This week we celebrate all the things we take for granted, giving thanks that we have democracy, education opportunities for our children, our health, and financial peace of mind. We thank all those who work tirelessly to make our democracy more transparent, to make the education our children receive more equitable and excellent, to make access to health care a reality for everyone, and to make sure we do not bankrupt the future with poor financial policy today.

Thank you all who voted last Tuesday on 2017's annual Election Day. Turnout was good for a local election, though not as good as it could be, given the importance of local elected officials. The results were also good for Kansas, as by and large, the candidates elected will stand for the values we support: good governance, quality public education, healthy communities and sustainable fiscal policies.

Tomorrow is election day. Next week, we hold our annual forum on what to expect next year in Kansas politics. Next year is (yet another) critical election year, with Kansas Governor, Kansas Secretary of State, all 125 Kansas State House seats, and several US Congressional seats in play. If you haven't started thinking about next November, now is the time. It starts here.

At our Stand Up, Speak Out event last week, among the 850 attendees, we were excited to welcome seventy-four elected officials. These are public servants, from city councils, school boards, municipal boards, state boards and the Legislature, who came together to celebrate what we can accomplish with bipartisan collaboration, communication, and compromise.

Last night we celebrated our 17th Annual Stand Up, Speak Out Awards Dinner. It was amazing. Well over 800 dedicated, engaged, active individuals came together to celebrate our victories last year, finally rejecting Governor Brownback's tax folly. That was an effort of many: advocates who made the space for a movement, activists who worked to fill that space with voters, voters who chose to move Kansas in a different direction, and legislators who enacted that change. We thanked them last night.

President Trump has announced that he will rescind the ACA mandate that companies provide birth control in the health care package for their employees, regardless of the employer's desire to do so. He has done so under the banner of "religious freedom." And so we find ourselves, once again, in a battle we will never back away from.

There is still hard work ahead for the Kansas Legislature, and for voters, before Kansas can claim to be providing an excellent education for ALL Kansas children. Last week, the Kansas Supreme Court confirmed this, releasing a long-awaited ruling on the Constitutionality of the public school funding plan passed by the Kansas Legislature this year. (Spoiler: not even a little bit Constitutional.)

MainStream has long supported gun safety laws. We believe that reasonable gun ordinances help communities feel safer, and that each community must have the ability to regulate guns as they best see fit. You can see where we stand on our website, but here is our statement on gun safety, "The MainStream Coalition supports the Second Amendment, but affirms that the right to bear arms does not extend to endangering the public. We strongly support local control over firearm and weapons related ordinances and regulations, and believe those regulations should require responsible and safe gun ownership."

This week, there are three ways you can show how Kansans stand up and speak out. We stand for justice in the fight for voting rights. We speak out against shamelessly political health care bills that hurt, rather than help people. We gather and share our compassion with immigrants and their children who want nothing but to stay in the only country they know as home. You can help. Here's how.

You've heard the news, the national Republican Party is trying once again to repeal the dreaded Obamacare. They are, once again, on the cusp of undoing policies that have brought hope and security to millions of Americans. But if you have anything to say about it, they will again fall short.