President Obama greets the audience with a smile at the high school gymnasium in Osawatomie. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

Obama's speech had a historic tie to President Theodore Roosevelt's New National Address in 1910. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

When President Obama delivered his “make-or-break moment for the middle class” speech last Tuesday, he was following in the footsteps of Republican Teddy Roosevelt, who in 1910, came here to make a case for a socially conscious New Nationalism, which defined the progressive era to follow.

Roosevelt spoke before a crowd of 30,000 at John Brown Park, just down the street from present-day Osawatomie High.

“I believe in shaping the ends of government to protect property as well as human welfare,” Roosevelt said. “Normally…the ends are the same, but whenever the alternative must be faced I am for men and not for property.”

Roosevelt’s address, which historians have called the most important speech ever given in Kansas, evoked polarized responses. While some lauded it as the greatest American speech ever given, others called it socialistic, communistic, even anarchistic, according to Robert S. La Forte, writing in the Kansas Historical Quarterly.

William Allen White, the legendary editor of the Emporia Gazette, was a friend of Roosevelt and helped shape the New Nationalism address.

White became a leader of the Progressive movement, forming the Kansas Republican League in 1912.

Roosevelt, who had previously served eight years in the White House, ran for president again in 1912 on the Bull Moose ticket, but didn’t win. Progressive policy, however, did. The result included the minimum wage, the eight-hour work day, and the federal income tax.

The current tax system is one issue Obama addressed in his speech. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

This panoramic photo was created by stitching together various photos from Obama's speech. Armando Pinion/The Bulletin

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Stephanie Russel, senior graphic design and art major, recites poetry during Poetry on the Porch Sunday morning at the William Allen White House. Ashley Wells/ The Bulletin

As part of the fall series showing William Allen White’s work by the Marketing Promotion Community of William Allen White Partnership, the fourth annual “Poetry on the Porch” was held Sunday at William Allen White House. About 30 students, faculty of Emporia State and community members attended.

“Mr. White would sit out on the porch and hang out with his friends and famous people and they had good times getting together like this, so we’re following that tradition,” said Kevin Rabas, associate professor of English and co-director of the creative writing program.

However, “Poetry on the Porch” is not only for putting the name of William Allen White to the public and keeping people in thinking, but also helps more people who attend to learn more about William Allen White.

Roger Heineken, a past board member of community partnership, and also serves at the Marketing Promotion Community and continues helping out with this program to inform people about aspects of White’s life.

“Mr. White wrote published books and many kinds of literature, fiction, non-fiction, political biographies on presidents, but in fact his first published piece of work is poetry,” Heineken said. “So in this case, people may not think he is a poet but a newspaper editor.”

William Allen White’s very first published work was a poetry book “Rhymes by Two Friends,” which was published in 1893 with co-writer Albert Bigelow Paine.

Rabas has volunteered to help the Marketing Promotion Community of William Allen White Partnership since it started, and is in charge of the poetry creation of the event.

“Every time we read one or two poems of his to show folks that there is a local poet and writer whose legacy continues here and we are able to live as part of that and live in his world,” Rabas said.

Also, this year Eric McHenry, who is the lead poet and faculty of Washburn University in Topeka, was invited to read poetry at the event. McHenry is the author of a book of poems, “Potscrubber Lullabies,” which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award.

The poetry reading was opened with information about political poetry and tied to “Oh, Governor Henry Allen,” which was written when White went to jail for protesting. After McHenry’s reading, three ESU students read at the open mic.

Han Yan, English graduate student and Bulletin staff writer, read a poem of Chinese poet Haizi, in her native Chinese and translations in English. Steph Russell read poems of Chilean poet Pablo Neruda.

Natalia Barr, sophomore English major, read her own creation titled “Marchland,” which was about the seasonal window seen from her grandparents’ house.

“I really enjoy the event and it is a really great time and good opportunities to meet authors of Kansas natives who has work published,” Barr said. “I didn’t know he (William Allen White) is a poet before I came to this event.”

According to Rabas, it is a chance for folks in the region and community to share their own poetry and hear some other poets.

“It is a great unity and community building project for people and poets interested in poetry,” Rabas said.

Lauren Lau

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Ryan

A recent decision by the Kansas Department of Education would have William Allen White rolling in his grave.

The department plans on cutting the career and technology education funding, which helps subsidize the technical side of publications, including cameras and software, for journalism classes in 2012. The reason? The state has decided that journalism is no longer a viable career and does not prepare students for “high demand,” “high skill” and “high wage” jobs. Apparently those are the standards of success in Kansas.

So why should you care?

These high school journalism classes feed collegiate programs across the state, which in turn produce practicing journalists who help inform the electorate.

As someone who took journalism classes at a high school with a strong program, this course of events is especially troubling for me, as I’ve seen how the skills students learn in journalism courses often go beyond the classroom.

Mary Anne McCloud and Erica Rickard, my journalism teachers at Newton High School, taught courses that focused on critical thinking, interpersonal communications, writing and working with the latest design software, while encouraging students to create a product that examined the world around them.

White would be disturbed by KSDE’s move because he was a proponent of journalism education – even the J-School at the University of Kansas is named after him. White, who won two Pulitzer Prizes, knew the value of journalism ina democracy and stood up to the Ku Klux Klan in the pages of the Emporia Gazette during the racist ‘20s.

Journalism serves as a pillar of a democracy, a watchdog of the government that, at the local level, can connect our communities and at the state and national levels, give us perspective on our society.

Aren’t you tired of those pundits on the national networks? That’s not real journalism. But if we teach our youth the fundamentals of journalism and its importance in a society, we might be able to win back an honest media.

Thomas Jefferson said it best:

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”

I’m starting to agree. Perhaps the Kansas Department of Education should focus its efforts on making better citizens, not just better employees.

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