My Top 10 Most Memorable Articles of 2023

Today is officially the last publication day of the year for The Kansas Constitutional. I am looking at 2024 with optimism for new adventures and new beginnings. However, before we get into the New Year, it is time for The Kansas Constitutional’s 2023 Year in Review, looking back at the most memorable articles I’ve written this year.

This list is going in order of publication date.

1. Kansans for Life host ‘Rally for Life’ at State Capitol (01/26/2023)

I’ve said this before and I will say this again: Abortion is not an issue I really knew or cared about prior to starting this publication. It was with ‘Value Them Both’ that I really started learning and forming my own opinion on abortion and I have moved from saying I am prochoice to a point to now saying I am prolife to a point and that is in part to attending this rally. I have now attended prochoice and prolife rallies and they are so different. Prochoice rallies have a more negative, angry energy, there is a lot of perversion in how people dress, and they tend to push a lot of conspiracy theories and misinformation, at least when it comes to the prolife legislation that they talk about. Prolife rallies, and specifically this one, everyone was super kind, there was this calm, hopeful energy that literally moved me to tears as I listened to the speakers who were survivors of abortion and people who, with their whole heart and soul meant it when they said, “Value women and children.”

2. Democrat Senator Pettey goes against a portion of a Kansas bill that upholds the Constitution (02/14/2023)

This article remains in my brain because this is an elected official who, on public record, went against the U.S. Constitution for their own political ideology. Sen. Pat Pettey, a Democrat who represents portions of Johnson and Wyandotte Counties was pushing back against a portion of Senate Bill 6 that was written to uphold the Fourth Amendment and was being testified in favor of by former Senator and Special Deputy of Government Affairs for Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Greg Smith. The portion removed law enforcement from the equation preventing them from being able to forcibly remove people from their homes or force them into certain areas. Sen. Pettey’s only reasoning for not liking this portion of the bill was because nothing like this has happened in Kansas yet. This is an extremely dangerous thought process for any Legislator to have, and though other media did write about this meeting, Sen. Pettey’s unconstitutional take was ignored in favor of trying to make Republicans look bad for acknowledging that the government isn’t doing a good job when it comes to their intervention into health care.

3. ACLU hosts “Medical Marijuana Day of Action” at Kansas Capitol (02/24/2023)

Admittedly, I am not a big fan of the ACLU as I see them more as a partisan hack organization than an organization that truly upholds freedom for all. Nevertheless, when it comes to drug policy, this is one issue where I can see eye-to-eye with them. This article was particularly memorable for a couple reasons. First, hearing the stories of the people impacted by Kansas’ terrible drug policies was really gripping. This was the first time since I had started The Kansas Constitutional where I had really touched on drug policy and highlighted a more left-leaning view, which I think was a bit jarring for my more conservative audience as I did receive some negative emails. I also met Rep. Tobias Schlingensiepen (D-Topeka) who, after meeting him, I have to say, he is a really difficult person to take seriously. He tried to tell me that it’s unconstitutional to be prolife and then in the same breath talked about how we need to get rid of people’s Second Amendment right as if that wasn’t completely ironic.

4. Convention of States host ‘Spring Clean the Feds’ Rally at Kansas Capitol (03/22/2023)

I haven’t written about Convention of States (COS) in a minute, but this is one of my big issues. As a journalist who focuses on COS, I am blessed to live in Kansas because Kansas, in my opinion, is the most interesting state to look at when it comes to this particular political issue, and I’m going to be bold enough to say that I am the only journalist in the state of Kansas who fully comprehends what COS actually is. Ultimately, COS is a tool in the U.S. Constitution that our Founding Fathers gave to us for when the federal government got too big (because they knew it would eventually) and We the People would be able to reign it back in through this article of the Constitution. I remember it was a bit chilly this day, however, I remember I was able to meet President and co-founder of Convention of States Action Mark Meckler who spoke at the rally, which made it a special day. There was also a lot of hope in the air that we would get an application for a COS to pass, but as of right now that’s still a work in progress.

5. Kansas Leftists are debating weaponizing government schools to push anti-self-defense legislation (04/14/2023)

Prior to this article, I really hadn’t touched too heavily on guns with the exception of a few bills here in Kansas. This piece was inspired by a couple of opinion pieces that came out in the Kansas Reflector and the Kansas City Star, neither of which I consider to be news outlets but rather far-left media outlets. The two guys who wrote opinion pieces were both Kansans (one even being an educator) and both want to see the Second Amendment rights of Kansans to be taken away and were debating in their opinion pieces (as one opinion piece was written in response to the other) of weaponizing government schools. It was very clear that neither of them knew anything about firearms nor statistics on firearms so I just remember this article as a fun way to school a couple of anti-freedom clowns.

6. Emporia State University professor claims parents should have the right to transition their children (06/12/2023)

This was another instance of me being shocked, horrified, and disgusted that someone at this level of authority thought this way. Michael Smith, a political science professor at Emporia State University (ESU) went off in this unhinged opinion piece published by CJOnline about LGBT legislation. First off, ESU needs to do a better job when it comes to hiring professors apparently because this political science professor of theirs was very clearly incapable of understanding all the bills he was mad about. Secondly, no parent should ever have the right to abuse their children in anyway and medically transitioning children is absolutely child abuse. Anyone who supports this form of abuse is just vial, in my opinion. This makes me sick, and I hate that we have people in polite society walking around thinking it’s okay to hurt children like this.

7. Small town Kansas hosts 150th anniversary of country’s oldest annual celebration (07/17/2023)

This was not a super political article. There was some stuff about veterans that I mentioned, but that was about the extent of it. Nevertheless, I chose to do this article for a number of reasons with the biggest reason being that this is a celebration of Kansas history. I’m a big believer that we need to remember history and this does so in a fun and different sort of way. The celebration takes place in Erie, Kansas so I was able to see my Mom and my sister Emily who does ‘This Day in Kansas History’ every month. This was also the 150th anniversary which just made it even more special. It stormed like crazy during the bean feed, but otherwise it was a good time.

8. Racial Profiling Advisory Board of Wichita hosts workshop for Kansans with suspended driver’s license (09/18/2023)

This was an issue I knew absolutely nothing about, but I left this workshop believing that this is one of the most important issues for Kansans that can be solved at the State level. This is an issue that I don’t really hear in more conservative circles and I think that is mainly because this is an issue that many conservatives simply don’t know about. The people that ran this workshop were incredible. The chair of the Racial Profiling Advisory Board (RPAB) Sheila Officer was so kind. Sen. Oletha Faust-Goudeau (D-Wichita) has been working hard to make the lives of all Kansans better by reforming policies surrounding suspended driver’s licenses. I am excited to see what both of these women do in 2024, because I know it will be good.

9. Who are Dads4Heights? (09/20/2023)

I am not a huge fan of covering political candidates. I really only do it when a political candidate is unfairly being attacked by activist media, and this just so happened to be the case with Dads4Heights. This was a group of three dads who were running for their local school board and the left politicized the race like crazy and came up with a bunch of wild conspiracy theories about the dads. I sat down with them for hours for an interview and despite being openly gay, they were totally cool with me and as it turned out they weren’t “White Christian Nationalists” like the conspiracy theorists were saying. I was also getting emails from Ann Mah who is on the Kansas Board of Education during this time regarding my articles, and I’ve honestly never been so annoyed by an elected government official. She’s very elitist and comes off as a talking head for the Democrat Party and after reading her emails where she would try to gaslight me, I just had to roll my eyes and say, “Okay, Karen.”

10. How the government killed my dad (11/07/2023)

Last, but certainly not least, and the biggest reason why this year sucked. Most of my readers are probably aware that my dad passed on October 18 of this year. I took a bit of a break from here to grieve and be with family. I ended up writing this article about his life and about how the government told him lie after lie which ultimately led to the sickness that killed him. This article is in honor of him and after publishing I had a few veterans reach out to thank me for this piece and to give their condolences, which was much appreciated. While I’m still not doing amazing after his death, I do think writing this article helped me a lot.

This has been The Kansas Constitutional’s 2023 Year in Review. Thank you for reading and have a wonderful New Year!