Boy, he really knows how to pick them. Now it’s war with Venezuela. A tiny trickle of dope comes through that country but they have valuable resources so let’s just pretend.
 

When I’m traveling across Iowa, I’ve had important conversations with Iowans from communities large and small about how we can make life more affordable for our families, 

farmers, workers, seniors, and small businesses. From health insurance to housing to grocery bills, I’m working with President Trump and my Republican colleagues to lower costs and 

For nearly a year, every evening of mine was spent cycling around Segamat, my hometown in Malaysia. From about 5:30 to 6:30 PM, I would bike for kilometers on end, sometimes taking paths well-worn, other times exploring my surroundings by going off the beaten path. No matter what roads I traced with my treadless tires, or which palm oil plantations I pedalled through, this was a daily routine of mine, and an immense joy.

Dawn’s concert is done and she seems to be taking it rather well. Gentle withdrawals.
 
It was titled “Silent Night, Holy Night”. Saturday’s snow was moved out of the way for the Sunday concert but it was cold. Traditional music events like this are not usually attended by young whippersnappers. Refined tastes bring fragile folks and stupid shoes so I had to offer an arm to Franklin County’s songbird over the ice patches.

Every year, Thanksgiving is a time to pause and reflect on God’s endless grace and blessings. I’m grateful for my loving wife of 32 years, my four wonderful kids, friends, and neighbors. I’m 

thankful that Iowans have placed their faith and trust in me to represent our communities in Congress with integrity, dignity, and professionalism. I’m grateful to be an Iowan and live in the 

 
Last week, I was reading more news about water only to come across another story which, in roundabout ways, is also about our state’s water quality. It was about the lawsuit filed against Farm Bureau Financial Services and several of their other subsidiaries.
 

Just before I headed home to Hampton for Thanksgiving break, I joked with a few friends at Grinnell that I would likely be returning with a black eye. Four days later, and that prophecy has become a reality. You see, this is what happens when five brothers are all home together with wrestling season in full swing: it’s an unavoidable consequence that we’ll each end up scraped and bruised from duking it out on the mat in the basement.

I promised to write about this so here goes. In appreciation of the paradise in which we live, where would we be without complainers? Where would we be if they hadn’t taken action?
I voted for Trump. He said he’d end the wars on day one. He’s not the guy I voted for. He’s been purchased.

This week is going to be short & sweet and if I’m totally honest, it’s a reprise of the Thanksgiving post I wrote last year but guess what?!  It all still rings true, so I figured why not.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say that on behalf of everyone at Franklin County, we are thankful for you!  

 There was quite a contrast in my choices of topics for this column. One was about the procession of murderers being invited as honored guests to the White House. The other is the Community Choir concert on Pearl Harbor Day.
 
I’m really concerned about the direction of my country. I see photos of rivers filled with trash and demolished neighborhoods in foreign lands and it makes me so grateful for what we have here.
 

About a month ago, Diwali, the Hindu “Festival of Lights,” was celebrated by over a billion people—not just in India, but worldwide—and this past Saturday, some friends and I, along with a whole community at Grinnell, added our contribution to that number.
 

I’m not going to lie.  The days (and even weeks) after a big county-wide election kind of have the same feeling as the day after Christmas.  There is a let-down for me.  Our office 

spends so much time (months) preparing for the election that when it’s over, it feels like a 

void.   

It was maybe a happy coincidence last week that while I was following the news about Trump’s soybean deal with China that I also happened to tune into the Iowa Farmers Union (IFU) weekly “lunch and learn” on Facebook. Amid so much uncertainty, not just for farmers but all of us in rural America, it came as a breath of fresh air and call to action.

Of the many, many things I’ve come to enjoy about my time here at Grinnell, there is one course, one subject, that truly takes the cake: Arabic. I’ve been learning to read, write, recognize, and understand Arabic for five days a week at the very least, all the while forming a tightly-knit community with the other seven members of my class.

Speaking of extra innings. I was visiting my dad in New York and saw in the paper that “The Seventh Seal” was going to be on TV after a ballgame. It’s a classic Ingmar Bergman movie about a character representing death who plays chess with a soldier who has returned from The Crusades. (Bergman later went on to make boring melodramas like Woody Allen.)