Hello everybody out there in farm country. This radio commentary is brought to you by the National Corn Growers Association, CropLife America, and Renewable Fuels Association. They are all friends, supporters, and allies of a healthy farm economy and prosperous rural America. Thank you.
And now for today’s commentary –
This week we celebrated the birth of our nation on July 4th. 246 years ago, our founders wrote the Constitution that set the guideposts for us to live by. Our people are not governed by a dictator like Russia, China, and many other countries. Are we perfect? No! We have inequality, racism, sexism, and religious conflict. But don’t ignore the progress that we have made. For a long time, women were not even allowed to vote. Look at them today-running big corporations, serving on boards of directors. They are on the Supreme Court. We just got our first Black woman Supreme Court Justice. Barack Obama served as our first Black President of the U.S. In his election he received the majority of votes from the White state of Iowa.
In 1776 most Black Americans were slaves. I’m not suggesting that we are done, but we have made enormous progress. We didn’t become the richest most powerful nation in the world by accident. We have held our democracy together over all these years with all the conflicts and wars that we have fought. Now we have loud, angry disputes over gun control, abortions, the war in Ukraine, and climate change. On the positive side our Constitution gives us freedom of speech. Let the differences of opinion be heard on tv, in the paper and on radio. The dictatorships of the world restrict their press. I have confidence that we will sort these differences out and move on to a better day. I want to close with a quote by a former Senator who ran for President in the 1970s. He lost, but his reputation as a devoted very religious leader lives on.
George McGovern, Democrat, S. Dakota –
“It is time to live more with faith and less with fear – with an abiding confidence that can sweep away the strongest barriers between us and teach us that we truly are brother and sisters.”
Senator McGovern stood out as a leader for social justice and supported U.S. responsibility to feed the world. God Bless America.
Until next week, this is John Block reporting from Washington, D.C. If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go on-line to www.johnblockreports.com.
