By Richard B. Myers and Matthew Daniels

“The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord. It is best to win without fighting.”
– Sun Tzu, “The Art of War”

One day soon, the world will hopefully see the end of the carnage in Syria. But as important as this military victory will be in the struggle against ISIS, the real war against the idea virus of Islamist extremism will continue.

Although written approximately 500 B.C., Sun Tzu’s sage advice still informs modern military doctrine, and for good reason: Convincing your opponent not to fight you is invariably a better alternative to engaging in combat.

If we fight the global war on terrorism primarily or exclusively by force of arms, the civilized world will never win. It will go on interminably, costing time, treasure, lives and human potential. If we are to heed Sun Tzu’s counsel then, we must reduce or eliminate the desire of potential future terrorists to engage in armed conflict.

The Berlin Wall came down without a bullet being fired or a bomb being dropped because victory was achieved in the war of ideas against Marxist totalitarianism in Eastern Europe. The route to enduring victory against Islamist totalitarianism will require us to travel the same path.

In the global war on terror, ideas matter immensely. Someone convinced about the truth of an idea will make it a part of his or her organic self, inoculating them to competing false ideas. As a vaccine inoculates the body against disease, so the mind can be inoculated against the destructive idea virus of violent jihadism.

In fighting the Cold War, Communist ideology was defeated not by bullets or missiles but by ideas that challenged that ideology’s fundamental coherence and validity. This was central to our plan for undermining Soviet tyranny in the Eastern Bloc. Such ideas created cognitive dissonance, which was key to undermining the legitimacy of Soviet dominance. Ultimately, the ideological edifice of the Soviet empire collapsed of its own weight.

While the defeat of the Islamic State’s ambitions in Raqqa is essential, ISIS, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, al-Shabab, Abu Sayyaf and other extremist groups will continue to win adherents online. As we look at the carnage of the recent Mosul campaign and the impending loss of life in the effort to retake Raqqa, it would be better if we could convince potential recruits that what they find appealing is a deception. Beyond that, they need to see that their hopes for a better world can best be achieved through transcendent values that are antithetical to violence. This is the only path to lasting victory — for them and for us.

Unfortunately, many in the West have succumbed to the so-called multiculturalist position that such transcendent values do not exist. They are tragically wrong. And addressing that error is the beginning of finding a path to victory in the war on terror.

What transcendent principles would guide such an effort? The world has already come to a consensus on them when it adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The most translated document in history, every country in existence in 1948, when it was drafted, has ratified it save Saudi Arabia. Because the declaration’s text is the result of a global consensus, it stands in stark contrast to the Islamist assault on human dignity and civilization itself. What’s more, the broad appeal of such a message has already been demonstrated.

In one year, and with only a small cadre of volunteers, universalrights.com/ has already drawn more than 13 million viewers online to its message of universal rights premised on the principles articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Spreading the message about these principles through a concerted effort similar to what was done during the Cold War would expose the bankruptcy of the Islamist ideology and its ability to attract followers would wither.

In light of this, we should reassess our strategy for victory and reallocate our resources accordingly. Right now, our enemy is using asymmetric tactical warfare to attack our “centers of gravity.” At the same time, we are cutting resources for “soft power” initiatives and investing heavily in combat arms. Instead, our response should be to go after the Islamists’ most important center of gravity: their ability to enlist new members. We must demonstrate the bankruptcy of the terrorists’ ideology — through the dissemination of superior ideas — and thereby syphon off their ability to recruit adherents. The idea virus of Islamist extremism is best destroyed through the attrition of its adherents.

As in the case of the Cold War, we now need an approach that takes the war of ideas at the heart of the war on terror seriously. Doing so would save lives and resources by turning some of our potential enemies into friends. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights contains a proven message that can serve as the touchstone for such an effort, and digital social media is the proven, cost-effective mechanism by which it can be disseminated to the primary pool of potential recruits. If we’re smart about it, we can turn the tables on our opponent and use such resources against him.

Ideas matter, and the spread of good ideas will achieve far more positive, sustainable results than anything a drone strike will ever be able to accomplish. That’s not only how we can win without endless war — it’s really the only way to win.

About the authors: Richard B. Myers, a retired Air Force general, is president of Kansas State University and former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Matthew Daniels, J.D., Ph.D., is the chair of law and human rights at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C.

Part of this same American dream is the expectation that future generations will experience a better life than that of their parents. It’s always been that way – parents want their children to have more opportunities than they did.

The fondest wish of Kansas farmers, ranchers and small business owners is to pass these family ventures on to their children and grandchildren. They work years to leave a legacy of land or a business.

Unfortunately, that shared dream is threatened by an estate tax that has hung above the heads of farmers and ranchers for far too long. If farmers cannot pass on their land from one generation to the next, it threatens the future of our farms and forces farmers and ranchers to find alternatives to keep the family business alive.

For the first time in more than 30 years, Congress is looking at major tax reform. The transfer of land used in farming and ranching must be part of this discussion. This remains a huge task and with the right provisions, and an updated federal tax code, it could yield economic growth across Kansas and rural America.

Land remains our paramount asset. Still it can also be the most difficult to come by as property values increase.

Younger farm and ranch generations remain burdened by the challenge of holding onto family property if they cannot pay the estate tax. If this occurs, they may not return to the family farm or ranch.

When Uncle Sam comes to pay his respects, surviving family members, without enough cash may be forced to sell land, buildings or equipment they need to keep their operations running, just to pay the tax bill.

Rural communities and businesses suffer when farms and ranches are dismantled and farmland is sold. When this occurs near urban centers farmland is often lost forever to development.

The money farmers pay to the government in capital gains taxes is money that could be reinvested in the farm or ranch and indirectly into the rural community where the farm is located. Local machinery, fuel, herbicide, fertilizer and parts dealers will suffer. Such businesses keep people employed and provide much-needed money to local governments in the form of county or city sales taxes.

Estate taxes can also threaten the transfer of farmland between farmers and ranchers. As farmers consider retirement, they set the selling price of land or other assets high enough to recover the cost of capital gains taxes. This increases the likelihood farmland may be developed for other uses because few young farmers can afford to buy from these retiring producers.

Contact your lawmakers as tax reform legislation comes up for a vote. Estate tax relief will give future generations hope they can maintain the family legacy and keep the farm. Most importantly, estate tax relief will keep alive the American dream – if you work hard and plan ahead, you can pass the fruits of your labor to your children and grandchildren.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

Well, that second question has apparently got but one elected official in the state with a hand in the air.

And those elected officials, or at least those who manage the affairs of the Kansas Legislature, are tired of being referred to as corrupt in political speeches — primarily those made by Secretary of State Kris Kobach, who, after two terms in that office, is seeking the Republican nomination for governor next year.

Kobach uses the corruption phrase in most of his speeches and in campaign material, and lawmakers have had enough of it. The implication is that nearly everyone who isn’t Kobach is corrupt.

So…the Legislative Coordinating Council made up of the top leaders of the Kansas Senate and the Kansas House of Representative decided last June to write a stern letter to Kobach to tell him to either identify corrupt government leaders or quit using that phrase.

It’s literally a “put up or shut up” order to Kobach, and a stern letter to that point was delivered to Kobach’s office last week.

The idea: Legislative leaders don’t like corruption, either, and if Kobach is going to continue to toss around that politically charged term, they want him to identify the wrongdoings by the governor and his cabinet, the Legislature and lobbyists who Kobach considers corrupt.

They want the names, and the actions that Kobach believes are corrupt, or at least shaky enough that he can make specific assertions of corruption, not just toss around that word and encourage voters to believe that the government they elected and the people who run it are corrupt.

To get specific, if Kobach has a real assertion of corruption in the governor’s office, the legislative leaders want him to present those assertions to the attorney general; corruption in the Legislature to legislative leaders, and corruption in lobbying to the Governmental Ethics Commission.

Hmmm…

Yes, it is a “put up or shut up” order, one that might make the upcoming election cycle a little politer, or, if Kobach does come up with specific allegations of corruption, then a little more exciting.

The problem for lawmakers and Kobach is that “corrupt” is a pretty broad term. Vote for a tax increase? That’s probably corrupt to everyone who has to pay more, or more than the rest of the people who pay more. Vote for a highway exit ramp in your House or Senate district? Probably corrupt if the adjoining House or Senate district residents want a convenient exit ramp and didn’t get it. Hire a relative or campaign contributor as an assistant or deputy secretary of something or other and that could be labeled corruption.

Yes, you can spread corruption to about any action that you don’t personally like, not just actions that are a violation of state law or some obscure rule or regulation that the state enforces.

Now, just how Kobach is going to respond to that personalized “quit saying corrupt unless you can prove it” missive is unknown. And does that apply to everyone running for public office and should candidates be watching their language, too?

Or, of course, Kobach could just quit saying “corrupt” and maybe just call the leaders and employees of state government something else. Short? Left-handed? Orange? We’ll see, won’t we?

Syndicated by Hawver News Company LLC of Topeka; Martin Hawver is publisher of Hawver’s Capitol Report—to learn more about this nonpartisan statewide political news service, visit the website at www.hawvernews.com

If you’ve followed my column over the years, you know that Joyce and I are NOT renowned for our fishing prowess. When we had our boat, Joyce always had a book along, and when the fishing was slow (as it usually was for us) she relaxed in the sun and read her book.

I on the other hand paced the “poop-deck” and grumbled. You see, to me it was all about catching fish; after all, we were fishing! But to her it was all about enjoying the tranquility of being on the lake, even if no fish were caught. I rag on other fishermen and hunters when they get too intense about their chosen sport, but when it comes down to it, I’m often just as bad; Joyce calls it my “conquer mode.” And nowhere does my conquer mode kick into overdrive more than during trapping season.

I have penned this column weekly for more than 12 years now and I’m often asked “Is it hard to come up with subjects every week?” My answer is always “Yes it sometimes is.” I’ve been trapping coyotes for over a week now, and was counting on finding a dynamic adventure or two from the trapline for this week’s column, all the while in “conquer” mode as I sulked about not catching as many coyotes as I should be.

I had driven through the ditch, then into a grassy waterway that wound its way across a wheat stubble field, then went overland to three traps I had completely back in the middle of a section. I was rolling slowly along the edge of a new wheat field and came to where it skirted a wooded area and a dry creek.

I was talking out loud to God as I often do, grumbling about my lack of trapping success and asking Him for column fodder for this week (as I often do also,) when across in front of me flew a rooster pheasant, then another and another until 5 roosters and a couple hens had taken wing. I looked ahead of me toward where they came from, and there with its luminous, multi-colored head sticking out of the tall green grass and shining brightly in the morning sun stood another rooster waiting to see what I would do. Then it hit me; this was my book when the fish weren’t biting! I didn’t need dynamic to write about at all, I just needed to slow down and somehow convey to you things I see when I’m out in Nature.

For instance, at a certain spot, along a dirt road I travel every morning checking traps, I see a doe whitetail deer and her fawn from this year. One of them is usually in the ditch and the other somewhere near in the field. I slow down and they watch me carefully until I’m too close for their comfort, then across the field they trot like a couple of show horses, their whitetails bobbing from side-to-side, telling me they’re not really spooked, but I’ve gotten close enough. Am I the only one who marvels that wild 4 legged critters like that share our space?

This time each year the Kansas fields and pastures become temporary digs for a myriad of hawks and falcons as they come south seeking the mild fall weather we usually have. I especially enjoy watching the Northern harriers, large slender birds with falcon shaped wings and a broad white stripe across the top of their tail.

They hunt by gliding just a few feet above the ground over pastures and CRP patches, rocking from side-to-side as their telescope eyes search for the slightest movement in the grass below.

I caught a skunk this week, and even though I know firsthand their stinky reputation, I couldn’t help but marvel at how beautiful a skunk really is. Their little head and pointed nose are dwarfed by the long thick coat of coal-black fur they carry around, complete with white double racing stripe down their back. The fur on their tail is so fine it ripples in the breeze. This year we had a skunk hat at the trapper’s booth at the state fair, and it was a great attraction. Kids loved getting their pictures with it on their head. Yes, if you can get past the smell, skunks are marvelous little creatures.

And then there are the sunrises; Kansas has the most amazing sunrises. They begin as a warm yellow glow in the eastern sky. As it crawls slowly up over the horizon, the warm yellow slowly turns to brilliant orange and then that flaming ball we call our sun peaks above the earth and climbs into the sky to light and to heat our day.

Yes, just as Joyce learned to enjoy the day on the water, even if all she caught was forty winks and a sunburn, so I need to learn to slow down and smell the skunks, so to speak. So next time you’re out in God’s creation, whether hunting, fishing, trapping or hiking try to shift out of your “conquer mode” and really see what’s around you as you continue to Explore Kansas Outdoors!
Steve can be contacted by email at [email protected].

It’s amazing what you can learn watching Jeopardy or reading their website. Who knew that one of my favorite Thanksgiving customs ties back to the ancient Etruscans who considered chickens and this oddly shaped bone to possess good fortune. These are folks that settled in much of what is now Italy and possibly contributed to the founding of Rome. Yes, the custom of snapping the wishbone is an old one, imported from a distant culture and continent. Guess it resembles many American traditions.

Despite learning about Etruscans in world history and reading about their art in archeological journals, I had to look up this culture’s homeland. They occupied what is now Tuscany in Italy. According to one source, their civilization contributed to the founding of Rome. Apparently, they appreciated chickens, considering them and the distinctly horseshoe shaped furcula or two fused clavicles of this creature to bring good luck to the individual who won the longer side of the snap.

Anything that brings good fortune is worth sharing. According to Alex Trebek, this ancient custom made its way to jolly old England and from there to the American colonies. Clearly, sharing chicken husbandry was important as well. In addition, the tradition translated over to even larger fowl, the turkey–a new world bird.

Early in my childhood, my mom whose heritage is predominantly from the British Isles taught my brother and I it was lucky to possess the longer piece of the wishbone after a contentious battle. Somehow my sibling, younger no less, examined that interesting looking bit of bone and cartilage and pre-determined the winning side long before the two of us began tugging with all our might to break it. After losing too many times, I, too, learned the secret and then the real war began to see who controlled which side of this odd lucky charm.

If we happened to be at a family meal with cousins involved, the competition stiffened. Ironically, where I fought obnoxiously to gain the upper hand at home, I was my brother’s biggest supporter if an older cousin challenged him. As it is in the political world, alliances shift in a flash depending on the opposition.

Just as mom shared this tradition with her kids, I carried it on with mine. I discovered, after baking and boning the turkey a day ahead of our feast, extra hours drying on the window sill sped up the time necessary to snap the wishbone. No longer did the taller, usually stronger sibling have the advantage of exerting extra torque on soft cartilage and bendable bone. The sad news is sometimes we forgot the bone where it lay drying, delaying our fun until after the holiday.

Upon viewing Jeopardy’s presentation just before Thanksgiving, I was struck by its irony. Etruscans considered this bird and bone to be lucky. So did the English and later Americans. Looking at it logically, I’m not sure chickens would agree. After all, they must die to provide the bone. Like a rabbit whose foot is carried for good luck, the contributor isn’t all that fortunate.

Native Kansan Karen Madorin is a local writer and retired teacher who loves sharing stories about places, people, critters, plants, food, and history of the High Plains.

In 1992, I looked down from a window in an old high-rise classroom building at East China Normal University in Shanghai. It was noon and rivers of students were streaming into the “canteen” with their water thermoses in one hand and eating utensils in the other. Food would be a limited selection of rice or noodles with vegetables. These were the elite of China’s academic elite, the very top students who scored A+ on the Chinese high school graduation exam. They had earned the privilege to attend university free.

But facilities were old and worn. They would hurry to their classes in unpainted classrooms because the last students to arrive might have to stand because the seats were filled. Students lived 8-to-10 in a dormitory room that held nothing more than bunk beds. Professor pay was equal to a factory worker’s.
But the elderly administrators soon retired. There was no supply of experienced junior administrators due to a Cultural Revolution that had closed many universities for a decade. That left China’s Ministry of Education with an opportunity to completely re-build its university system nationwide.

So by 1998, the situation was different. Weak universities were closed or merged with strong institutions. China doubled its university capacity, then doubled it again in the early 2000s, and doubled it again by 2010. The cities of Xi’an and Guangzhou built “university cities” with 10 new universities each. Chongqing built their “university city” with 17 different universities totaling 300,000 faculty, students and staff. –An area equivalent to the size of Wichita! -But all just universities. This was the greatest expansion of higher education in human history.

Now, the majority of their students who passed the gao kao high school leaving exam could now attend college. But students would now pay full tuition. And that greatly improved the faculty salaries and living conditions. Classrooms and labs soon became state-of-the-art.

In 1995, China selected over a hundred universities for its “211 Project,” feeding federal money toward building modern universities. By 2000, China’s “985 Project” had designated nearly 40 universities for even greater national support. All other universities were left to the provinces to fund, similar to American public universities being state-funded (barely). The net effect was to triple the number of universities by 2017 and quadruple their student capacity, compared to the 1990s.

And as of two months ago, China began its Double World-Class Project. Their Ministry selected 42 universities to move to world-class status by 2050. 36 are Category A and 6 are Category B with a focus on applied research. It also has over 400 “key disciplines” spread across these and another 50 provincial universities that will receive additional generous governmental support. Their National Natural Science Foundation announced a dramatic increase in grant funding two years ago. With a decade of substantial cash incentives for publishing in high ranked English journals, Chinese researchers have rapidly risen in authorship of research papers in the top science journals Science and Nature, second only to the U.S. in authorships. If this trend continues, China will be the top producer of research in a few more years.

So today, I am looking down from my 6-story office window in a Double World-Class university onto a state-of-the art campus. Well-dressed students busily walk, or ride electric motorbikes, between classes. Dormitories have only 4-6 students per room. They eat in a variety of canteens with a food selection that exceeds any American campus. Hot water thermoses are the only holdover from earlier times.

For nearly four decades, China has invested in roads, railways, and other infrastructure. But the most important of these investments was education. Roads and rails move people around. Education moves people ahead. And it has paid off in raising the productivity of China’s population beyond expectations. The affluence of their institutions and the majority of their students reflect that payback. China understands that education is not just for filling those jobs needed today.

The dramatic improvement in the quality of life across China is due primarily to China’s investment in education. The better life of the students I see below my window is due to the advanced economy prior graduates have created. These students will continue that progress. China’s prosperity proves that it is mass education and not capitalism driven by the top one percent that “raises all boats.”

John Richard Schrock is a professor at Emporia State University.

At the end of the Great Recession, one official “communicator” referred to the national economy as beginning to show “green shoots” that might indicate the start of a recovery. It now appears that we have green shoots in Kansas that may be early signs of recovery in our civic society. Thanksgiving seems like a good time to point them out.

National political coverage highlights extreme partisanship. Contemporary partisans hold such allegiance to their political party that aversion among devoted Republicans and Democrats to any kind of social interaction – even to the point of opposing intermarriage between children reared in opposing political tribes — is becoming common. The past weeks have brought us party officials condemning the criminal, immoral or highly suspect behaviors of colleagues while at the same time declaring support for the accused because of shared party identity.

In exercising partisan legislative authority, Senator Mitch McConnell has said the Republican agenda will pass with only Republican votes, if necessary. Now congressional Republicans plan to adopt a Brownbackian style tax reduction bill relying on Republican votes alone. To add further inflammatory partisanship, the Senate appears ready to enfold repeal of key aspects of the Affordable Care Act in this tax measure.

What do green shoots of civic recovery in Kansas have to do with these concerns about the national political scene? Back in 1922 Emporia’s own William Allen White wrote, “When anything is going to happen in this country, it happens first in Kansas.” The contemporary fever of hyper-partisanship in Kansas has existed for decades. Hyper-partisanship in just the Republican Party has strengthened since the rise of pro-life activism in the 1970s.

Most recently Governor Sam Brownback instigated the conservative legislative purge that drove out senior Republican moderates like former Kansas Senate President Steve Morris. A more thoroughly right-wing and compliant legislature passed steep income/profit tax reductions and severe consumption tax increases that all Kansans have experienced and most have come to dislike.

After the 2013 and 2014 legislative sessions and the 2014 re-election of Governor Brownback new voices and old began to coalesce around falling revenue and skimpier public services. In spite of decades of evidence to suggest that partisans never waver, these critics began the process of exposing and criticizing hyper-partisanship — its policy prescriptions and programs. Groups, many aligned with purged Republican moderates, the small but not powerless Kansas Democratic Party, some non-partisan like the Mainstream Coalition, Women for Kansas, the Kansas League of Women Voters, the Kansas Health Institute, and four former Kansas Governors, Carlin, Hayden, Graves and Sebelius worked to inform Kansans about the harms that ideologically devout conservatives had committed.

The efforts to inform were carried out with seriousness, minimal drama, and with the support of evidence debunking an impending economic boom. With resignations, primary defeats and ultimately the outcome of the 2016 general election about 40 conservative legislators were replaced. In doing so moderate Republicans and Democrats have for the moment at least upset the conservative legislative majorities. Voters learned, decided and then received increased civility and productivity in the 2017 legislative session.

Is it likely the nation can and will learn from the Kansas experience of this decade? Our congressional delegation’s praise of the tax cut bills currently being debated may make a reader skeptical, but other public voices have called upon Kansans to recount their experience. Interests that would normally not be expected to “look a gift horse in the mouth” are in fact saying “thanks, but no thanks.”

Perhaps the green shoots of rationality and compromise are working now to penetrate the public mind as they did in Kansas. That would be a moment of national joy at Thanksgiving.

Dr. Mark Peterson teaches political science at the college level in Topeka.

It is possible for every family to grow close, to develop more cohesiveness, to become stronger. According to research done by John DeFrain at the University of Nebraska, when people across the country and around the world describe the qualities that make their family strong, they list similar things.

Here is the list of characteristics of strong families identified by DeFrain’s research:

1. Appreciation and affection- caring for each other, friendship, playfulness, humor and respect for individuality.

2. Commitment- honesty, trust, faithfulness, dependability and sharing.

3. Positive communication- giving compliments, sharing feelings, avoiding blaming, being able to compromise and agreeing to disagree.

4. Managing stress and crisis effectively- adaptable, sees crises as challenges and opportunities, growing through crises together, open to change, able to bounce back from stress and crisis.
5. Spiritual well-being- hope, faith, compassion, shared ethical values.

6. Enjoyable time together- lots of quality time, enjoying each other’s company, sharing fun activities and simple good times.

Thanksgiving is a great time to let family members know how thankful you are for them. Fortunately, an appreciative attitude doesn’t cost anything, it takes very little time, it’s always available and it can last the whole year long! Here are a few quick suggestions to share your appreciation and gratitude at Thanksgiving time:

• Put a note under each person’s plate at the Thanksgiving table, mentioning a specific reason why you are thankful for them. For example, “I am thankful for Aunt Rosalee because she makes the best pies!” Or “I am thankful for the way Cousin Joe makes me laugh.” Before you pass the turkey, have each person peek under their plate to discover why they are appreciated.

• Set a jar and small slips of paper in an easily accessible place. Ask each person to note someone or something they are thankful for and drop it into the jar. After the family meal, designate someone to read aloud all the Thanksgiving thoughts in the jar.

• While lingering over the pumpkin pie, go around the table and have each person tell what they appreciate about their family or what they are thankful for this year. You’ll enjoy hearing what each person has to share.

• If family members are too shy or can’t think of anything on the spot, play “Thanksgiving From A to Z.” The person who starts says they are thankful for something that starts with the letter “A”, the next person the letter “B”, the next “C” and so on. In a small group, add a twist– where each person repeats what has been said before. For instance, “Dad is thankful for apple pie, Grandma is thankful for baking bread, Mary is thankful for her cat, and I’m thankful for daisies.”

• As the family gathers for Thanksgiving, promise yourself that you’ll give out at least three genuine compliments before the day ends. The nice thing about compliments is that they tend to be contagious.

There’s no telling how the appreciation and affection will spread!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Linda K. Beech is Cottonwood District Extension Agent for Family and Consumer Sciences.

The third in a 4-part series regarding the importance of reading to and with young children in support of a new literacy initiative the Dane G. Hansen Foundation in northwest Kansas.

Being a parent is the most emotionally gratifying experience of my life. My wife and I have been lucky enough to experience it four times.

Parenthood does not come with a manual that will prepare you for the significant life changes you will experience! This new life with children potentially comes at a time when you are building your career or business. Professional responsibilities can stress quality time with family, and specifically the extra time it takes to ensure you are doing all that you can to promote the educational development of the children.

I personally experienced this as I was building my career to provide for our young family, which meant time and commitments that often kept me away during family learning time. I am lucky enough to have a spouse that recognized the importance of reading. And, we were fortunate to be in a school system in Northwest Kansas that met the learning needs of our children as they grew older.

As is often the case, with every new baby, we became more educated parents. As our family grew, we recognized the important life lesson that reading is the foundation to all success, and the earlier we started, the better foundation we laid for that child. Strong reading skills provide the base for all subjects. As parents, once the importance of reading is recognized, the possibilities are endless.

We are continuing to develop reading skills, along with other learning disciplines, with all our children. But we have seen faster growth and ease of learning when our emphasis on reading at home became more became more structured. Once we made reading together a real priority, the progress for our children has been amazing. It’s apparent to me that reading at an early age truly helps boosts not only learning disciplines, but also critical problem-solving skills.

I am sharing our personal story to help promote the movement in Northwest Kansas to read to our youngest citizens, thus preparing them to enter the education system ready to learn. If we do this one thing, we ultimately create a population that will have stronger opportunities in business, healthier families, and an overall better quality of life.

Scott Sproul is the CEO of the Northwest Kansas Economic Innovation Center.

Learn more about the importance of reading to your children at NWKansasReads.org.

What better time than during this festive period to give thanks for the most wholesome food supply in the world. Yes, Americans enjoy one of the best food supplies on this planet not only in terms of abundance, variety and cost, but also in terms of safety.

A closer look at a typical dinner menu reveals that Mother Nature and her chemicals will be joining all of us who partake of the traditional holiday fare in this country. In a typical soup-to-nuts holiday menu, here are some of the natural chemicals, which in large quantities could be hazardous to a person’s health, according to the American Council on Science and Health (ACSH). Such effects would occur only if the concentrated substances were consumed in excess.

Saying this is not intended to frighten some who are already chemical phobic. For centuries, humans have eaten potentially toxic substances that occur naturally in food.

The natural and man-made toxins, carcinogens and mutagens in the U.S. food supply remain so small they pose no known health hazard, the ACSH reports. A toxic dose of caffeine requires 96 cups of coffee and you would have to eat 3.8 tons of turkey this holiday season to deliver a toxic dose of malonaldehyde.

Mushroom soup, for example, contains hydrazines, which are potent animal carcinogens. A fresh vegetable tray is chalked full of nitrates. The main entrée, roast turkey with stuffing and cranberry sauce, contains heterocyclic amines and malonaldehyde, eugenol and furan derivatives, according to the ACSH.

It’s way past time for the American public to stop acting on the presumption that “natural” is safe and “manmade” is always suspect. While both can be toxic in excess, present scientific knowledge indicates neither natural nor man-made food chemicals are hazardous in the quantities we consume on a daily, monthly or yearly basis.

Toxins, carcinogens and mutagens are everywhere in Mother Nature’s food supply. It is unwise to panic over minute levels of man-made chemicals such as the traces of pesticide residues occasionally detected.

If there is a health problem we should be concerned about during this upcoming holiday season, it may be overeating. If you don’t watch yourself, you can gobble down more than 2,000 calories easily at one sitting. It doesn’t take a food scientist from ACSH to tell you you’ll wind up stuffed like a turkey if you eat like that during the holiday season.

As most of us know, excessive eating has been called the “most striking” carcinogen ever discovered in rodent carcinogenicity studies. In other words, “fat rats get cancer.”

Remember, when you sit down at the holiday table this season, leave that last leg of turkey or piece of pie for someone else. You don’t have to eat every last roll on the plate, and yes, Fido, the family dog, might enjoy those last three or four spoons of gravy.

Eat moderate quantities of a wide variety of foods this holiday season and throughout the entire year. Despite the presence of Mother Nature’s toxins, they are not dangerous when consumed in moderation as part of a balanced, varied diet.

John Schlageck, a Hoxie native, is a leading commentator on agriculture and rural Kansas.

By JOHN P. TRETBAR

Members of the Nebraska Public Service Commission on Monday voted 3-to-2 to accept an alternative route for the new leg of the Keystone Pipeline expansion. During the meeting Monday, Commissioner Crystal Rhoades voted no, listing several objections to the proposal submitted by TransCanada. Among other things, Rhoades noted that the alternative route accepted by the commission was not the subject of the commission’s extensive environmental impact study, and she said it violated the due process of some landowners, who may not know their property is now being targeted. She said the original and the mainline alternative route both run through pristine farmland and cross over the Ogallala Aquifer. Opponents are expected to appeal the vote, and the case is likely to end up before the Nebraska Supreme Court. On the company’s Web site, TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said they are reviewing the ruling and “…assessing how it would impact the cost and schedule of the project.”

The Nebraska Public Service Commission was forbidden by law from considering a recent oil spill in South Dakota on the existing Keystone pipeline in its decision Monday. Company officials said cleanup continued at the site in Marshall County, SD., where approximately five thousand barrels (210,000 gallons) of crude spilled Nov. 16. TransCanada said the incident poses no risk to aquifers or surface water, public health or safety.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reported a 14% drop in the Kansas rig count over the last week: nine in eastern Kansas, down four, and 26 in western Kansas, down two. Drilling is underway at sites in Ellis, Russell and Stafford counties. Baker Hughes reported the oil rig count was unchanged nationwide. The natural gas rig count was up eight.

Kansas operators filed 47 permits last week for drilling at new locations across the state, 33 east of Wichita, and 14 in western Kansas. There were two permits filed in Barton County and one in Ellis County. The year-to-date total for permits in Kansas is 1,274. Kansas operators filed 108 permits for drilling at new locations during the month of October. There were 49 new permits filed last month in eastern Kansas and 59 west of Wichita, including one in Barton County, three in Ellis County, two in Russell County and two in Stafford County.

Independent Oil & Gas Service reports 12 new well completions over the last week, including eight in eastern Kansas and four west of Wichita. For the month of October, there were 129 new well completions, 58 in eastern Kansas and 71 west of Wichita. There were four completions last month in Barton County, five in Ellis County and seven in Stafford County. The total so far this year is 1,081 completions, compared to 1,022 through October a year ago, and 3,330 by this time two years ago.

“If Exxon’s looking at it, that’s probably a good sign.” So says an energy investment manager on the growing production figures out of New Mexico. Oil producers discouraged by the rising cost of accessing the vast deposits of the Permian Basin in Texas are sneaking in through New Mexico, which Bloomberg called “a geological back door.” In just the last five months, drilling on the New Mexico side grew by 25% to 75 rigs, while the number in Texas dropped two percent, to 490 rigs. New Mexico is the fourth-largest U.S. producer.

A new study shows that producers in the Permian Basin burned off between three and four percent of their natural gas in 2014 and 2015. That’s higher than the state average in Texas. Overall, companies working in the West Texas portion of the Permian Basin burned off around 80 billion cubic feet of natural gas in two years. The amount of flaring in the Permian Basin has been rising since 2009 and since 2014 it has overtaken the Eagle Ford Shale in South Texas as the field in Texas where the most natural gas has been burned as a waste product.

North Dakota oil companies in September exceeded rules aimed at limiting the amount of natural gas burned off as a byproduct of oil production. The Bismarck Tribune reports oil companies are supposed to capture 85 percent of natural gas or limit flaring to no more than 15 percent. State Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms says companies flared 17 percent of production in September.

North Dakota’s oil production rose slightly in September and remained above 1 million barrels per day for the eighth consecutive month. Regulators say the state produced an average of 1.1 million barrels of oil per day in September, the latest figures available. That’s up from 1.08 million barrels in August. There were a record 14,190 producing wells in September, up 101 from August.

MMEX Resources broke ground Friday on its 10,000 barrel-per-day crude distillation unit near Fort Stockton, Texas, marking the first oil refinery to open in the US in 40 years. Once it is completed, the 126 acre, $50 million project will be able to process 10,000 barrels of crude oil each day.

The Energy Minister for the United Arab Emirates said this week there is an “appetite” for non-OPEC members to join the 14-member cartel. When asked by CNBC whether non-OPEC countries currently complying with the global supply cuts could eventually become official members of the cartel, he said “…there is definitely a willingness and a wish to expand OPEC.”

CNBC last week reported confirmation that the Saudi Aramco initial public stock offering will take place late next year, despite rumors of a possible delay.

On November 12, the second China-Russia crude oil pipeline project was finally completed. The 21st Century Business Herald reported the pipeline will double the amount of Russian oil transported to China by land-based pipeline. The pipe is more than 600 miles long, and will serve areas of northeastern China. It took about 15 months to build.

Friend,

For the past three years, my wife, my family and I have dedicated our lives to listening to Kansans. We have held 55 town halls, dozens of roundtables and had coffee with thousands of you. More than just listening, you sent me to Washington, D.C., to be your voice. Last week, the House took a big step toward delivering on the promises we’ve made.

Imagine a tax system so simple that 90 percent of Kansans are able to file their taxes on the back of a postcard! By providing relief to working Americans in the form of lower rates and doubling the standard deduction, families will be keeping more of their hard-earned income. 80 percent of folks in the Big First take the standard deduction when filing their taxes, which means they will see an immediate improvement. And the bill expands the child tax credit from $1,000 to $1,600. The average American family of four making a household income of $59,000 will see a $1,200 savings to put towards groceries, a mortgage, or even student loans.

Gone are the days of a 74,608-page tax code full of bailouts, handouts and lobbyist loopholes for the wealthy and well-connected. This commonsense, fair, and simple reform is vital for our economic future, and that of our kids and grandkids. We need an America that competes and wins!

If you would like further information about what our new Tax Plan will do for you and your family, please head over to fairandsimple.gop! The picture to the left is of the President and I just before the vote.

As always, if you have any questions, concerns or know of ways my office can be of assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Hidden Heroes Breakfast

One of the most important duties I have here in Washington, is to make sure that I am a strong voice for the interests of our Veterans and those who care for them. That is why it was such an honor for me to attend and speak to the Hidden Heroes Breakfast hosted by Senator Susan Collins and Senator Elizabeth Dole (shown left). The work of our hidden heroes is truly remarkable. In order to provide adequate care for a veteran, we must adequately support their caregivers.

With over 5.5 million military caregivers nationwide, Hidden Heroes provides a voice and a valuable resource. Garden City and Manhattan are both Hidden Heroes cities, and Kansas is home to two Hidden Heroes fellows, including Carolyn Tolliver-Lee of Manhattan, who was also in attendance this week.

CFTC and Kansas State University Partner-Up

This week, I was very encouraged to see the Commodity Futures Trading Commission embracing the topic of agriculture markets and engaging stakeholders. I’m especially glad to see the inaugural conference is being held in Kansas. Kansas State University is a tremendous leader in agriculture economics, and we are grateful for their work with the CFTC. It always makes me proud to see Kansas leading innovation and development, especially in the agriculture community. For more information, click here to see a full statement from the CFTC.