Neil Armstrong, first man to walk on the moon when he hopped about for a camera on that July day in 1969, deserves the kind of greatness accorded to pioneers. With the Olympics fresh in mind, Armstrong developed the kinds of skills and mental toughness that mark gold medal athletes. He became an astronaut because he was a crack test pilot. The Air Force knew he would perform under pressure and that he had instinctive abilities that could deal with the unexpected.

Everything about the moon mission was a never-before experiment. Many of the things which could have gone wrong would have killed Armstrong and his crew at any point in the ascent and descent. Perfection in both men and equipment was required. Perfection was delivered.

Armstrong on the moon and back was much more than an astounding scientific achievement. The mission put the United States back on top. While the space race with Russia had already been won, that extraordinary first step was a knockout punch the whole world recognized and applauded.

As the soft-spoken pilot was quick to say, the U.S. landing on the moon, and all that history-making achievement brought with it, was the culmination of a national effort.

It happened because the U.S.S.R. put a monkey in space, brought it back alive and scared America’s leaders spitless.

President John F. Kennedy promised to put a man on the moon. NASA was given a blank check. Educators warned America’s public schools weren’t teaching kids enough math or science. Scientists, educators, the nation’s military and the federal government were harnessed together into a goal-oriented team.

Neil Armstrong rode to the moon on their backs, so to speak.

Bronze statues cannot be made of all the men and women who made the United States the world’s uncontested super power in those years. It will therefore be OK to make one of Armstrong, much bigger than life-size, and create a space monument around it in some prominent place in our nation’s capital — unless it belongs in Houston or Cape Canaveral.

It was an extraordinary achievement. 

SO, COME TO THINK OF IT, was the perfect landing of Curiosity on Mars Aug. 6. Perhaps Curiosity would not be roving around Mars today, taking pictures and melting rocks with laser beams, looking for signs of life or the potential for life, on the red planet, if the Russians had not taken that provocative first step.

Now that Curiosity and the flawless science that put it on Mars come to mind, we withdraw the motion to build a monument to Armstrong. Monuments cost lots of money. It would be smarter to memorialize our most famous astronaut with new space missions.

Mr. Armstrong would surely salute and say, “you, bet!”

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

A new visitor center will be built in the basement of the Kansas Statehouse and additional work will be done on the Capitol grounds at a total cost of about $17.4 million, the AP reported Saturday.

Where will that money come from? 

The good news is that $5 million is on hand from savings realized in the renovation project, which has already cost $320 million and won’t be completed until next year. The other $12.5 million will come from stealing another $7.5 million from Kansas Department of Transportation funds and $5.4 million from new state bonds, which will be retired over the next 10 years or more with tax funds.

This three-part finance plan was proposed by the Brownback administration. 

Earlier this year, Gov. Sam Brownback said it was time to stop stealing money from KDOT and using it in lieu of general fund appropriations. This case is different, for reasons thus far unexplained.

Well, it isn’t really different. There would be plenty of money in next year’s general fund to pay for such a small project if the Legislature hadn’t slashed the state’s income tax by a record amount and made other revenue-reducing decisions.

Issuing bonds is borrowing the money. Interest will be owed. The interest cost will be many thousands more than paying cash. Stealing the money from KDOT is taking money that motorists paid as fuel taxes with the understanding that it would go to maintain and construct highways. This is, as the governor has tacitly agreed, a kind of legal fraud. Using KDOT funds as a piggy bank may allow the Legislature to slash taxes on the rich and still keep the budget in balance, but the practice will have the long-term effect of turning the first-rate highways of Kansas into a second-class system.

Welcome to tomorrow’s pothole network.

WHEN THE STATE’S lawmakers assemble for the 2013 session in January, their first assignment should be to make certain that the state’s books really balance: That there is enough money coming in from taxes to pay what they intend to spend. Dedicated taxes, such as the tax on highway fuels, should only be spent on highways, airports and other KDOT budget items. Money needed for the rest of the state budget should be collected through other taxes, without fudging.

Lawmakers also should amend tax cuts the legislature approved this winter and insert reforms that will provide enough revenue to fund K-12 schools as they were funded before the recession and allow the state universities to operate without a tuition increase, as well as fund the rest of the budget adequately.

These are modest goals which seek only to return to a level of excellence in education that was agreed upon by lawmakers and administration alike five short years ago.

Kansas is not an impoverished state. It is not a high-tax state. The cry of poverty heard from the administration is not based on facts, but on ill-founded, untested ideology. 

The Brownback administration has pinned a poor-boy label on the Sunflower State that it does not deserve and should loudly reject.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.

Alan Sleeper, a native of Iola who adopted Alden as his hometown when he married Sara Fair 68 years ago, never forgot his hometown.
Alan’s parents, Nora Edith and Allan Roy Sleeper, raised him to be a leader and a contributor. His father, Roy, owned and operated (every day) Sleeper Furniture and the Sleeper Mortuary. He and Nora were dedicated Presbyterians who rarely missed a Sunday in church. They contributed their time and money without stint to make it stronger and better.
Their sons, Alan and John, graduated from Iola High School and then went north to Lawrence and the University of Kansas. Alan majored in history and established himself as a student of Winston Churchill before moving into the K.U. law school and winning that degree as well.
Alan met and fell in love with Sara at K.U. But World War II intervened and he served in the U.S. Navy in the North African theater during the invasions of North Africa and France.
The war over, Alan went straight back to Alden, married Sara and joined the Fair family in its ranching enterprise.
He didn’t use his law degree punching cattle. But he did become an expert on pasture management and shared what he had learned with his neighbors and anyone else who learned of his expertise.
The Fair ranch prospered. Alan believed that much is expected from those who gain wealth and knowlege and put that belief into action.
His generosity and wide-ranging personal interests benefited the Alden school district, the Alden United Methodist Church, the Kansas Banking Board, the Kansas City Branchof the Federal Reserve Board under Paul Vogel and the K.U. Endowment Fund.
In remembrance of his mother, father and his brother, John, who died in a tragic accident, he established the Sleeper Family Trust in 1975 to benefit the Bowlus Fine Arts Center in Iola. He endowed the Trust generously and John’s widow, Mrs. Virginia Sleeper Creitz, added to it with a substantial bequest at her death.
The six-figure income from the Sleeper Trust now makes possible many of the programs which the Bowlus presents each year to Iola and area children as well as subsidizing outstanding cultural events for the general public which could otherwise not be afforded. This year’s gift was $186,729.
Alan died last Sunday, Aug. 19, 95 years after his Iola birth. But thanks to his wise philosophy and selfless generosity, Alan and Sara Sleeper and the family he leaves behind will keep on enriching the Bowlus Center and his hometown for longer than anyone now alive can see.
The monument he leaves to Iola, and all of Allen County, is as immortal as any the human mind and heart can conceive. Surely that grand prospect gives those who miss and mourn him today great comfort.

— Emerson Lynn, jr.