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 Thanksgiving week and regardless of how much I sit here and ask you to be thankful this week, I’m sure more of you will be involved in some sort of planning and deal searching in the early morning hours on Friday. It hit me last week as I was driving home one early morning after an overnight shift with the grain dryer that more often than not we take for granted those who are providing a service to us.

Anyone who knows me is well aware that I’m a champion for agriculture and am constantly amazed how our producers can continue to grow more every year. But let us not forget the men and women who work long hours away from the field, the ones dumping grain and storing it away, and those helping to market that grain and helping producers with those all-important settlement checks. This is a stressful time of year for everyone involved and yet we continue to believe in what we are doing.

With black Friday happening this week, I doubt that many shoppers will give a second thought to those in the stores working long hours this week to stock shelves and prepare stores for the throng of shoppers that will be coming in to find the best deals. It is important to remember as you are standing in long checkout lines, or fighting with a stranger over the last pair of wool Christmas socks that those stockers and checkers cut their day with their families short in order to provide the service of being open to us.

And let us not forget everyone working on their light displays and making hot chocolate, helping at skating rinks or delivering mail and packages this time of the year. Just because they are working doesn’t mean that we can’t remember them and help them to make their work rewarding. If you think about it this time of good will and cheer really should be a reminder to all of us that kindness and manners can go a very long way in this world. So take a minute to say “thank you”, remember that waiting in a line can be fun sometimes and know that just a little bit of patience on your part can go a long way. Be safe out there and remember…we’re all in this together.