Thanksgiving Day took root in our nation’s history as a “day of public thanksgiving and prayer” when George Washington issued a proclamation in 1789, calling upon freshly minted Americans to celebrate ratification of the Constitution and coalesce around the bounty of hard-fought freedom. ...
This holiday season, will you shop at one of the 33.2 million small businesses that make up 99% of all businesses in the U.S? Up and down rural main streets in rural America, shopkeepers are readying their stores for the season. Business owners are stocking special gifts and rolls of wrapping ...
Around 3,000 individuals will be out of job and the processing of 5,000 head of cattle per day will disappear, which is about 4.8% of the daily U.S. beef slaughter after Tyson announced they were closing their beef plant in Lexington, Nebraska, according to DTN Progressive Farmer. While Tyson ...
Events recently in Chicago and Washington and at Sacred Heart Cathedral in Davenport provide stark reminders that our nation’s leaders have seemingly forgotten a biblical command around for the ages. It is one Robert Ray followed during his tenure as Iowa governor, which ended some 42 years ...
I was just reminded last week, there are only a little more than five weeks left until Christmas. "Wow", I thought, "That really sneaks up on you when you aren't expecting it!" It's such a reaction that's programmed into us by the advertising commercialism that starts earlier and earlier every ...
While Easter has ham, Fourth of July has hot dogs, nothing compares to Thanksgiving. With food galore and many options available, it is always a good holiday to eat several types of food. Thanksgiving has the staples like turkey, stuffing, and pumpkin pie, but it is time to dive into the ...
Psalm 100:4-5 says, “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Thanksgiving is a time for many to pause and ...
Local control is a standard plea politicians love to make. It makes sense. No one wants a far-off entity like the federal government making decisions impacting those locally when they do not know what is best for the locals. Keeping everything under local control is best for America and ...
It was maybe a happy coincidence last week that while I was following the news about Trump’s soybean deal with China that I also happened to tune into the Iowa Farmers Union (IFU) weekly “lunch and learn” on Facebook. Amid so much uncertainty, not just for farmers but all of us in rural ...
The projected rapid increase in electrical energy needs, particularly for massive new data centers, could derail our efforts to combat climate change unless ways are found to greatly increase the production of clean energy. Nuclear energy could help fill that need with the development of small ...