Dear Kansas,
My dad, a WWI decorated war hero, was born in Caney, Kansas. My grandfather worked for the Caney Grain Company and participated in the Oklahoma Land Run. And although I grew up in northeast Oklahoma, I spent a lot of time visiting relatives and friends in Kansas, our home away from home.
Are you worried for our country? I am. Americans are amazing people who survived a bloody civil war for humanity, fought two world wars to keep the world safe, lost 58,000 soldiers in Vietnam and countless more in military conflicts. Many of these brave men and women came from conservative states like Kansas and Oklahoma.
In 1985 my husband accepted a position in Washington, DC, and we moved, but I’ve always kept up with Kansas and Oklahoma; they are home. Over the years I’ve watched the politicians come and go, agree and disagree, but I’ve never worried because after all, we are Americans. Kansans proved me right when they raised taxes after the disastrous Brownback tax experiment; you put the people first and recognized the money belongs to you.
Now I am scared. Like many Americans I did not want to vote for Hillary Clinton and I despise Donald Trump. Why? Because Trump dodged the draft five times while my family, husband, cousins, and classmates fought and died in Vietnam. I worked at 97th General Hospital in Frankfurt, Germany, where they brought the most seriously wounded and saw firsthand what real war is like: how a man dies after being savagely wounded, to name one thing. Trump has no morals; he is not “of the people.”
Kansas, we need you again. Please forget politics — think of your families, the nation, and how you turned your state around with an amazing display of knowledge and courage when your citizens were in peril. You did it and you can help the rest of US. You may not like Joe Biden’s politics but at least he is a decent man.
S. Lee Caudle
An Oklahoman & a Kansan at Heart
Annapolis, MD 21403
Photo by Jessica Radanavong via Unsplash
