Kansas Day!

Last week Kansas celebrated its birthday for the 149^th time.  For the 3^rd year in a row I helped throw a Kansas Day celebration in Emporia. It’s full of all things Kansas- Wheat State Pizza, Wheat Beer, and some good old 70’s rock, courtesy of Kansas. This year we had an unexpected treat- John Brown stopped by to say hello!

Anyway, in honor of our wonderful state’s birthday, I’ve decided to compile a Top 10 List of Kansas-Inspired Historical and Cultural Impacts.

1. William Allen White- Not just a Kansas native but an Emporian at that, WAW was a celebrated journalist and civil rights activist.  As a newspaper employee I like to think of him as a Patron Saint of sorts.
2. Wizard of Oz- No Kansas list would be complete without mentioning that famous film that made every non-Kansan ask you, “Where’s Toto? LOL” Kansas will always be synonymous with Dorothy, her dog, and her group of rag-tag friends.
3. Flying Spaghetti Monster- Though the origin of the FSM stems from Oregon State, the motives were 100% Kansan. The creature was created in response to the Kansas Board of Education’s vote to include Intelligent Design in public school’s science curriculum. The creature, which looks like a squid/pasta hybrid, is a fantastic farce of the ongoing religious quagmire in Kansas schools, and reminds America we can still laugh at ourselves.
4. Air Capital- Wichita has been home to the Boeing Company, Cessna, Raytheon and Bombardier Aerospace’s Learjet division. At one point Wichita supplied two-thirds of the world’s commercial airliners. I’m throwing this in just for my dad. He worked in the Wichita Airline business for over 27 years, and is absolutely nuts about planes. Over that time he met both John Travolta and Harrison Ford when they flew into Wichita while flying their private jets.  I’m sure my dad was real lame and only talked to them about plane stuff, like if their wings were stable and if their cabin pressure was adequate or something like that.
5. Pizza Hut, Braum’s, and White Castle- 3 of the country’s biggest chains started in Kansas: 2 of them in Wichita and 1 in Emporia. Without these businesses, America would have been just a little bit less fat.
6. BTK- Not all these impacts are good. In the 70’s, Dennis Rader, AKA the BTK killer, had the country and Kansas in a state of terror with his ghastly murders and his creepy notes.  He was finally caught in 2005 and once his identity was revealed, my hometown of Wichita was filled with eerie stories of run-ins with the killer. “I swear to god that guy came to my house last year to take my dog to the pound.” Exclaimed one of kids in my school.
7. Brown Vs. Board- The landmark case that ended “de jure” racial segregation in public schools around the country. Did you know this case did not just involve the families of the Topeka area, the Browns included? It was actually the conglomeration of a multi-state effort to end school segregation- there were over 200 plaintiffs all together. I had old classmate in one of my classes last year who actually knows the Brown family in Topeka and is still in regular contact with them. He says they are very normal folks. I can’t imagine living a normal life after having such a huge impact on the country and the legal system.
8. Celebrities!!- We’ve got Fatty Arbuckle, Paul Rudd, Dennis Hopper, Bill Kurtis, Don Johnson, Annette Bening, Elvira,  and of course, Kirstie Alley. My sister once met Kirstie Alley in a coffee shop in Wichita and helped her carry drinks across the street. Turns out there was a Scientology meeting in the church nearby and Kirstie was giving the sermon that day. No joke.
9. Prairie Reserve- Alright indulge me as I eco-nerd out here for a second. The prairie is the most endangered of all the world’s biomes, and the biggest swath of it left is right here in Kansas, near Strong City. Prairie used to cover over 8 states, but now 98% of it has been farmed or cattle-fed into extinction. Now the rest resides on federally protected land, ensuring that future generations can still enjoy the intense and exotic beauty of the prairie.
10. John Brown- Known as the man who killed slavery, sparked the civil war, and seeded civil rights, (and also as the father of modern-day terrorism) big beardy Brown started a revolt that directly kicked off the Civil War. Before that he was making the news for passing out guns throughout Bleeding Kansas to combat the pro-slavery movement. Impressive as his life might have been, I think most of us know him simply as the dude on the cover of that Kansas album (see above picture)

As with most top 10 lists, I can never put everything on here I wanted to. What do you think should have made the list?

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