Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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Over the last month or so, I’ve been leading the efforts to save the Haskell Wetlands from destruction at the hands of wanton profiteering. And while I’ve been doing it, one particular Native proverb has been on my mind a lot: “We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
My parents abandoned me. My father, an immigrant, fled when he found out my mother, a Native, was pregnant. She was an addict who put me up for adoption. They failed in their task to return a borrowed world to me that had been improved. I won’t fail my son. I have spent my entire life working to give my son, Mateo, a life that I didn’t have. To give him a safe and stable community, to give him a loving and supportive home, and to give him unapologetic pride in who he is and where he comes from.
These are the things that drive me, that led me to serve as president of the Haskell Board of Regents, that draw me to volunteer to shovel driveways for the elders when it snows, that push me unceasingly to uplift Lawrence and all those who, like me, picked this wonderful place to call home. This rational oasis in a sea of irrationality. I was always going to choose this place to call home because, like so many of you, it represents everything I believe in: inclusion, diversity and compassion. But we all know these things require effort to protect and grow. We are now engaged in a generational battle for these rights, for the right of everyone to succeed not in spite of who they are but because of it. And it’s a fight I want to take to the Statehouse in Topeka.
My background is one of overcoming hardships and discrimination. I know how hard it is to get by today; I’m a single mother who works full-time. I feel your pain when grocery bills rise or when medical bills blindside you. These are challenges I face every day, too. But I also know these struggles are worth it because I refuse to do anything other than return this borrowed world to the next generation in better shape than was given to me. This is what motivates me to run for office, and the people of District 46 deserve nothing less.
I’m proud to run for the seat Boog has occupied since 2015 because I know he too shares these views. And it’s why I asked an Elder from my tribe, Wayne Postoak, to serve as my treasurer, because we can learn so much from those who came before. The knowledge to fix the problems facing us is out there; we just need to be humble enough to ask for help and strong enough to fight for what we know is right.
Wayne reminds me that too often we forget about those on the periphery: the elders, the low-income families, and our diverse neighbors. But we have to remember that the things affecting our world affect them most of all. Medical costs are an unsustainable burden on our elders, inflation has fallen disproportionally on low-income families, and our diverse neighbors fear for their safety in this increasingly brazen far-right culture.
The idea that we’re simply borrowing this world from our children has been on my mind a lot lately, and I think it’s about time it started weighing on the minds of our leaders in Topeka. I’m running to make sure it does, and I hope you’ll join me.
— Brittany Hall is a Democrat running in the Aug. 6 primary election to represent Kansas House District 46 in the Legislature.
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