Kansas needs to roll out the welcome mat. PERCEPTION is everything when trying to make a sale.
In the past three years more residents have left the state, compared to those who have moved here.
From 2010 to 2013, Kansas lost a net 10,197 residents to other states according to numbers released Thursday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Over the three-year period, a total 26,949 Kansans left compared to a gain of 16,752 from outside our borders.
The numbers are dramatic when compared to just a few years earlier. From 2000 to 2009, the state saw a reduction of 17,574 to outward migration. About one-third if the current trend continues.
Kansas ranks in the bottom 10 states nationwide in the number of people who have fled our borders.
What keeps us from slipping into oblivion is a healthy birthrate. The number of babies born in Kansas continues to outpace deaths and migration. The state’s population is holding steady at about 2.9 million.
If Kansas were only known for Dorothy and tornadoes, we’d be relatively safe, though slightly embarrassed.
Today that wholesome image with an occasional storm is somewhat tarnished.
The specter of Fred Phelps and his hatred of homosexuals casts a long shadow across Kansas. With his recent death, we can only hope his heirs decide a different path.
Also to fear is the influence of ALEC, American Legislation Exchange Council, an organization that writes legislation with an ultraconservative bent.
More than 40 members of the Kansas Legislature are in the tow of ALEC, including House Speaker Ray Merrick and Senate President Susan Wagle.
ALEC provides fill-in-the-blank templates whose gist are anti-clean energy, anti-civil justice, anti-Affordable Care Act, anti-gun control, anti-public education, anti-public pension, and perhaps most dangerously, anti-senior citizen in their war against the “socialist” programs Medicare and Social Security.
Such a direction pretty much puts the rest of us on the defensive.
When outsiders, including prospective industries, get too curious, we quickly say, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain,” hoping they’ll be fooled by the smoke and mirrors we are forced to call democracy.
How nice if we could pull the curtain wide open, with nothing to hide.
-— Susan Lynn
Ultra-conservative trajectory could be behind exodus
