By Here’s Gov. Parkinson’s rousing Welcome Address that I recorded on a Flip camcorder at Saturday’s Symphony in the Flint Hills. He received a standing ovation (from the Kansans anyway, but perhaps not from the Missourians in attendance.)
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Governor Parkinson was pretty fired up and passionate.
Thank you, thank you, thank you..!! That made my day kids,,! Thank you for being there and presenting the real Kansas on this website..!
I SO wish we could’ve been there in person! Thanks for posting this, Cheryl. I’m proud to be a Kansan,
I guess Kansas residents can feel good about the Governor’s comments, and evidently a lot of them did. But if you were attending the Symphony in the Flint Hills from Missouri, and you weren’t a part of Quantrill’s Raiders, (which by the way, none of us living today are), and if you are embarrassed by the fact that slavery existed in America – not as a Missourian, but as an American, then maybe you were offended by his remarks.
The Flint Hills are beautiful and all those who have driven or hiked through them can feel good about them as Americans, even as mid-westerners, or plainsmen. But the Governor might have thought about his comments more before he spoke. It is because of the Kansas City Symphony – that is Kansas City Missouri – that there were, and have been a host of people enjoying the Flint Hills on this and previous occasions. The Governor and his state – particularly local communities around the sites of these concerts, have benefited from Missouri residents who have attended, and no one in Kansas has ever thought twice about receiving Missouri dollars.
If the only way you can feel good about your state is to put your good neighbors down, then you don’t have much of a state to be proud of.
From his comments, I guess the Governor will not be spending any money in Missouri any time in the near future. For my part, other than using your roads to get to states that are more welcoming to their fellow Americans, and other than having to occasionally purchase gas somewhere along the way to get across the state, I will be keeping my dollars now out of Kansas.
The Flint Hills are beautiful. Self-righteousness and ugly pride are not.
Gary – I personally don’t think the Missouri comments were appropriate and they did add sourness to his talk. Without those comments, his speech would have still had the roaring applause of Kansans.
What I appreciated and what I believe most Kansans there appreciated was the Governor’s passion and his ability to connect with Kansans- about what we have here, the Flint Hills, and that we’re happy being ignored by the East and West coasts, and that we get tired of the Dorothy comments, etc.
Kansas is a state that is often ridiculed for so much – flatness and wind and Oz and tornadoes, and so when one of our own stands up and speaks well about what we DO have, Cheyenne Bottoms and the Chalk Pyramids, hokey things, Mike Hayden’s accent, then we applaud that.
I don’t have anything against Missouri and would venture to say that any rivalry that exists between the states is sports-related rather than as a result of the Bleeding Kansas Era. But I can only speak for myself there.
Gary, I personally am sorry that you had a bad experience in Kansas. Please forgive us for our enthusiasm for the rest of the Governor’s speech.
I have great respect for the governor. I too thought the Missouri comments were seriously out of time and place, probably a passionate extemporaneous flow that kind of strayed from it’s true intentions. A pride for our role in history – where it’s been positive – is understandable, and deserves a place among the many other things that are NOT wrong with Kansas. But the conflicts of the civil war have given way to a (reasonably) united community of citizens and states. On the record, we’re proud of our neighbors and of the incredible contributions they make to this event, as well as to the arts, blues, commerce, barbecue, sports, and architecture we share at our most populated border.
My immediate thought was about the musicians behind the governor. I’m guessing the governor is eagerly anticipating the Kansas sesquicentennial in seven months during his administration and a constant awareness of the state of our treasury. Also, probably a little too much time in the VIP tent.
Half of my family came out of Northwestern Missouri and I grew up in a Kansas bordering county (Atchison)so I have great life experiences visiting the Show Me State which gave us Harry Truman.
I would like to apologize to you for the tone and content of Governor Parkinson’s remarks offensive to our neighbors.
In February before the first SITFH, I had a very off-putting experience with the lead organizer meeting with a group of Emporians in our zoo education building…one reason I have never attended the event. It was aging hippy, “aren’t we clever and innovative” hubris bagging on Republicans during one comment in a room mostly filled with Emporia Republicans. I should add that I am a Democrat and found the tone of her remarks offensive, negating the whole promotional purpose of the meeting. Fortunately, we have many gracious Republicans in Lyon County. I cannot explain what she was thinking…probably grabbed the wrong hat that morning.
I was somewhat surprised to hear this. Although I do not know Gov. Parkinson well, I have heard him speak several times and I’ve always thought that he was a considerate and kind man, so this was certainly an unfortunate thing. I can’t believe that it was intentional to “step on toes” or hurt anyone’s feelings. Maybe it was one of those “open mouth–insert foot” things, –something that I have been guilty of many times!
I too was offended by the Govenor’s remarks about Missouri. I was with a group of 8 Missourians that spent hundreds of dollars over several days in the Kansas Flint Hills that we have come to love. I felt that the insult was mostly to “Missouri’s” Kansas City Symphony. The standing ovation that was given by the citizens of Kansas following his remarks to me says that they all agreeded with him. We might have to go somewhere else next year where we will be treated with more respect and appreciation.
Sally, I apologize to you, too, for our approval of the rest of Gov. Parkinson’s speech. As I said above, I think most Kansans were applauding his comments about Kansas, not Missouri. But, I would have felt the same way had the situation been reversed. I’m sorry you had this bad experience in Kansas.