Dexter Iowa Community Site

Consider this quote from Abe Lincoln

"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves."

It's been a hard winter so far. I'm sure this isn't really news to anyone reading this. Usually we've coasted through the first few months of winter and by the end of January we are gearing up for a few major storms and a couple of snow days. I don't remember a winter like this, although when I was a small boy I remember a few that had this much snow. But the continual pounding day after day of cold, ice, snow and wind is pretty unusual and I'm sure that Al Gore would say it's all a part of Global Warming.

We Iowans deal with weather. It becomes the focal point of our lives. I would dare say that you would be hard pressed to find any group of people in the country who are so in tune with the weather. When I would travel from time to time I would notice that most folks had no idea what the weather would do from day to day, but if I would run into someone from my home state not only could they tell you what the weather was doing where you were at, but they also knew the five day forecast for back home. It is this sense of being in tune with the changes that help us cope with the ever changing face of our climate.

We coast by, with our hooded sweatshirts deep into December, trading them in for a winter jacket around Christmas which could be white, but most of the time is just a light dusting, similar to the powdered sugar on a belgin waffle. In January we huddle close and even break out the coveralls a time or two. Through February and March we grumble and slide our way everywhere and even enjoy the one or two days that come by chance where we can't make it out of the driveway and into work. By the time April arrives we are so tired of Winter that we don shorts and our best Hawiian shirts anytime the sun is out and it's 40 degrees. And soon before we realize it the daffodils start peaking thier heads out of the ground, the grass greens up and the trees begin to bud and we've moved on into Spring.

This year is a completely different ballgame. No, my friends, it's going to be a long hard climb this year. However, before we get too down in the dumps, before we start building the pire to roast good old Mother Nature stop for a moment, just a moment and think of how fortunate you are. For this very day, when we are struggling with what seems to be a never ending dose of ice and snow and wind, across the globe in places with names we can't really pronounce or understand there are our friends, our brothers and sisters, Mom's and Dad's, cousins and coworkers. They are there in the name of freedom. In places where snow is just something you read about in books, where the wind doesn't blow drifts of ice and snow, but dirt and sand and grit.

So as you are sitting bundled up in your warm house dreading the cold trip out to the mailbox, remember those men and women serving in our armed forces so very far away, so very far from home and so very far from the little bit of hardship that you and I must suffer through till Spring. May we all make it through safely.

See you next week. Remember...we're all in this together.