Garden City boy proposing city flag and SW Kansas secession from state

Garden City, KS(westernkansasnews.com) Matthew Blood, 11, recently started an online movement calling for Southwest Kansas to secede from the state.

Blood is a sixth grader at High Plains Christian School and is one of only two students in his class and 18 in the school. He says he got the idea for secession from a 1992 movement. The movement started after then Governor Joan Finney set a blanket mill levy for a new school finance formula. The levy caused SW Kansans to fear that many teachers would lose their jobs and courses would be cut.

Blood has posted a three part manifesto on a website he created outlining the movement. The first part outlines the isolation of SW Kansas, the second part touches on how much western Kansas is left out and the final part touches on how rising taxes have hurt farmers.

Blood has met with city officials about his proposal. He says the next step is to gain ground in Garden City and Finney County and build a base this Summer. During next school year he hopes to start fundraising.

“I hope the movement will grow to a point where attention to Southwest Kansas will be a relevance for Topeka to look into Southwest Kansas and it’s problems, because I believe that secession is only a last resort if Topeka does not pay more attention to us,” said Blood.

Blood recently proposed the idea of Garden City having a flag at the City Commission meeting on May 1.

“The flag is a tri-color with three stripes going upwards, on top is a darkish blue color to represent the unity of people in Garden City and hope for the future, in the middle it’s white to represent the purity of justice guided by the common people’s hand and innocence and the bottom part is the color of wheat and represents the spirit of the area. The Yucca Flower in the middle represents the many different culture groups and I put a sunflower in the middle to represent continued hope for the future,” said Blood.

Blood feels that while Garden City does have a logo, it’s not the same as having a flag.

“A flag is a uniting symbol for a community,” said Blood, “it’s  a symbol that people can rally behind. I think a flag could unite the community and help people take more action.”

Blood said the design took him about a month to create and that he got a positive reaction from the commission. The commission has said they will open the idea up to the community.

For more information on the secession plan or the proposed Garden City flag visit https://mablood06.wixsite.com/independence

To listen to our full interview with Matthew Blood click here.