From Gov. Sam Brownback: Most Kansans are familiar with the
iconic mural in the Statehouse east wing painted by Kansas
artist John Steuart Curry. Curry depicts another Kansan, the
abolitionist John Brown, his arms spread wide with a Bible and a
rifle in his hands as he presides over the conflagration of the
Civil War. The scene is a constant visual reminder of the role
Kansas played at the headwaters of our nation’s painful struggle
to define America’s promise of freedom and equality for all. Our
great state stands fiercely for the notion that no person should
ever be subjected to mastery by another. Less well known is
Curry’s majestic mural in the Statehouse west wing. As Paul
Harvey would say, it tells the rest of the story. It gives
Kansas’ answer to the unstated question, “Freedom, yes, but to
what end?” The west wing mural depicts a Kansas farmer and his
wife standing straight and tall, surrounded by their children,
surveying the fruits of their labor — a barnyard full of
livestock, a bountiful garden an