In the end, however, this place can be home. The big talk in Wichita these days is not the death of Darwin, but the rebirth of the arts. The beautiful new Exploration Place opened on the banks of the Arkansas River last month, designed by Israeli architect Moshe Safdi, known for the Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles. Of course there are sensitivities that come from being small in number. For all this, I was amazed at the emphatic civic boosterism.
Education is a Jewish issue that knows no state bounds.
I asked everyone I met about creationism, as if to discover why the rise of fundamentalists hasn't scared them off. Thanks to the prairie Jews, for proving how free we can be.