Opinion: Too many Kansans blink like bullfrogs in a hailstorm amid country’s current crises

(Robert Zunikoff / Upsplash)

By David Norlan

Special to the Kansas Reflector

A friend’s saying reminds me daily of our present situation: “Bullfrogs blinking in a hailstorm.”

The image sticks. It runs through my head when I hear people saying: “Well, you know, we’ve had good and bad presidents (legislators/governors/city commissioners), and they all balance out over time.” Or: “It’s like a pendulum. You just have to wait until the next swing back.” Or: “Empires rise and fall; it’s just history repeating.”

This comes from people who acknowledge something’s up. But non-blinking frogs are our greatest worry. In large numbers, they share the misguided assumption that we’re impervious. Particularly in Kansans.

They neither know nor care that our own lawmakers in Washington, D.C., cut all funds to public broadcasting. Ignoring that loss increases the chance they are also unaware that our beloved state is now more vulnerable to recession (and depression) than any others except Alaska and Mississippi.

They are more likely to know that 200,000 Kansans’ ACA insurance premiums are skyrocketing, but they still buy the line that this is part of cutting “waste, fraud, and abuse.” This while health care costs are Kansans’ top concern, with 90% of those surveyed worried about care costs. Not to mention hospitals, with 30 in Kansas at immediate risk of closure.

Among our aging Kansas population are farmers. If the years don’t get ‘em, the tariffs will.

Whole farm communities suffer from the soybean fiasco, while Trump promises $40 billion to Argentina’s dictatorial president, who if re-elected will funnel yet more funds to that country’s oligarchy. Javier Milei’s first-year economic “shock therapy” slashed government spending by about 30%, partly by cutting pensions and reducing public employee wages. You don’t need sharp eyes and ears to see and hear echoes of MAGA.

When faced with a sinking ship, Republican response is predictable. Circle the wagons and attack the “other.” Attacks on DEI are only one example. Politico reported on the worst of such attitudes from Young Republican leadership. Leaked chats revealed racist, homophobic an neo-Nazi messages.

William Hendrix, the Kansas Young Republicans’ vice chair, used the words “n–ga” and “n–guh,” variations of a racial slur, more than a dozen times.

This is violence. It’s not gun violence, but violence, nonetheless. Couple that with (not just Republican) tax support of $3 billion a year and $16 billion recently to fund genocide and total elimination of Gaza’s land and people, and the crisis seems stark. As Jesus said, “The stones themselves cry out” (Luke 19:40), and so must we. Silence is violence.

One means of distraction from such violence, ironically, is football. Even there, our chickens come home to roost. In America’s unquestioned leading sport, its players are idolized.

Consider 24-year-old Dallas Cowboys player Marshawn Kneeland, who in November scored his first touchdown in front of 80,000 cheering fans. His whole life ahead of him. An Adonis emulated by many admiring young men. He died by suicide two days after.

Dallas news media clamored to understand the role that chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and head injuries may have played in his suicide. But CTE was not mentioned in ESPN’s coverage. When the NFL owns 10% of ESPN, the cause of silence seems manifest. It’s maintaining audience. It’s money.

The NFL’s blue tent on the sidelines shelters players who may have suffered concussion. But also shelters fans from the truth. Vomiting and other violent symptoms remain hidden. Unseen, unsung.

So far in 2025, nine former and current NFL players under the age of 48 have died. Of those nine, seven were the result of suicide or actions that signaled deep mental duress.

As Nation sportswriter Dave Zirin put it: “Media members who once predicted that our knowledge of CTE could endanger the sport are now more interested in the gambling experience of fans than the workplace safety of players.”

Zirin’s comment reveals yet another layer of silence. Reports on betting’s harms are scarce. Nonetheless, it’s now clear that since 2017 Kansas has seen significant increases in the number of individuals at risk for problem gambling. The number of people at high risk has skyrocketed from 4% to 20% in 2025. The number of Kansans at moderate or high risk for problem gambling has more than tripled.

Yet the Kansas treasury’s benefits are paltry, at best. Kansas “received less than a 1% cut on more than $2.7 billion in bets in the past fiscal year,” Kansas Reflector reported. Big Buck Boys make money from both players and gamblers and keep it to themselves.

But aren’t so many Kansans placing irresponsible bets right now? Like those amphibians blinking away under a barrage of icy projectiles, we’re assuming that our state and nation will be fine. We just need to hold out and wait for the weather to change.

Let’s stop being bullfrogs. Let’s stop just blinking. Jumping into action might bring us shelter from the storm. It’s our choice.

David Norlin is a retired Cloud County Community College teacher, where he was department chairman of communications/English, specializing in media.

Through its opinion section, the Kansas Reflector works to amplify the voices of people who are affected by public policies or excluded from public debate. Find information, including how to submit your own commentary, here.

This article was republished with permission from the Kansas Reflector. The Kansas Reflector is a non-profit online news organization serving Kansas. For more information on the organization, go to its website at www.kansasreflector.com.

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