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Cheer up, things could be worse.

My mom, who was a year old when the stock market crashed in 1929, admonished us with these words often while we were growing up.

The country could use some cheering up.

Those of us reporting on the state of the economy are especially adept at pointing out omens of gloom and doom. The Associated Press labels all stories about the financial situation as “meltdown.” If that’s your perspective, no wonder people are digging bunkers and stocking up on canned goods.

With my mother’s sense of optimism and my journalistic sense of fairness, I feel compelled to point out signs of hope on the economic horizon.

Give me a minute here. I’m sure I can find something.

Continue Reading »

He who believes in me, as the scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

Jesus stood and cried out, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink.’

Tags: American Christian Fiction Writers, John 7:37-38, Subprime Dreams

When a hurricane blows across the Gulf of Mexico, homeowners on Faraon Street don’t have to board up their windows.

But Northwest Missouri quite often gets soaked with wind and rain associated with the storms.

A financial typhoon has barreled down Wall Street. While we don’t see investment bankers panhandling on St. Joseph Avenue, the storm’s wake will certainly be felt here. Continue Reading »

Tags: Johnson Controls, Prime Tanning, Snorkel

The sign on the refrigerator in the office break room offers a firm rebuke.

“Everyone works hard for their money,” it states. “Please only eat what you have brought in for yourself.”

Someone needs to make a copy of that sign and hang it on Wall Street.

The $700 billion bailout before Congress seems distasteful to almost every taxpayer. Officials say trust them, the bailout is absolutely necessary.

Are these not the same bankers and bureaucrats who have been running the financial system for years? It’s difficult to believe they’ve suddenly found the one sure-fire way to turn this thing around, they just need a blank check to get it done. Continue Reading »

Tags: bailout, subprime, Wall Street

It’s hard to imagine what the next wave will carry, but we need to give it consideration. The city’s infrastructure, even our way of life, have been built around vehicles. Businesses depend on vehicles to get customers and employees to their door.

No one expected that to change. We also didn’t expect oil prices to increase exponentially within 10 years. High fuel prices have become like a losing season for the Royals: something to complain about, but also to be expected. Continue Reading »

Tags: Belt Highway, oil, Pony Express, Roayls, Segway, Tour of Missouri

The first event I covered as an agriculture reporter at the News-Press was the annual field day at the Hundley-Whaley Research Farm in Albany, Mo.

Each year, it was a fun anniversary to go back and ride the hay wagon, look at bean fields and compare corn herbicides. This year, the ag reporter had another assignment, so I got called out of retirement, so to speak, to go back and cover field day.

Researchers were fascinating, as they talked about ways to catch bugs and apply fungicides and meaure nitrogen loss. A few times, the PhD types were corrected by the men in overalls and seed caps who noted that something that works in a 12-foot plot won’t necessarily work in a 200 acre field.

The farmers were supposedly not the experts, but they are the ones who do the work to raise the crops that feed the world. Recent events have shown us just how important these growers are, when we usually take them for granted.

When it comes to life, especially to our faith, it’s tempting to become an expert, sitting in the lab and explaining how things should go. How much more rewarding to be a farmer, getting dirty working in the field and raising a crop to the glory of the Creator.

“The hard working farmer must be first to partake of the crops.” II Timothy 2:6

Tags: farmers, field day, II Timothy 2:6

New York is convinced it’s the center of the universe.

They can’t imagine why any one would want to live anywhere else. As Eva Gabor told Eddy Albert, “Dah-ling, I love you, but give me Park Avenue.”

How things have changed! Suddenly, New York wants to be Northwest Missouri.

It’s not at all surprising. Smog, traffic jams and urban decay are so overdone. Green fields are the place to be.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg has proposed putting windmills throughout New York. He has a vision of turbines atop bridges and rooftops capturing the wind and converting it to energy.

He pretty much wants to remake the Big Apple into Rock Port, the little Missouri city that proved it could be done.

But when it comes to alternative energy, New York is just trailing in the wake of King City and Conception. Continue Reading »

Tags: alternative energy, Eddie Albert, New York, Rock Port, tenderloin, wind power

St. Joe loves us some history.

We don’t just keep it in the past, either. From the Pony Express to the Civil War, this city often recreates history.

The latest on the reenactment agenda is the Great Library Debacle. That’s no period any taxpayer wants to go through again, yet the spiraling discussion about building a new conference center is reviving memories of feuding boards caught up in a turf war.

I am confident, however, this scenario can end better than the library. City and county leaders have already shown cooperation by forgoing dueling hotel tax proposals; hopefully that spirit will continue to grow.

City officials are lobbying for a downtown convention center adjacent to the utilitarian Civic Arena. The county, on the other hand, suggests building an agricultural expo center off Interstate 29 near the Shoppes at North Village.

This seems like two halves of a pie separated by five miles of congested roads. You know what I like? Pie with ice cream, all served in one convenient location.

You know what taxpayers want?

Continue Reading »

Tags: ag expo, Buchanan County, Civic Arena, convention center, downtown

Glen Campbell had been singing in my head a lot lately. Like a rhinestone cowboy, I know every crack in these dirty sidewalks.

The dog has been dragging me out on a walk just about every evening this summer. We’ve tracked rabbits and picked up pop cans, but it does get to be a bit monotonous. Walking alone in the evening hours, I like to stick to familiar streets and avoid particular blocks that seem prone to nefarious activity.

We’ve gone down the same streets so much, I know the kids by name, which flowers will need watering and which dogs will bark when we pass by. On a recent walk, I thought I’d go nuts if I had to look at the same scenery again.

So I did a kind of crazy thing.

I took off to the south. I’d gone that way once before, but I’d only made it one block because there were no sidewalks, trash lining the ditches and just a general feeling of a bad neighborhood. I was ready to risk it this time.

I grasped the dog’s leash and plowed through that block. At the top of the hill waited a delightful surprise. Wide, smooth sidewalks passed through the shade of beautiful trees. Historic, stately homes had lovely yards and the neighbors were friendly. There’s even an overpass crossing the highway.

All of this I had been missing because of fear.

I’m a cautious person by nature. I easily picture people who have made rash decisions and regretted it, then tend to hold back. But there’s another danger in our walk with God.

God has vast fields of delight for us, just waiting to be explored. Too often, I miss that because I’m sticking to the same sidewalks, safe but bored out of my mind. God doesn’t necessarily command us to try new pathways, but he’s inviting me to explore more of them.

And someday, I’m gonna be where the lights are shining on me.

“You will show me the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” Psalm 16:11

Tags: Glen Campbell, Psaml 16:11, Rhinestone Cowboy