Open letter to our Governor

Governor Ricketts,

Thank you for your leadership during this global pandemic, I will never know the hard decisions that come across your desk everyday. I have been a supporter of yours since your campaign in 2014. However, I feel that there have been moments during this crises that you are missing what is important to our state.

Nebraska, is an agricultural state, which of course you know, but are you aware of how much farmers have been struggling the last few years. The price of corn has not been great for awhile now, and many farmers are still recovering from the flooding of last year. And now with the global pandemic, the market is at rock bottom. (I hope!) All this stress is piling up on our farmers; physically, mentally, and financially. And arguably rural Nebraska is the backbone of our great state.

I can not speak for all farmers of course, but some folks out in rural Nebraska feel that you may have forgotten the situation out here. We feel like this because it seems as though you might be more worried about our kids playing sports, and college football, than you are about our kids starting school at the scheduled time in the fall, or opening our state back up safely.

Sports for kids is extremely important, and for some, it is their safe space out of school. And I am very aware of our kids physical and mental health. But are we really ready? The county I live in currently has 9 official cases of COVID-19, but does that even seem possible? I could be extremely wrong about this, but all the counties surrounding ours have rising numbers of cases, and we do not have anymore than last week. Again, I am not an expert, but are we really testing as much as we should or can? Could we bring some testing from the larger urban areas into the rural areas to see if some of these areas are actually as low as we think?

I am just a farm wife, mother, and librarian but I feel that you have forgotten rural Nebraska, and sold us out. We need testing out here, we need to know that you care about the workers on the frontline, we need to get the economy started safely, we need help in marketing our grain here and over seas. And we, the residents of Nebraska, need this before we worry about summer and fall sports.

Sincerely yours,

Rural Nebraska

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