Return to Earth: At this Kansas space museum, I came in search of what we had nearly lost. • Kansas Reflector Stare into the open hatch of Odyssey, the scarred Apollo 13 command module, and ponder the fragility and strength of humanity.

My @kansasreflector.com column. I'm a day late in sharing it. Sunday was a busy day.

Waiting for the apocalypse? Walk through the smoke and pull up a chair. • Kansas Reflector The president of the United States threatened genocide against Iran, an acrid veil hung over streets and homes and businesses.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

The civilization Trump is likely to destroy is our own.

Public monuments are the story we tell about ourselves. They shouldn’t aggrandize a living leader. • Kansas Reflector Trump’s efforts to reshape America in his white, privileged image has not been confined to an assault on truth. He started tearing stuff down.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Shouting from the gallery in the Kansas Senate got Moti Rieber banned. He says it was worth it. • Kansas Reflector Rabbi Moti Rieber shouted in frustration from the gallery of the Kansas Senate after it overturned the governor’s veto of an anti-trans law.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

ICE just added Leavenworth to its chain of detention islands. Blame a failure of moral leadership. • Kansas Reflector The last hurdle for owner CoreCivic to re-open its site was a special use permit from the city and, after a year of turmoil, the city gave in

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

If Kansas punishes schools for student walkouts, it will discourage free speech. Just as intended. • Kansas Reflector If you’ve been following the news lately it’s easy to recognize some aspects of those 1960s student protests to anti-ICE protests of today.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

In 1931, a deadly air crash in Kansas inspired safer flights. Why have some forgotten that lesson? • Kansas Reflector The Pentagon’s opposition to the ROTOR Act, at the last possible moment, is a slap in the face to the families of the Flight 5342 victims. Mann, the Kansas representative whose vote literally doomed t...

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

When judges have to cite Orwell in their rulings, our descent into dystopia is self-evident • Kansas Reflector MAGA-inspired legislation kicking around in the U.S. House and Senate would, if passed, impose onerous new rules that require proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Here comes (Varoom! Varoom!) the candy-colored streamlined dream of American democracy. Punch it! • Kansas Reflector The enduring power of our 250-year-experiment in self-governance is our ability to create. Not money, but artistic expression.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

A Kansas bill could punish homeless people and make kayaking a crime. To hell with that. • Kansas Reflector Columnist Max McCoy says the Kansas House bill shepherded by Rep. Bob Lewis is a stunningly shameful piece of legislation.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

As a nation, we face a decisive moment. Trust the journalists who witness tyranny at street level. • Kansas Reflector Amid the stream of coverage of state-sponsored violence you may have missed the stories of the journalists arrested, detained or roughed up.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

My friend George Frazier and Dr. Laura Murphy, director of the Center for Kansas Studies, dig into the "Kansas Day" cake before my talk last night at Washburn University. Thanks to everyone who turned out!

Talkin' about sex radicals!

Why is it so hard to say goodbye to an old car? Because of the miles lived. • Kansas Reflector I know the Jeep was not a living thing, but an object. Yet those two round headlights reminded me so much of a horse it was easy to forget.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Cake and refreshments. I'm so there.

We’re all living a psychological experiment. Except the shocks and cries of pain are real. • Kansas Reflector Much of the daylight between what Kansans want and what we get is because of historic GOP majorities in the Kansas House and Senate.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

ICE agents shouldn’t troll courtrooms. A Kansas judge was right to object. • Kansas Reflector What happened after a judge expressed displeasure with ICE agents in her municipal courtroom was yet another sign democracy is fraying.

Nearly a week behind. But here's my @kansasreflector.com column from Jan. 11.

In coaxing the Chiefs across the state line, Kansas makes a reckless gamble. Let’s call time out. • Kansas Reflector The Kansas City Chiefs' proposed move follows a recent Kansas trend of abandoning caution and reaching for shiny objects.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

These 67 Kansas opinion columns opened eyes and hearts throughout one rugged 2025 • Kansas Reflector The opinion coverage in Kansas Reflector takes a proverbial village to create. We're proud to highlight their work today.

The @kansasreflector.com has listed its most-read columns, by page views, for 2025. I'm pleased to note that, for the second year in a row, I made the very top of the list. Thank you, readers.

A forthcoming book describes boom and bust in Wichita and blustery cycles of economic bravado. • Kansas Reflector Ask Chase Billingham for his interpretation of the most famous poem ever written about downtown Wichita, and he will describe the eye of a political and cultural vortex that has rippled through Americ...

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Think the FIFA ‘peace prize’ was laughably absurd? It was, but the joke’s on us. • Kansas Reflector If you were appalled by the spectacle of Donald Trump clumsily accepting a peace trophy that looks like a prop from “Night of the Living Dead,” then brace yourself.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

American soldiers have long faced unlawful orders. They need courage and our support to resist. • Kansas Reflector The question of resisting illegal orders becomes a flash point in American politics every generation or so.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

A citizen reporter strayed onto a police gun range. Cops sought a warrant for his online newspaper. • Kansas Reflector Jarom Smith is being investigated for criminal trespass and authorities have obtained a search warrant for his outlet's Facebook account

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Bonus photos! Read my @kansasreflector.com column today about this citizen journalist and the search warrant for his digital newspaper.

In 1943 Norman Rockwell painted democracy’s portrait. An editor from Kansas helped make it possible. • Kansas Reflector When the Saturday Evening Post published an offensive antisemitic article in 1942, the furor threatened to sink the magazine. The Post's editor and much of the staff were sacked and a young former Kan...

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

He wanted to build mom a grocery store. Now he’s indicted, and all we’re left is political satire. • Kansas Reflector The grocery store would be a work of art, a place — no, a destination! — that would draw people from all over just to say they shopped there.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

At home in Kansas, an afternoon in the sun during the strangeness of days • Kansas Reflector It’s an afternoon in early November and 65 degrees. There is no wind and the atmosphere is so clear it seems distilled by late fall.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Hoping Kansas will get ‘advanced’ nuclear energy? Careful what you wish for in the Age of Damocles. • Kansas Reflector Those vying to bring TerraPower jobs to their communities might want to consider the safety and security risks.

My @kansasreflector.com column today.

Yep, in Ottawa County.