Letters on leaving Kansas, health department, efficiency study, debt ceiling, welfare

City, state are not the same place

The movers arrive this week, as I leave Wichita, and Kansas, after 37 1/2 years to finish retirement in another state.

I treasured Wichita – great to me for years. So, when valued friends asked “Why move?” I basically said it isn’t the proud, bustling, upbeat place I so loved after my 1978 arrival.

Thinking more deeply, I would say that the two biggest reasons are economic stagnation and the region’s extreme-right mindset that has so poisoned this state and county.

One example: As state tax policy fails, my Medicare benefits continuously face a hostage threat from the Health Care Compact – passed in Kansas in 2014 to punish a U.S. president because he’s hated.

Sure, other factors influenced me, too: Voting becoming a chore rather than a proud privilege. Almost four decades of ice, snow, wind, hail, tornadoes and blistering summers. Earthquakes encroaching from Oklahoma. Salt threatening a key Wichita water supply. And – countermeasures notwithstanding – rotten commercial air service reflecting the economy.

But truly, the stagnation and the reactionary rightward swing are what got me.

Yes, the whole nation has problems. But by comparison, “the sun is shining” where I’m going, Gov. Sam Brownback. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.

Common good

Sedgwick County Commission Chairman Richard Ranzau recently explained to the Pachyderm Club that he believes in individual rights and has no interest in the common good (Aug. 29 Local & State). Isn’t it ironic that he is now in a position of power over the Sedgwick County Health Department, the main purpose of which is to protect the common good?

Ranzau is an enigma, as he has training as a physician’s assistant but seems to have little compassion or interest in medical concepts such as prevention, which is a large component of public health. He has cut funding for immunizations and the Women, Infants and Children program, which are both fundamentals of public health. He turned down the state grant for a lifestyle change program to help those with diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity. Fortunately, this grant was picked up by the Medical Society of Sedgwick County, which could see its value to the community. He cut a position in the Healthy Babies Program, which is aimed at giving support to mothers at risk in hopes of lowering the high infant mortality rate in Sedgwick County. He does not seem to understand that breast-feeding is, in most cases, the gold standard in infant feeding.

Perhaps it is time for us to approach the Wichita City Council and see if it is willing to take back control of the health department and really make it about the common good again.

Repeating mistake

As lifelong residents of Sedgwick County, we are outraged by the ill-informed and irresponsible actions of the new Sedgwick County Commission majority that will jeopardize public health protection for our entire community through verification of the citizenship status of individuals seeking public health services (Oct. 25 Eagle). This proposed action also stands to diminish our community’s standing in the eyes of the nation. Perhaps revisiting history will help us to avoid repeating past mistakes.

In 1994, California’s Proposition 187 established a citizenship screening system and prohibited undocumented immigrants from using health care, public education and other public services. National organizations expressed widespread opposition, canceling conventions in California and urging constituents to boycott Disneyland.

Within days, multiple lawsuits against Proposition 187 were filed, challenging its constitutionality. Ultimately, after long and expensive legal battles, the law was deemed unconstitutional because it infringed on the federal government’s exclusive jurisdiction over immigration-related matters.

Regulating immigration and micromanaging county services are not among the legal obligations of county commissioners. We need county commissioners working for Sedgwick County to promote future growth, not working to jeopardize our future.

Next time, let’s elect new county leaders with a positive vision for our future and the ability to lead us there.

More efficient

The efficiency study commissioned by the Legislature is now in full gear. Executives from Alvarez & Marsal, the private-sector company chosen to complete the project, are connected with employees across state agencies. Together they’re working to find more effective ways to operate state government.

The study is off to a great start. There are already ideas flowing between state employees and A&M. State employees are our most valuable resource, and they have already shown an eagerness to ensure the study is a success. With A&M facilitating the discussion and bringing to bear the knowledge it has gained in other states and in the private sector, state employees are able to contribute their own ideas.

The goal of the study is to provide better services at a better price. The recommendations will be both large and small scale in order to ensure better use of public resources.

One of the least-publicized parts of the study’s scope directs A&M to find strategies to improve the budget process and make it work better for state officials, the Legislature and, most importantly, Kansas taxpayers. A&M will examine the intricacies at each stage of the current budget process with the help of state employees, identify areas for improvement, and make specific recommendations based upon private- and public-sector best practices.

Along with Gov. Sam Brownback and administration officials, we are a team with a common objective – to improve the operations of state government and ensure good stewardship of taxpayer dollars.

Debt reprobates

Congress is raising the U.S. debt limit again, claiming that it is our moral duty as a country because the increase will be used justly to pay for what we have already spent rather than imprudently to support new spending we cannot afford. Nobody seems to care that this argument logically means that every day we are incurring new obligations by making false promises to pay money we do not have.

We wait until the promises come due and we are face-to-face with our lies, which suddenly and miraculously justify the Federal Reserve printing more fake money. We use it to “pay” the past obligations that we incurred dishonestly and so meet our high moral standards, reassured that we are a good people justly doing our duty.

This abominable behavior begins with fiscal irresponsibility enabled by an outright lie, but somehow ends with a moral duty done. How can this be? In the wake of World War I, Simone Weil observed that “evil, when we are in its power, is not felt as evil but as a necessity, or even a duty.”

Weil’s words perfectly describe the current state of America. We have persisted in evil actions, which we now embrace as moral duties. In the Bible this state is described as the “reprobate mind,” indicating that goodness has departed and evil reigns unopposed, sealing the doom that evil inevitably brings to a morally bankrupt person or nation.

Missing traits

I was truly impressed by “No welfare” (Oct. 25 Letters to the Editor), written by a very special young woman who lifted herself up without relying on welfare.

To me, she exemplifies the very foundation of the nation and what led to its greatness. The willingness to think, plan, make hard decisions and move forward are traits that sadly seem to be lacking in a great deal of our population today.

Yes, there will always be those special needs of people who require help, but there is just too much reliance on government handouts, and the “it’s all about me” attitude.

This story was originally published October 31, 2015 at 7:04 PM with the headline "Letters on leaving Kansas, health department, efficiency study, debt ceiling, welfare."