Langston Hughes was one of the greatest poets to come out of early twentieth century. Hughes was one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance, a rich time in the New York borough of Harlem where African American writers, artists, photographers, philosophers and intellectuals contributed great intellectual and cultural achievements. During the 1920s and 1930s, Hughes joined other socially conscious poets and writers like Carl Sandburg, John Dos Passos, Carlos Bulosan and John Steinbeck in exploring the distance between America's high ideals and the American reality for African Americans, laborers, immigrants and other marginalized people.

What does our flag stand for? It stands for different things to different people.

My husband Pat, a Vietnam Era vet, has for years put the flag out on national holidays. He started doing this after my father died several years ago and we inherited his flag. Over the years that flag, already ancient, began to get ragged. Fortuitously, I won a new flag in a drawing at Demofest. Pat destroyed the old flag according to flag etiquette and started flying the new one.

For years, we were among only a few families in the neighborhood who put our flag on display. Our conservative neighbors across the street never did. One neighbor’s new husband erected a tall flagpole and somehow got the flag raised to what seemed to be an impossible height. Then the family lost their house to foreclosure and moved away. They left the flag, which flew forlorn in all types of weather until the new owner took it down.

Three years ago, when I attended the Portland AAEC convention, I met Florida cartoonist Peter Evans and his lovely wife Juana. Peter Evans is a well traveled man who was born in England and began his art career in advertising in Canada. He became creative head of a major U.S. ad agency in Mexico City before settling in Miami, Florida. For the past 17 years, he has been cartoonist of The Islander News of Key Biscayne.

Evans has won over 100 art honors, including 'Top 100 U.S. Creative Men' from Ad Day, USA; several Florida Press Association first place awards; national 'Best Editorial Cartoons Of The Year' book, and the Golden Spike Award from the Association Of American Editorial Cartoonists.

When I was young, I knew relatively little about my Filipino heritage. I was born and raised in military bases most of my life, so I knew mostly Americans of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. I am grateful for the diverse groups of people that I got to know, but I never really got a chance to know many Filipinos or Filipino Americans until my dad retired from the military and we lived among civilians. One of the things that helped me to get to know my Filipino heritage was an Asian American class I attended in college, where I was introduced to the book American Is In The Heart by Carlos Bulosan. Carlos Bulosan was a poet, writer and labor activist who used his writings to explore the gap between America's high ideas and the American reality for Filipino immigrant farmworkers and for other American minorities.

Ken, thanks too for your blogs and your insights on religion and politics. I hope things are well in Kansas.

Angelo, Randy, Diane & others:

I appreciate your contributions and diligence in giving us some interesting and thought provoking articles.

I wish someone would fix our "comment" feature to, both, Everyday Citizen and Kansas Free Press. Criticisms, encouragement, and recognition are important motivations to writers.

Keep 'em coming,

Ken

Last January I really enjoyed President Obama's Presidential Inauguration. I enjoyed Kelly Clarkson, James Taylor and Beyonce's singing, and President Obama's speech was one of his most inspirational. One of the best and most intimate moments during the Inauguration was the poetry recital of Richard Blanco. Blanco's poem One Today referred to the work of his parents to give him the opportunities he has today, the tragedy of the Newton shootings, and the land and the work that binds us as a nation. Blanco was the fifth poet to give a reading at a Presidential Inauguration. Each poet has given a description of the spirit of the nation of their time.

A few months ago I found on my facebook the good work of Progressive Christian George Koukouris. Based in Indianapolis, Indiana, Koukouris is a Greek Orthodox who has studied other religious traditions to know how they are all interconnected. In his facebook page, he states as his goal to get people to let go of whatever hinders our ability to connect and see one another face to face. He is one of the founders of the Indiana Center for Progressive and Contemplative Christianity, an inclusive, life affirming organization built upon the desire to know God through authentic theological education and practice. He is also the administrator of the Progressive Christians facebook page and the Progressive Christian Alliance.

Today America and the world as a whole are approaching a set of problems that we all will inevitably have to deal with. We have an overpowering addiction to energy and most of that energy we currently use comes with many problems. The United States has, for a long time, enjoyed some of the cheapest and most abundantly available energy. Some figures show that a typical household of three in the United States averages a consumption of 6,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) of energy per year (Silverman, 2007). Fossil fuels, such as coal, natural gas and oil, make up the majority of what we rely on. In 2011, fossil fuels provided 87% of the world’s energy (“Renewable energy —," 09). Fossil fuel supplies around the world are dwindling as demand is increasing (US Senate, 2010). It is estimated that there are 10,800,000 terawatts (TW) of nonrenewable energy (nuclear and fossil fuels) left in the world today (Brenner Information Group, 01). As our fossil fuel supplies dwindle and we are forced to increasingly look overseas for further supplies, and especially as their supplies dwindle, we can expect two things to happen; costs are going to skyrocket and we are going to see dramatic increases in risks to our national security and economy (US Senate, 2010). Even worse are the major contributions to global warming. For every 1 kWh of electricity produced from fossil fuel plants, there are 1.2 to 1.4 pounds of CO2 added to the atmosphere (Brenner Information Group, 01). Just this month some very sad news hit headlines, including National Geographic:

Climate Milestone: Earth’s CO2 Level Passes 400 ppm, Greenhouse gas highest since the Pliocene, when sea levels were higher and the Earth was warmer.

Coal is cheap and domestically available, but has many of the same environmental hazards, plus the hazards faced by the miners who mine it. There is really no such thing as “Clean Coal” and there are many unintended consequences that come with the mining of coal.

Natural gas is plentiful and cleaner than oil or coal, but it still has environmental hazards and, as its use is becoming more popular, the efforts to collect it are raising new concerns in the environmental sense. Fracking will inevitably infiltrate our drinking water with the fracking chemicals and other contaminates from the ground. There are also national security implications with natural gas and there is evidence that switching to natural gas would provide the United States with the same, if not worse, situation as we have with oil (US Senate, 2010). Iran is actually a large holder of natural gas reserves, as well as other nations with similar relationships with the United States. If we end up invading Iran, it would be interesting to see how quick we move to “secure” the areas with high natural gas concentrations. This could likely be a repeat of the Iraq quagmire.

When I attended the Association of American Editorial Cartoonist convention last year in Washington D.C. I met many great cartoonists. One of the best cartoonists in the country is Gustavo Rodriquez, who is based in Florida. Born in Havana, Cuba in 1962, Rodriquez has been a cartoonist his entire life. In 2005, Gustavo entered the United States and has been a proud citizen ever since. He is a regular contributor to El Nuevo Herald newspaper, Martí Noticias and Yahoo! Noticias.

The never ending controversy over religion continues!

In the May 4 Salina Journal, Ariel, Koehler, and Martin responded to Prachta’s scathing criticism of their freedom of thought and privilege of sharing their minds with readers.

Well —— this old farmer will share his mind on all four of them. I believe in God. My God created the world. How, when, or why is not of any great concern of mine. He created all those writers, me, you, and everyone else. He created us with a mind capable of memory and planning for the future. We are not robots. He didn’t permanently program us, but gave us free will to act on our own. Some of us want to be “Gods” and rule the world to suit our whims. Some of us want to be like Cain, as described in Genesis, and declare we are not responsible for anyone or anything. Some of us egotistically declare our selves know it alls who have the facts or truth in every situation. (You just be still and I’ll declare what is!)

I’m no theologian and I have no advanced intellectual degrees. What I do have is a lifetime of experience dealing with family, community, and the world. It is quite evident that God, or whoever created mankind didn’t use a cookie cutter and decorate us with the same color and flavor of icing. Environment and culture is ever changing and reshaping us. Some of those changes have been to the good and some have not.

What is good? Equal opportunity? Equal responsibility? Both those equalities are good, but, remember, we are not all the same color, same flavor, same size, same age, same gender, etc. Therefore, from birth to death we are subject to and dependent upon one another to sustain our finite existence. I’ll depend upon God (the one in whom I believe) to look after infinity and the hereafter.

On May 1, 2013, I dropped by San Jose's City Hall after my work to attend a rally for immigration reform. The crowd was mostly Hispanic, but it also included white, Asian-American and African American individuals who are passionate about the issue. It was a very friendly and hopeful crowd, and when I asked if I could photograph individuals, they were always very happy to oblige. The speakers at the rally told the crowd that this is their time, that the recent elections in 2012 have given the Hispanic American population the political clout to pressure Congress to pass fair and meaningful immigration reform. I'll put on this blog some of the photos that I took of the event.

When I heard about the Boston Marathon bombings I was shocked and saddened at the suffering of the victims of the bombing. Americans came together to help the victims of the bombings get medical attention, shelter, food and monetary donations. One of the sad things, though, is the use of this event by a small group of people to blame all Muslims for the actions of two extremists. On April 15, 2013, Max Fisher wrote about the the Muslim world condemning the Boston Marathon bombings and the sense of dread that they held about the potential Islamophobic response as a result of the bombing. One has to be reminded of the decades of work of Christians, Jews and Muslims to reach out to each other and overcome a history of hostility to try to gain a new understanding and gain a greater respect for each other. One of the seminal events in the history of interfaith relationship between Christians, Jews and Muslims was the release of the document Nostra Aetate in 1965.

Wichita, Kansas—In March, PBS ran a documentary series on the women’s movement in America. As I watched, I saw that women had joined together in a movement that changed their lives, even the lives of those not directly involved in the movement, all over the country. My thoughts turned to the early 1990s, when Operation Rescue first came to Wichita to mount its weeks-long protest at the three abortion clinics here. I had moved to Wichita in 1985 and wasn’t involved in the local groups that worked for women’s rights in the state and around the country. I soon joined Wichita NOW, though, as it seemed to be a strong force against the OR tactics. I also joined with those who counter-demonstrated against Randall Terry’s mob of anti-choice extremists who brought chaos to the streets of Wichita and cost the city more than $600,000 in taxpayer money before they left town.

After the outsiders left Wichita, local anti-choice extremists continued the harassment at the clinics, so many of us continued doing clinic support wherever we were needed. What came out of that period for me was not just the satisfaction of giving moral support to patients seeking to exercise their rights, but also the bonding that took place among the women who felt strongly about protecting those rights. I made many close friends during that time, most of whom I’m still close to today. Among those friends were men, as well, men who believed women had the right to control their own bodies. However, it was the women joining together that made me realize a sea change had taken place in America and in Wichita. Women were in charge of seeing to it that their rights were protected.

I haven't had much of a chance to do any Jasper the cat cartoons this year, but I have done a few quick color cartoons for the Cartoon Movement website that criticize the economic system. I've been influenced on my views on the capitalist system by the Papal encyclicals and by the writings of Charles Dickens. Both the Popes and Charles Dickens give a moral critique of the economic system, and both believe the flaws of the economic system lie somewhere in the root of the system. In their view, the flaws of the capitalist system are just a magnification of the flaws of human nature. I agree with that view. Any system based on competition and the pursuit of self interest will always be vulnerable to selfishness and greed.

Thanks Ken for the blog. I appreciate it. Many people do not think I'm a real Christian, and maybe they are right. I appreciate the fact that you treat me like a fellow Christian, even if we may have some theological differences. I'm still trying to figure out what I still believe right now, but I am grateful for how the best parts of Christianity has had a positive impact on my life. No amount of bad church experiences can take that away from me.

I like what you wrote about intellectuals and practicality. We need both intellectuals and practical pastoral leaders. Hopefully the church will keep this in mind when picking the new Pope.

Angelo, I really like your cartoons. Their messages are straight forward and the illustratios are good. Is my opinion influenced by the fact that I very much agree with your idea of social justice and equity? We most likely have some theological differences, but that doesn't mean we can't work together for our ideals of justice and individual freedom.

Who the next Pope is and what his agenda will be should be of great concern and interest to all people, Protestant Christians, Catholics, other religious identities and those who claim no religious identification. The new Pope will be the leader of approximately 2 billion people. The Catholic organization is not Democratic. The Pope will be appointed by a hyerarchy of only a few men at the top of the order. He has the 'bully' pulpit for 6 or 7 times as many people as the President of the United States.

Your comments about him being more intellectual than practical or pastoral is true for many religious leaders of all faiths and denominations.

Some folks will say that 'practicality' has no place in religious theology or doctrine. How does Scripture or any religious history have any real value if we can't see practicality? If the Christian cannot make a rational comparison of culture and time when a particular scripture was written, how can we make it relate to our present situations? That doesn't take anything away from the idea that all Scripture was inspired by God. The stories and messages were given to a particular people in particular circumstances. Basic human nature has not changed, but circumstances, cultures, and technology have changed and those changes are coming more rapidly every year.

We need intellectuals to research and interpret history. Language changes are a tremendous challenge. Word meanings and phrases have done a lot of changing, just in my lifetime and can have great difference in application by regions. We, the common folks, have to rely on educated and dedicated research and interpretation. But, we also need dedicated pastoral leaders, who understand the real world of the present and leaders who can relate and communicate with all people of all faiths.