Letter: Less dark?

To the editor:

Declarations, such as declarations of love, war, independence or a disaster area, generally involve people and things, budgets and consequences.

We recently read in this paper in a lead article reviewing the 2013 Kansas Legislature (“Analysis: Conservative majority shapes 2013 session,” June 4, p. 1A) the following sentence: “Before it was over, Lawrence was declared a dark spiritual area by a Christian religious adviser often seen at Brownback’s side, higher education’s budget was cut, and supply-side economics ruled the day.”

What constitutes “a dark spiritual area?” Does cutting back funding for education, public radio, and the arts render “a spiritual area” less “dark”?

It might be useful to recall that our country, simultaneously a republic and a democracy, was founded during a century known as “The Age of Reason” and “The Enlightenment.”