Air November 21, 2001

Thank you Mark, and good morning everyone. Yeah, it’s hard to believe that tomorrow is Thanksgiving. More thoughts on that in just a moment. The first variety trial book has arrived in the office. The 2001 Corn variety trial bulletin has arrived from K-State. Copies are available in the office and at Geary Grain, stop by and pick one up at your convenience. I think most of the preliminaries are in on soybeans and milo so I’d suspect those before long too. These reports are available on the web, contact me if you need the address.

It seems that the older I get, the more I have to be thankful for and the more Thanksgiving means to me. Of course, it’s hard to think of myself as getting older when at 45 my dad still refers to me as a kid. But then he refers to my 59 year old eldest brother as a kid also. I guess I’m thankful that at age 84 I still have my father around to refer to me as a kid! With all that has happened over the past few months it may seem strange to say that we all have a lot to be thankful for. We have been witness to terrorism and carnage that we have not seen in our lifetime in our own country. For some of us, we probably thought it would never happen. And yet through it all, the American spirit has survived, intact. Sure, the tragedy has struck into each and every one of our homes in different ways, but it has served to strengthen our resolve that freedom and democracy must, and will, survive. So, in spite of all that has happened, many of us will sit down with friends or family tomorrow and enjoy a meal that would be considered a feast to a majority of the world. Some of us will travel great distances, relatively unimpeded, to enjoy this feast. We may very well give thanks to different supreme beings in many different languages for this meal. And we can do it without fear of being told that we can not speak that language or worship that God. I sometimes find myself getting a little choked up when I think about the wonderful freedoms we have in this country, and I think that we all need to spend a little extra time this season thinking long and hard about what’s important to us, our families and our country, and it isn’t about material posessions. We truly do have a lot to be thankful for.

This is Chuck Otte, Geary County Extension Agent, with Ag Outlook 2001, happy Thanksgiving everyone.

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