Posted on Wed, Apr. 15, 2009

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Parkinson: To thrive, we must help minorities

BY HURST LAVIANA

The Wichita Eagle

The United States must do a better job of educating and employing its growing minority population if it is to thrive in the third century of its existence, Lt. Gov. Mark Parkinson said Tuesday night during a visit to Wichita.

As the featured speaker at the United Way's 86th annual dinner at the Beech Activity Center, Parkinson said he often wonders what the country will be like on its 300th birthday.

Demographic data, he said, suggests that by 2076, the United States will have 480 million residents.

Between now and then, he said, the country's Hispanic population will grow from 48 million to 150 million. Its African-American population will grow from 38 million to 72 million. The number of Asian-Americans will increase from 11 million to 55 million, he said.

The number of whites, he said, will remain about the same.

Only if the country's minorities become productive workers and active consumers, he said, can the country continue to thrive.

"If we can adequately educate, and adequately employ, this growing population, we can keep our consumer economy going," he said.

"We have a whole new group of people who can be our new consumers and our new workers."

Parkinson, who will become governor when Gov. Kathleen Sebelius joins President Obama's cabinet -- perhaps as soon as next week -- told the group that he suspects the biggest adjustment he will have to make when he assumes his new duties will be learning to live in the public limelight.

"I learned early on no one knows who the lieutenant governor is," he said.

Shortly after taking office, he said, his daughter came home from school one day and asked, "If you're so important, how come no one knows who you are?"

While attending the Democratic Party's annual Washington Days banquet in Topeka, he said, he arrived early and struck up a conversation with a young man sitting at a table near the front.

After discussing politics and other current events, Parkinson said he asked the man how he ended up at the banquet.

The man said his father told him, "If we gave enough money, we could have dinner with the lieutenant governor."

"Then he said to me, 'Why are you here?' "

Reach Hurst Laviana at 316-268-6499 or hlaviana@wichitaeagle.com.

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