INTERESTING YEAR IN POLITICS

5 THINGS YOU CANNOT RECOVER IN LIFE

A STONE AFTER IT IS THROWN

A WORD AFTER IT IS SAID

TIME AFTER IT IS GONE

TRUST AFTER IT IS LOST

AN OCCASION AFTER IT IS MISSED

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     "All politics are local" a saying that I don't know who made the phrase up but it is pretty accurate.  We have rotten leaders at the top because they got their start on a local level.  Sometimes they even started with the best of intentions.  So it is mandatory on our part that we have the best people willing to stick their necks into the fray as we can get.

     My local legislator I did not know before he was elected but I have gotten to know him since and am happy he is where he is at.  Several years ago my local legislator was my high school government teacher.  I did not care a lot for his politics and I asked him once if it was mandatory for a person heading to the capital to place their brains in a jar and leave them on the porch before going up there.  He did laugh and replied "you would think it was".

     Later in the same position was a friend and neighbor of mine and I thought they would eat him alive when he went to Topeka.  He was this rare animal that was a Conservative Democrat.  Which boiled down to both sides did not want to work with him.  Yet he turned out to be the most effective member of the House that I know.  It is a shame that his district was Gerrymandered so he could not move on to the Senate.

     I have a friend that I have gotten to know in the last two years from Ellinwood Kansas named J. Basil Dannebohm.  He is one of these people that sets his teeth into whatever he is doing and goes at it like a bulldog.  It is amusing how we met and our first impressions of each other.

     Basil has had a whirlwind of a life doing things that many wish they could pack into their lives but just don't have the energy to do.  And yet he does it in spite of the fact that he has Parkinson's.  Kansas was able to draw him back because the solid values and support of his home state appealed to him.

     He is a true believer in rural Kansas and as Director of the Chamber of Commerce in Ellinwood he has done everything he can to promote the towns interests at the state level as well as regionally.  Plus the fact that he works tirelessly for Parkinson's awareness and has been appointed to two Governors boards.

     Now he is running for the House seat in the 113th district.  This encompasses Ellinwood, St. John, Stafford, and Pratt.  I don't know if my recommendation means much out there but if I were in that district I would be very happy that Basil would take my interests to Topeka.  In fact he will get my two cents worth regardless.

      If we could get candidates of this caliber into Washington maybe things would not be such a mess.