I was born in Wichita, Kansas in 1954. My mother was Miss Kansas, 1953. She made her way through 4H beauty contests and county competitions to gain the state title. It was wonderful for her.

She got to open livestock fairs and new shopping plazas. She cut the ribbon at the very first car wash in the state. She loved her sash and tiara.

During the year of her reign, she so much enjoyed being called Miss Kansas that she changed her name from Heiferstein to Kansas, so she could be called Miss Kansas the rest of her life.

She doesn’t like to talk about my father, and I have to respect that decision. But it must be said — I believe myself to be the result of an illicit love affair between my mother, Miss Kansas 1954, and the emcee of the pageant that allowed her to gain that title, and ultimately, her name. I keep thinking my dad could be Monty Hall. Or Bob Barker.

What with me coming along, that was as far as it went for my mother, being Miss Kansas. She never tried to become Miss Mid-West or Miss USA, or Miss World.

This year’s Miss World contest will be held in November, in Nigeria, the home of Agbani Darego, last year’s winner and the first black African to wear the crown.

It seems that a few contestants are doing a little thinking outside the my-goal-is-to-be-a-veterinarian-because-I-love-children box. Several contestants are saying they will boycott the pageant if it is held in Nigeria, because an Islamic court there has sentenced Amina Lawal, the mother of an eight-month-old baby, to death by stoning for adultery.

Miss Norway, Miss Togo and Miss Ivory Coast are among the women saying they won’t go unless Miss Lawal is pardoned.

Nigeria is feeling some pressure. A boycott would taint an event that would bring the country to the attention of a lot of people. The pageant would have a television audience estimated at 1.2 billion in 140 countries.

Of course, some don’t care. Miss Tanzania will be there. And, it seems, Miss Canada.

Lynsey Bennett was crowned Miss Canada in June. She’s been in the news facing some suggestions that she should give up a regional title she shouldn’t be holding, and a reporter took the opportunity to ask Bennett’s mother if Miss Canada would be commenting on the plight of Amina Lawal. Miss Canada’s mother said there would be no comment about human-rights issues in Nigeria. “Lynsey’s not about political statements or issues,” she said.

It’s a sad thing that Miss Canada will not be standing with Miss Togo and the others who are using their position to speak out on behalf of someone in such great need as a woman who is to be stoned to death. Does Miss Canada know that Miss Lawal will be enshrouded in white sheets, restrained by ropes and buried up to the waist in sand? That to prolong the torment, the law of the mullahs stipulates that stones too small to cause sufficient pain, and those so large as to kill the victims too swiftly, are illegal at a stoning?

Miss Canada has a chance to protest this, and will not. Shame. Miss Kansas would.