The Kennedy Center

On November 22, 1963, I was at my part-time college job as a supplies department clerk in a large city hospital. Just after noon, I was delivering supplies to the visitors restaurant when a crowd suddenly formed around a TV listening to a report that President Kennedy had been shot during a motorcade in Dallas and had been rushed to a hospital. Soon after, CBS’s Walter Cronkite sadly announced Kennedy’s death.

A shocked nation mourned the loss of a gracious, well-educated, and eloquent president. The next day, I was in a seldom-used hospital stairwell when I saw through a window the American flag at half-staff. I paused for a few minutes and cried for the Kennedy family and for my country.

Thirty years earlier, First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt had proposed that a national cultural center be built in Washington. Congress debated it, but war intervened. The idea later resurfaced, and it passed and was signed in 1958 by President Eisenhower. In 1964, Congress named the new building The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Designed by internationally renowned architect Edward Durell Stone, it opened in1971 and soon became a vital part of America’s cultural life.

Now comes Donald Trump who has threatened to destroy the Center unless his name is on it. Oh, get real. Congress named it as a “living memorial” to a president who was admired not only for his leadership, democratic instincts, and cheerful sense of humor, but as a strong supporter of the arts. Kennedy was a genuine war hero who commanded a PT boat in the Pacific and saved his crew when the boat was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his book on courageous politicians.

Young Trump was a draft dodger; old Trump called those in the military who defend their country “suckers.” He insulted Navy pilot and former POW Senator John McCain for his sacrifice. Trump has no Pulitzer and never will. In his first term, he attended none of the annual Kennedy Center Honors programs. Adding his name to the Kennedy Center would be like planting a weed next to a rose. 

Donald Trump is a desperate man. His approval ratings are in the low 30s and dropping, worse than Nixon’s after Watergate and Hoover’s during the Great Depression, and are low in every separate topic from the economy and immigration to tariffs and his war on Iran. He may realize that history will not treat him kindly, so he wants to ensure his name will be immortal by branding the Kennedy Center and creating memorials to himself including the botched no-bid Reflecting Pool repair, a huge—and hugely expensive—White House ballroom, and a giant arch with drones and snipers (to shoot whom, we may wonder) next to Arlington National Cemetery. 

The major accomplishment of Trump and his Republican allies has been to add $12 trillion to our national debt largely by cutting taxes mostly on the rich. That’s bad, but Trump and Elon Musk made it worse last year by firing or buying out thousands of IRS agents including many expert auditors that Biden had assigned to work on complicated returns from corporations and the wealthy. Consequently, an estimated $750 billion was not collected from those groups in 2025—revenue the rest of us will have to cover. Total revenue was down about 30 percent.

Republican candidates in the coming election are distancing themselves from Trump. They would have avoided their dilemma if GOP senators had voted for impeachment in 2021 because of Trump’s role in the January 6th Capitol attack. The evidence was overwhelming, much of which we saw and heard with our own eyes and ears. Republicans may pay a high price for putting party before country. Vote!

               The Next Kansas Governor

 

After eight successful years, Governor Laura Kelly is term-limited and will pass her responsibilities on to either Cindy Holscher or to Ty Masterson. Early voting begins October 17, so it’s time to learn about the candidates and make an informed choice. 

Cindy Holscher had a career in corporate management at Sprint prior to her election to the Kansas House for a Johnson County district in 2016 and 2018 and to the Kansas Senate in 2020. As governor, she plans a “Lower Costs and Common Sense” agenda: lowering the costs of healthcare, housing, childcare, and groceries; cutting property taxes; expanding Medicaid and protecting Medicare and Social Security; promoting bipartisanship, not extremism; legalizing recreational and medicinal cannabis with revenue going to public schools; creating an independent panel for redistricting and prohibiting mid-decade redistricting to maintain stability and stop extremists from “hijacking” elections; and enacting term limits and limiting corporate PAC money in elections to break the power of entrenched politicians and special interests. Holscher wants a statewide moratorium on data centers and is critical of Donald Trump’s tariffs. 

As a legislator, Holscher founded the Women’s Bipartisan Caucus and helped end the failed Brownback experiment, which drained billions from our schools. She worked across the aisle to reverse school budget cuts and helped improve state finances to put the Kansas economy back on track. Holscher is endorsed by Governor Kelly, former Governor John Carlin, other former and current politicians, The Kansas City Star, and a long list of educators, local government officials, religious leaders, community advocates, child advocates, healthcare providers, and others.

Speaking of her opponent, Holscher said, “Ty Masterson voted against ending the Brownback experiment that gutted public education in Kansas. I worked to end it. Masterson wants to take us back to the Brownback days of underfunded schools and crumbling roads. I won’t let that happen.”

Holscher’s running mate for lieutenant governor is Wichita House member Kelechi Ohaebosim. Holscher’s campaign website is cindyforkansas.com.

Ty Masterson has represented the Andover area in the Kansas House from 2005-2008 and in the Kansas Senate since 2009. He has been Senate president since 2021. As governor, he would support a Homeowners Bill of Rights to protect Kansans from “runaway property taxes, giving taxpayers a stronger voice, and helping them afford to stay in the communities they love.” He also favors a Kansas Ratepayer Protection Pledge that would “protect families, farms, schools, hospitals, and small businesses” from “higher costs created by powerful outside interests.” 

As a legislator, Masterson blocked Medicaid expansion four times; supported $2 billion in tax cuts that eliminated grocery sales taxes and especially benefitted seniors, the wealthy, and data centers; and voted repeatedly to cut education funding. He was a key advocate of the constitutional amendment to elect state Supreme Court judges that was on last month’s primary election ballot; the amendment failed by a large margin. Masterson is endorsed by Donald Trump, the Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee (PAC), a union, and several business organizations.

According to The Wichita Eagle (March 6, 2011), when Masterson ran for Senate in 2008, he said he was trying to pay $150,000 in court-ordered judgments related to his construction business failure. When he filed for bankruptcy in 2011, records show he owed nearly six times as much. The Wichita bankruptcy lawyer representing the creditors said, “I certainly hope Senator Masterson is a better steward of the people’s money than he is his own.”

Masterson’s running mate is Jeff Klemp, state Senator from Leavenworth County. Masterson’s campaign website is mastersonforgovernor.com.