paraphrastic redux - sfa - July 2004 Frank's Kansas Chapter Two - Deep in the the Heart of Redness --------- [paragraph# (page# first word)] 60 (p28 as) [nothing of significance] 61 (p28 Kansas) Some people, including Ann Coulter, think that, or rhetorically exploit the assumption that, Kansas has none of the important characteristics that distinguish NYC from other places. Examples of such characteristics include prevalent guile, deception, and affectation among the populace. 62 (p29 Coulter) [some other examples of literature, photography and movies that use Kansas this way] 63 (p29 the) There was a survey pertaining to tourism [presumably involving questions about where respondents wanted to visit or perhaps how they liked it when they did] in which each of the 49 other states ranked higher than Kansas. Many marketing tests are conducted in Kansas. Many well known restaurant chains started in Kansas. 64 (p30 its) [some illustrations of common cultural references to Kansas's "squareness"] 65 (p30 in) In political speech, references to ones role or origin in Kansas are used as if they provided the speaker authority beyond that role or origin. 66 (p30 but) Earlier, including a century ago, such references would not have had those effects because Kansas had a reputation for a large population of odd or irresponsible persons. 67 (p31 politically) Earlier a number of unusual-at-the-time political causes had significant support in Kansas. 68 (p31 but) Earlier in Kansas, leftists repeatedly succeeded. 69 (p32 the) [description of the Populism movement of late 1800's] 70 (p33 the) [description of negative journalistic reaction to the Populists including an influential 1896 essay "What's the Matter with Kansas?"] 71 (p34 other) [description of some other negative contemporary opinions of Populism] 72 (p34 one) [description of a contemporary ousted US senator's reaction] 73 (p34 today) [nothing of significance - describes "freaky averageness" of Kansas today] 74 (p35 under) In addition to various individual residents of Kansas with bizarre opinions, there are some notable extreme attitudes shared by significant populations of Kansas: The Kansas school board has removed from its state standards for science any reference to evolution. Several cities distributed throughout the state do not fluoridate the water they provide. One hamlet requires that every home has a firearm. A "prominent politician" [presumably a successful one whose public views are tolerated or shared by her constituency] has publicly expressed doubts about whether women's suffrage is good. There are "impoverished" residents of scenic areas that resist the creation of national parks where they live. A significant number of persons in Kansas think the "rails-to-trails" is a violation of property; there are no significant numbers of such persons in any of the 49 other states. Wichita tolerates very inconvenient mass demonstrations by Operation Rescue. In Kansas there are [presumably significant numbers of] survivalists, secessionists, schismatic catholics, alternative legal-proceedings by Posses Comitatus, and, in Dickson County, terrorists. 75 (p36 in) [nothing significant- some rhetorical "ifs"] 76 (p36 according) Contrary to views promoted by those of the backlash, people in Kansas, and in some ways other similar places, are not unified in their patriotism, hard work and familiarity with soybeans. Communities differ in what industries they support. Kansas shares with the rest of the country usual economic niches. 77 (p36 let) Derangement is not knowing where ones interests lie or not trying to get what you want. In Kansas, the people who are not deranged are typified by people involved in three "quasi-public utility" scandals, which revealed to Kansans the economic consequences of conservatism. These scandals consisted of the predictable collapses of self-serving plans devised by corporate bosses. 78 (p38 in) The largest power company in Kansas, located in Topeka, was a regulated utility called Western Resources. It changed its name to Westar, and hired David Wittig. Some people consider it routine for companies to structure their finances so that the profits are taken by the company and the losses are taken by the public. 79 (p39 Westar) While Wittig personally profited immensely, Westar's acquisitions resulted in employee layoffs and the value of Westar shares falling drastically; these shares were "widely" held in Kansas [perhaps he means many people, or many kinds of people in Kansas had shares]. Dissenting board members were unseated. Wittig left because he was charged with laundering money, but this did not involve Westar itself. 80 (p39 just) Similarly, the Missouri power company called "Utilicorp" (and later "Aquila"), acquired other utilities nationally and internationally, and arranged energy trading. Bonds were downgraded, employees were laid off, shares devalued, and then the Green brothers, who ran it all, left the company with great personal profit from it. 81 (p40 then) In Kansas, Sprint grew into the largest employer around Kansas City. The company overbuilt and high-ranking persons in the company committed massive fraud. 82 (p41 on) William Esry arranged to profit massively from a mere proposal to merge Sprint with WorldCom, whether the merger happened or not. 83 (p41 Kansas) The prospect of the city's largest employer leaving was serious. 84 (p42 as) However, the merger was forbidden by federal regulators. Then Sprint shares devalued greatly, Sprint laid off thousands, and WorldCom bankrupted after committing massive accounting fraud. Esray and LeMay were fired from Sprint and may not have profited after all from their merger-related arrangement because of IRS intervention. 85 (p42 at) Esrey, one of the Greens, and Wittig each dwelt for a time in a rich area of Kansas where various other well-known rich personages have also lived at various times. 86 (p43 out) The so-called business community of Kansas City comprise an elite. 87 (p43 Mission) Elites are "about" something illustrated by Mission Hills, the richest town in Kansas. It has no businesses or public transportation, and is very sparsely populated. Both the Republican and Democratic Parties receive more individually contributed money from the inhabitants of Mission Hills than from the entire remainder of Kansas's population. 88 (p43 Mission) [some history of Mission Hills's development] 89 (p44 when) [some more remarks about Mission Hills when Frank was a young person living there] 90 (p44 I) Mission Hills is very demographically different, richer, now than it was when Frank lived there. 91 (p45 these) The changes in Mission Hills are freakish, and yet "normally" so. Other similar places are La Jolla, Shaker Heights, Winnetka and Connecticut's New Canaan. The inhabitants of Mission Hills do better when ordinary working people do worse, and vice versa, relevant factors being power of workers, amount of taxation, and how much people must pay for labor. 92 (p45 when) [insignificant elaboration of previous paragraph (91)] 93 (p46 for) It is characteristic of Mission Hills now that the city has sent Frank's father warnings about keeping his lawn mowed. 94 (p46 growing) Young people in Mission Hills are quite sensitive to differences of privilege and prospect between the rich and nonrich of Mission Hills. 95 (p46 you) Many of the fathers of rich families living in Mission Hills are in prison for white-collar crimes, and there are many instances of crimes of physical aggression by young offspring of the rich. 96 (p47 when) Some criminals moved to Mission Hills because they understood that they could invest in very expensive homes which they would be permitted to keep after declaring bankruptcy. 97 (p47 until) Johnson County, Kansas, was rapidly developed after WW2 to have lots of ranch homes and shopping malls. 98 (p48 the) Johnson County is Kansas's largest metro area. [short history of Johnson County's growth since the 50's] 99 (p48 the) Overland Park is the largest suburb in Johnson County. It contains shopping malls, hotels, a convention center, and an office district that were constructed over a relatively short period. Subdivisions have been platted over a large area. 100 (p49 today) Johnson County is vast and thriving, is Kansas's richest county, has more than twice as many registered Republicans as registered Democrats, and has only one Democratic among 22 representatives in Kansas's house. 101 (p49 back) Johnson County is called "Cupcake Land" as a nickname by some. Johnson County "encourages" no learning or culture except perhaps those elements that increase the price of real estate and further enrich an "elite" of the area. 102 (p50 I) [nothing of significance] 103 (p50 I) When the author was eating at a fine restaurant in the Kansas City Area he found that some of the employees and patrons there at the time had moved from other corporate suburbs; he didn't talk to any that turned out not to have done so. 104 (p51 the) It is widely believed in Kansas that Johnson County is an anomaly [with regard to how an area can prosper?], and that another area of Kansas, Garden City, is the sole example of how other parts of Kansas can grow. 105 (p51 there) Garden City is very different from Johnson County. It has different grocery stores and has a large cattle industry. 106 (p51 they) A fifth of the beef consumed in the US is produced by Garden City and nearby Liberal and Dodge City, Kansas; for more than half of the last ten years Kansas has been the largest beef-packing state. 107 (p51 but) Inhabitants of Kansas and Garden City did not want or develop the beef industry themselves; this industry was imposed upon these places as well as upon other Great Plains towns by Tyson, ConAgra and Cargill Meat Solutions, powerful companies which build the slaughterhouses and which otherwise exercise their power as well. There is a sense in which these companies can make claims, and one such claim is that their business decisions are necessary responses to the market. 108 (p52 the) The availability of cheap labor is the main cause of "nearly everything" [in the beef industry? the other developments described earlier? the backlash?] that has happened "here" [Kansas? the Great Plains?] for the last 25 years. In the 1960's the beef industry had some "big thinkers" who developed the strategy of changing the industry to avoid skilled labor, allowing them reduce labor and rent costs by moving to the Great Plains. These plants hire a lot of Southeast Asian and Mexican immigrants. 109 (p52 there) The beef companies also benefited from a lack of scrutiny by journalists and reformers in the distant and isolated towns hosting their new plant sites. Further, as the dominant industry, their threats to close plants are effective as competition between localities for their presence. By these means they compel towns to arrange their public affairs such as tax and pollution laws to benefit the industry, 110 (p53 the) The area around Garden City has a lot of farm land devoted to growing feed corn. The arid environment would not naturally support such agriculture and so the aquifer is being drained for irrigation at a rate that will have exhausted it in a few decades. 111 (p53 one) Many persons that work in Garden City live in trashy trailer parks, and, as a result of industry strategies, get mediocre pay for the most dangerous work in American industry, performed under harsh conditions. Few of them receive health benefits from their employers. Their employers also do not pay for law enforcement or education. 112 (p54 this) This economic growth in Garden City diminishes its wealth and health as population rises, and this can be expected to continue for decades. Two anthropologists have studied this region and said that middle class life may break down and never recover as a result of the meat industry which has developed here over the last 20 years. 113 (p54 driving) [nothing significant] 114 (p54 driving) [nothing significant] 115 (p55 viewed) This social order [free-market economics? anaphora for previous paragraph?] provides attractive housing and landscaping in Mission Hills and degrades lives and natural resources in Garden City. Poverty raises stock prices and lowers labor prices. 116 (p55 two) A lot of airplanes get built by industry in Wichita, Kansas, and the airplane manufacturing industry is a major part of the Wichita economy. 117 (p56 histories) Wichita is unusual for being a city of Kansas where labor unions have strong influence. Most of its economy is manufacturing. 118 (p56 until) Wichita's factories are still open, but it is in trouble because of the aircraft industry is in decline. 119 (p56 if) Wichita has lots of churches and elements emblematic of "middleness" such as hamburger stands, pork sandwiches, diners, bowling alleys and steakhouses. But sometimes trucks with pictures of broken fetuses drive around town. 120 (p57 Michael) Wichita if "freakishly average". There was a rock band in the 80's from Kansas called the Embarrassment whose songs wittily expressed arch observations about Wichita's popular culture. 121 (p58 the) Cities, including Wichita, did not prosper in the 90's because large manufacturers like Boeing restructured their industries, pressured cities and started conflicts with unions. Membership dropped precipitously from the main union representing Boeing workers. 122 (p58 the) In response to the terrorist attacks of 2001, demand for new Boeing jetliners dropped. This severely damaged the Wichita economy, and caused high unemployment and housing foreclosure. 123 (p58 there) Now lots of storefronts are closed in Wichita. Once Frank drove to a place which his map indicated was a busy place, but there was nobody around. 124 (p59 as) These economic ills are widely acknowledges in Kansas. 125 (p59 walk) With few exceptions, observing the main street of any farm town in Kansas shows that the civilization of Kansas is decaying irreversibly. 126 (p59 I) [nothing significant] 127 (p59 main) Most main-streets of towns in Kansas are vacant and physically decaying. 128 (p59 the) Junk stores in Kansas persist, but evidently have few customers. 129 (p60 if) Each town in Kansas that used to have a shopping mall now has a derelict building from the 1970s and also a derelict building from the 1870s. 130 (p60 and) There is very little street activity. 131 (p60 indeed) Fewer than a third of counties in Kansas increased or maintained their populations between 1980 and 2000. Some counties lost "as much as" a quarter of their populations. Someone told Frank that there are towns with no doctors and no shoe stores, where everyone is old, and many of them depending on Social Security payments. Since Kansas's population is shrinking, its number of electoral college votes and number of Congressional representatives is shrinking, too. 132 (p60 the) There was once an author and newspaperman, William Allen White, who worked in Emporia, Kansas, and had a national reputation. 133 (p61 White) Few now remember White, and Emporia is in decay. 134 (p61 here) [Frank describes the decay of Emporia he saw on a visit.] 135 (p62 while) [Frank describes a homecoming parade he saw in Emporia.] 136 (p62 there's) The decay of these Kansas towns, and the near collapse of agriculture in Kansas, were caused by free-market capitalism. 137 (p62 the) Only very large farms in Kansas profit. There were about twice as many farms in Kansas in 1950 as now, but the individual farms that survive are getting bigger. According to the National Family Farm Coalition, the rate at which the number of farms in the US was falling was slower BETWEEN the mid-1980's and 2003 than IN the mid-1980's or IN 2003. 138 (p63 as) The number of huge agribusiness conglomerates that process and package raw materials they buy from farmers is five or six. For about 20 years legislation, trade policy and regulation have benefited the conglomerates and weakened farmers. This is the main cause of the latest farm crisis, and has ruined Emporia. 139 (p63 ironically) Farming is unsuited to the open market, and in ways that no other field is unsuited to the open market. In particular, there are millions of farmers, they do not organize, and they cannot cut production effectively to react to their situations (every other industry can). Circumstances that should otherwise be addressed by cutting production instead cause farmers to increase production and become more efficient. Only government intervention can prevent this, by suspending competition. The New Deal accomplished this with price supports and acreage setasides. 140 (p64 for) Agribusiness (as opposed to farmers) get more profit and power when farmers produce more and compete against each other. 141 (p64 while) Farmers are naturally disorganized, but agribusiness organizes itself by elimination of competition. There was Reagan-Clinton era which permitted this reduction of competition. There is a sociologist, William Heffernan, who argues that now in the US the "fields" of beef, pork, chicken, wheat, soybean and corn are not competitive. Heffernan has also reported [Frank's footnote 33 p 264] that often government say that the proportion of a concentrated market controlled by a single firm is proprietary information, and may not be freely published. Archer Daniels Midland is said by someone [footnote 34 offers a basis] to have as an "internal motto" the sentence "the competitor is our friend and the customer is our enemy." 142 (p64 agribusiness) The "Freedom to Farm" act of 1996 dismantled the system of agriculture regulation created by the New Deal. Production by farmers and competition between them increased radically. Some people had come to believe that farmers had become able to compete effectively in a free market, and that the regulations were no longer justified. 143 (p65 but) The rapid fall in farm prices would have permitted only large and efficient farms to survive had not the government made massive payments to farmers. During this period the government paid more to farmers that produced more, and in 2000 and 2001, Kansas farmers as a whole received more from these payouts than they did from farming per se [Does this mean from the sale of their products or from the profits on those sales? A footnote is provided for a reference.]. 144 (p65 for) [Frank provides some interpretation of the relations between (1) cost to farmers to produce, (2) prices paid to farmers for their raw product by agribusiness, (3) prices paid by consumers for end products, and (4) supplements paid to farmers by government. Agribusiness is accounted as the principal beneficiary, as opposed to consumers or farmers.] 145 (p66 thinking) [nothing of significance -quotes a journalist] 146 (p66 the) Some economists and officials in Bush's Dept. of Agriculture interpret the events of farm deregulation differently from the interpretations offered in the previous paragraphs, and consider them on-the-whole beneficial. ========= Paraphrases are aimed at clarifying the claims of the book. Emphasis may be lost.