Eagle readers weigh in on university pronouns, ‘the Midwest,’ foster kids and farmers | Opinion

She’s not a guy

Kansas lawmakers slipped in a paragraph on page 254 of a Senate bill back in May, prohibiting any state agency from exhibiting “gender ideology.”

If a university employee, for example, indicates preferred pronouns in their email signature, state funding to that university would be withdrawn.

Universities and other state bodies have therefore instructed their employees to remove their pronouns and any “gender ideology” and conform to a standard template.

For most employees, this may not matter much. For some, it is an annoying case of unnecessary control and oversight.

For me, it means people who don’t know me will start calling me “Mr. Thelle” again, since it is hard to tell my gender from my name, and somehow the default is always male.

On the face of it, it seems just silly to make state funding depend on a directive that is bound to cause confusion. But for people who are transgender and may have names that don’t clearly indicate their gender, or people who are non-binary and gender non-conforming, this is existential.

This directive erases them. And that is the true intention of the bill. It is cruel.

— Rannfrid Lasine Thelle, Wichita

Don’t call us Midwest

I recently returned home to Wichita, a jewel of the Great Plains. I consider myself a Great Plainsman and it disappoints me to hear all of my Wichita friends refer to themselves as Midwesterners. The great statue in Wichita is the Keeper of the Plains – not the keeper of the Midwest! You need not be a mid-nineteenth century American or Native American scholar to realize Wichita is in the Great Plains, just listen to the Weather Channel.

When Horace Greely famously said, “Go west young man,” he was referring to going west to inhabit lands beyond Ohio. From that point on American frontiersmen made a steady progression west until the California Gold Rush caused a giant leap west, bypassing the Great Plains. That is the origin of the term Midwest. The Midwest spans from Ohio to Kelly’s Westport Inn in Kansas City by my definition.

There is some authority in calling Wichita the Midwest, primarily the Census Bureau. Other options for Wichita are the Heartland or Middle America, which blend the Great Plains with the Midwest.

But I encourage Wichitans to embrace historical accuracy and pride themselves in being from the Great Plains, not the Midwest.

— Ken Norman, Wichita

Foster kids grow up

For many foster care youths, transitioning from foster care presents a crossroads on the journey to the American Dream.

One of the paths on that crossroads presents a frightening future: A quarter of the over 20,000 young Americans who transition from foster care each year become homeless shortly after leaving their foster homes.

But with support from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, these young Americans can move from a broken to a brighter path.

Established in 2019, HUD’s Foster Youth to Independence initiative provides local public housing authorities funding to help young Americans transitioning from foster care avoid homelessness and build their lives as responsible adults. In July, we celebrate the sixth anniversary of the program, which has invested more than $5 million across the country since January.

As a former state legislator who worked on child welfare issues, I understand that seizing opportunity begins with a solid foundation. I’m proud of HUD’s investment of nearly $120,000 in our Great Plains Region that will help bridge the gap between foster care and independence.

Under HUD Secretary Scott Turner’s leadership, we’re ensuring foster youth can continue walking down the road toward self-sufficiency and achieve their dreams.

— Joe Mitchell is the Great Plains regional administrator at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and former member of the Iowa Legislature.

Kansas farmers, Calif. rules

The June 11 op-ed by mushroom farmer James Davis (Sen. Roger Marshall bill would let Big Ag run roughshod over states, small farmers) appeals to the sensibilities of the small family farmer. But if Mr. Davis got his way, small farms in Kansas would be crushed under the weight of overreaching California regulations.

Davis opposes a federal fix to California’s Proposition 12. Under Prop 12, the majority of pork and eggs produced by Kansas farmers are banned from sale in California.

Farmers in Kansas now are stuck between a rock and a hard place: Spend millions to refit their farms to be “California-compliant” or lose out on a major market

Small family farms don’t have millions to spare. The result of Prop 12 will be increased consolidation of farming.

Congress needs to pass a Prop 12 “fix” in the Farm Bill to protect both farmers and consumers from California’s attempt to scramble the market.

— Will Coggin is the Research Director of the Center for the Environment and Welfare, based in Washington, D.C.