Let’s use our freedom to draw lines in Kansas!

The start of June concluded the first climbing season on Mount Everest since 2019. Dozens scaled the highest mountain on Earth, including the new record-holder for oldest American man (Arthur Muir, age 75). On Everest, climbers followed real ropes and imaginary lines to summits and back to safety. Those imaginary lines are mostly routes taken by earlier climbers — lines that are known to be safe, or that offer the best views. Sometimes they are new imaginary lines that nobody had climbed before: new exploration.

What does this have to do with Manhattan? Everything! We, too, are about to have a season of freedom to roam our landscape. I call on us to draw our lines right here in Riley County. GPS-apps and smartphones make it easy to track walks or rides and share your lines later with friends. Manhattan surely offers more opportunities than Mount Everest. Can you draw a line that uses all trails in City Park without ever crossing itself? Or ride a route in the shape of a Wildcat? You may even try to walk up Wilmar Drive. Doing that 241 times means you’ve climbed as many meters as Everest is high.

Our beautiful landscape can be remade our own by drawing those imaginary lines. Imagine with me our 1,000 lines made this summer, crisscrossing Manhattan and the region, leaving geographic experiences for others to follow, and slowly overwriting our Covid-memories. See you out there!

Arnaud Temme

2037 Plymouth Road

Come out and support the Manhattan Municipal Band

For those of you brave souls that weathered the rain and cold at the Memorial Day evening concert — THANK YOU! The band and I are forever grateful for your support and grit to make it through a nasty night. We hope the music kept you warm and happy, and we invite you and your friends back this next Tuesday for another fantastic concert. We will be featuring lots of big band music, with special guests Dr. Patricia Thompson, vocalist, and Dr. Wayne Goins, guitarist, lending their incredible talents to the MMB concert!

Help us celebrate the 100th year of the Manhattan Municipal Band at the Larry Norvell Band Shell, Tuesday, 7:30.

Thank you.

Dr. Frank Tracz, director

Citizens must make their voices heard

In a remarkable warning about the dangers our democratic system faces, 100 scholars penned a letter urging Democrats to take immediate action, including suspending the filibuster, to pass federal voting rights legislation.

The scholars noted that democracy rests on certain certain institutional and normative conditions, all of which are under assault by Republicans at the state and local levels across the country:

1.) Elections must be neutrally and fairly administered.

2.) They must be free of manipulation.

3.) Every qualified citizen must have an equal right to vote, unhindered by obstruction.

4.) When they lose elections, political parties and their candidates and supporters must be willing to accept defeat and acknowledge the legitimacy of the outcome.

Voter suppression laws being passed in key battlegrounds like Texas (increasingly purple), Florida (swing) and Georgia (newly blue) fail these tests because they build into the system dangerous ways for local or state officials to nullify or suspend election results while eating away at minority participation.

We have also seen how around 60-70% of the GOP refuse to accept the most recent election as legitimate and fair and how the former president continues to spread the Big Lie about a stolen election.

We citizens must make our voices heard.

Alice Nondorf

715 Allison Ave., Apt. 1