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."

In between naps which really are just me falling asleep as soon as I’ve eaten some supper and getting a few hours of sleep at night my hours are consumed with the steady progress of harvest. Since I’m awake right now, but may not be much longer how about a few random thoughts?

1. I’m usually a pretty big fan of the Governor of this state and the GOP in general. It isn’t as though I’m against the Democratic party, but I tend to believe that the money I make is mine and not to be taken and handed out willy nilly to people who don’t work for it. However I’m making an exception here. The party in power has it wrong when it comes to passenger rail travel. Yes there will be an ongoing need to fund an additional passenger route through central Iowa, however that seems to be in line with any transportation. We have roads for vehicles which take continued funding, we continually fund portions of air transportation, why is a subsidy for rail transportation so wrong? The fact is that where in use rail transportation ridership continues to increase. We need to step up and take the opportunity to expand passenger service in this state.

2. And while we are talking transportation issues, have you paid any attention to the DOT director’s rhetoric lately? He continues to push for a ten-cent a gallon increase in the gasoline tax saying the DOT desperately needs funding to quote “Keep up with replacing Iowa’s aging bridges and roadways.” Since the Governor knows that attempting to raise the gas tax in Iowa is pretty much the beginning of the end of his term as our chief leader, he’s told the director to keep looking for other funding options, which of course ALWAYS means finding ways to make more money instead of cutting money from other areas. These include raising sales tax on motor vehicles and my favorite ending the tax exemption for farm fuel, or what is used in tractors and commonly referred to as Ruby Red Diesel. A direct quote from the director would be that the money raised from ending the Agriculture exemption for fuel would raise enough to start replacing Iowa’s aging farm to market roads and poor bridges. Unfortunately what he neglects to say is that this really means bridges on or around state owned highways which are generally in suburban areas and carry little farm traffic. County and local gravel roads which have the majority of poor bridges and roadways would not see a dime of this funding.

3. Mountain lions? Geeze, didn’t we just get used to there being bobcats in Iowa and now we have to deal with lions? I’ve believed that they have been around and around the Penn Center area for over a year now. I ran across Kenny Herring the other day and trust him when he says that the DNR has nothing to do with the latest “cat sighting”, but I’m going to stock up on some beef jerky just in case the DNR has released a Sasquatch or two.

4. George the Chicken passed away this weekend. I’m really not sure what happened as whatever killed him left the body, but it’s been a sad couple of days here. He was a good chicken.

5. It must be Thanksgiving time as I actually saw someone who had put up their Christmas tree and had it lit the other night. Really folks? Are you that excited? I won’t shame them in this column but if you drive around the area you will find it soon enough.

6. The person who comes up with a use for dead leaves that makes people want them in their yard will make millions. I hope every student who has a science fair project coming up is listening.

7. I’d give just about anything for a couple of weeks of “Indian Summer” although I’m all for the rain that has come on and off this fall. Now if I could only get it to come on a Friday I might get a Saturday or Sunday off of work.

8. Finally this week, if you happen to have RFD-TV on your local cable or satellite service, please take a minute to watch some of the coverage of the National FFA Convention. These young men and women have accomplished some truly remarkable things, and Iowa should be proud to once again have a National Officer from our state. It makes one feel good about the future of agriculture when you see these young people in action.

See you next week, remember….we’re all in this together.