Template talk:User Kansan

I have been reading the discussion thread about Kansas and would like to make a couple comments regarding its status as a "Midwestern" state. I was born and raised in Kansas and now live in Dallas, TX. My wife is originally from Michigan and lived a number of years in Chicago. I have a number of cousins that are from places in the southwestern portion of Kansas (Liberal & Dodge City). My point to this autobiography is that people in Liberal, Dodge City, Michigan, Dallas, and often times Chicago do not view Kansas as the Midwest. To not distinguish it as Missouri is ("It is a state with both Midwestern and Southern cultural influences, reflecting its history as a border state between the two regions") as culturally different from almost the entire Midwest is highly missing the point. Kansas has many Southern cultural aspects such as Jazz, Foods such as Bar-B-Que and Biscuits & Gravy, Political Conservativism, a Bible-Belt consciousness (no gambling), love of sports such as NASCAR, even the large oil & natural gas industry that no other "Midwestern" state claims, you name it Kansas has a bit of it. I am not trying to say that it is not in anyway a "Midwestern" state but I think that is too narrow of a term to use considering its vast influence from Southern culture and industries that make it a border state.