May 2022

Power can be a tricky thing. Some people, actually most people, will do almost anything to attain it and, when it is missing, those seeking to regain what has been lost can be dangerous.

We all complain about something. Our Editor recently complained about the wind and the things in it. If you haven’t complained about the wind in the past weeks, you must own a windmill farm or a store that sells wind spinners. If there is no wind, there is no profit and they become sitters, not spinners.

If you never agree with anything I say you should read me anyway so you do not forget what free speech is all about. You do not have a right to close down opinions other than yours. The British were not real hot on the Colonies speaking out against them. Ask your kid if they know why we are citizens and not subjects?

The saying, “farmers never retire, they farm until they die,” is accurate for my paternal grandfather. Grandpa turned 95 this winter and outside a short Navy deployment at the end of World War II, he has farmed all his life.

On Memorial Day, 1945, the war in Europe had ended but the fighting in the Pacific continued, Lt. Gen. Lucian Truscott voiced remarks at the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery at Nettuno, Italy. Turning his back on the assembled VIP’s he faced the rows upon rows of headstones and apologized to the 20,000 fallen Americans who had been laid to rest far from home. He was quoted as saying, “All over the world our soldiers sleep beneath the crosses. It is a challenge to us – all allied nations – to ensure that they do not and have not died in vain.”

In February, United WE released a report highlighting the growing gender inequalities in our state, particularly in healthcare. Last week, state lawmakers made a small step towards progress on this issue.

When ethanol became a gasoline additive in the U.S., botany colleagues told me it took as much energy to plant, grow and distill the corn as we produced in product. While the efficiency of ethanol extraction has since improved, the cost of our corn ethanol policy measured in other forms of damage seriously questions our continued usage of this additive. This fuller analysis is detailed in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) released earlier this year.

Note: Each month I want to provide you with regular updates about what’s going on in our nation’s capital and throughout the 4th District of Kansas. Here’s what happened in April.