Southeast Kansas Day One
Wednesday, December 6, 2023
Submitted by: Mark Palen
Day one of the Southeast Kansas session began at the Miners Hall Museum in Franklin Kansas where we started off with a tour of the museum and all the artifacts showcasing the mining operations in the area from the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. After everyone arrived, we had lunch and then listened to a presentation by Dr. Randy Roberts. Dr. Roberts shared the history of the Little Balkans of Kansas and the area of Crawford and Cherokee Counties. We learned there was an influx of immigrant settlers from 1880-1940 and how they setup and mined coal and other heavy metals from the region.
After finishing up at the museum, we traveled to the Community Health Center of Southeast Kansas. Jason Wesco, President and CSO, gave us the history of how he helped form the non-profit organization that is focus on improving health care and access to health care for Southeast Kansas. Starting in 1997, CHC/SEK has grown from a small outreach to a regional organization serving over 70,000 patients a year as of recent. Jason share his passion for ensuring that every child receives the care they need – whether physical or mental – and the various ways that they have approached providing those needs.
The day concluded with drinks and a Hawaiian Luau buffet at Hampton Inn conference center. Trisha Purdon gave a presentation on “Changing the strategy for Rural Prosperity”. Trisha is the director of Rural Prosperity, Kansas Department of Commerce, and shared with us some of the work her office has been doing since being formed by Governor Kelly in 2019. Trisha’s goal is to seek out rural communities that are struggling in different aspects and connect them with solutions. She offered the KARL class and guests that we are all leaders and that it is up to us to take action. She feels strongly that we are the individuals who can make a difference in Kansas rural prosperity.
Southeast Kansas Day Two
Thursday, December 7, 2023
Submitted by: Danielle Kaminski
Economics is the study of scarce resources. Because of finite and scarce resources people face trade-offs, and if like economists, will use cost-benefit analysis to decide in which ventures to engage. Day 2 of the KARL Class XVI Pittsburg seminar was made for an economist to experience. Scott Williams introduced our bus tour by saying that he would discuss the pros (benefits) and cons (costs) of the area and its mining history with us throughout. Two pros (depending on perspective) were that the mines were great spaces to bury bodies (if you were part of the local mafia) and to make moonshine during Prohibition. But even what looks to be net positive may have some negative effects such as the common fights and deaths on Friday and Saturday nights after excessive consumption of such moonshine. Even our bus presented trade-offs: hard school bus seats (con) but it was willing and capable of traversing dirt roads (pro). The biggest trade-off Pittsburg made unintentionally was valuing economic success in the present (once the richest county in the state with approximately 20,000 people) over economic success in the future. Many people left the area as mining left. What remained was pollution, like the waste pit of Mine 19 or contaminated chat on roads, and toxic waters from the mines. Pittsburg serves as a cautionary tale of only striving for immediate economic success and ignoring future consequences (known as present bias in economics). But that statement is perhaps a bit harsh. People of the time would have known mining was difficult work but may not have known all of the long-run side-effects of mining.
In the evening Dr. Vincent Amanor-Boadu explained that the difficult job of leaders is to be a visionary into that unknown future. He stated leadership is about knowing what the future holds and leading the present there. It’s about not relying on risk, which looks to the past for possible events and their likelihood, but rather realizing the future will not be just like the past and planning for that uncertainty. As if predicting the future were not challenging enough, leaders then have the unenviable task of making conditions uncomfortably hot for others so that they experience enough pain to be motivated to act and change their futures. In rural communities preparing for the future and motivating others depends on not forgetting those who move from the community to more urban areas. Those migrants may wish to return some day but feel unwelcomed in their hometown after leaving. That is an experience we want less people to have moving forward. Dr. Amanor-Boadu’s remarks emphasized thinking of pros and cons in both the present and the future.
After a long day of very thought-provoking activities, we finished our evening in communion over Christmas gifts and games. The con was that the desserts were so good they inspired overeating. (Thank goodness for the “healthy” option of chocolate covered strawberries.) Hope you all had wonderful holidays, filled with temptations of present bias for eating delicious food provided by farmers and ranchers, to close 2023.
