am God’s child. I deserve love and respect. God uses me to change the world.”
By midweek, I began to sense the power of those simple words.
As Kansans, we deserve a state government that respects every citizen and their situation and that works to take us forward as a state.
And if that isn’t happening, then it’s our duty to speak up, show up, and demand change.
