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Editorial

THE LOGISTICS OF TRANSPORTING THE COVID-19 VACCINE

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By now, we’ve all heard the good news about the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Each of them is roughly 95-percent effective against COVID-19, and they have both been approved by the FDA.

Thanks to Operation Warp Speed, a public-private partnership between the federal government and these manufacturers, we have developed these vaccines in record time. But creating a vaccine is only part of the battle. The next challenge is getting hundreds of millions of doses where they need to go.

THE 2ND AMENDMENT

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At the end of November, Nebraska closed another successful deer hunting season. While hunting is a great benefit of our constitutional right to bear arms, it is not the primary reason our founders chose to specifically enumerate this protection in our Bill of Rights. Nationwide our Second Amendment rights continue to be under threat. In fact, ongoing attempts by the House majority to weaken our Second Amendment rights, not to mention possible future presidential actions, have destabilized the arms and ammunition markets causing widespread shortages and shocking prices for common hunting and self-defense firearms and ammunition.

Coal Thieves In Capitol City, 1878

The advent of winter at one time prompted many Nebraska householders to lay in a supply of coal. Those who lacked the money sometimes found creative ways to fill the family coal bin. From Lincoln’s Daily State Journal of January 27, 1878: ‘A successful raid was made upon the coal thieves frequenting the [Lincoln railroad] depot night before last. Ever since last fall our dealers have been missing from one to three tons per night taken from loaded cars standing upon the track.

COMMONSENSE HEALTH CARE

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When I meet with hospitals and health care providers around Nebraska, both prior to and during the current pandemic, the impact of unnecessary regulations on their ability to provide care in rural areas is always at the top of their list of concerns. Over the last four years I have appreciated working with the Trump administration on these issues because of their persistent willingness to listen to rural Americans, take these concerns seriously, and act. We cannot afford to go in the other direction.

Hair Hoax In Nebraska, Late 1800s

It was the style during the 1880s and 1890s for women to augment their own long hair with carefully matched hair from other humans or animals. Nebraska women usually obtained this additional hair through local grocers. The trade must have been lucrative, because storekeepers sometimes inserted ads in their local newspapers offering to fill "hair embellishment needs." During the 1930s workers of the WPA Writers' Program of the Work Projects Administration recorded the following reminiscence of a Nebraska woman whose desire for such embellishment in the 1880s led to a joke at her expense.

HEALTHY FOR THE HOLIDAYS

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There is an old saying, “it’s always darkest before the dawn.” It has two meanings. The first is that, despite difficulties, there is hope on the horizon. The second meaning is that circumstances can be at their very worst right before things get better. As we enter December, there are reasons to hope an effective vaccine will become available soon—on a limited basis even this month. At the same time, we may be entering the toughest stretch of the pandemic this winter as people head indoors. It’s time for all of us to put our trademark Nebraska grit and determination to work as we buckle up for the coming months of the pandemic.

Nahum Harwood In Nebraska Territory

Late in the spring of 1856 three young men employed by a civil engineering firm in Boston decided to seek their fortunes in the booming new Nebraska Territory. On August 6, 1856, Nahum Harwood and Horace May joined Benjamin P. Knight (who had preceded them West) in Omaha, which then had a population of about two thousand. Harwood and his friends soon moved north to Florence.

Christmas At The Turn Of The Century

Although the most popular toys for the current holiday season are electronic, more than a century ago the toys in Santa’s pack were likely to be mechanical. The Lincoln Evening News on December 23rd, 1905, said: “One of the surprises of the Christmas season is the increase in the number of mechanical toys and the ingenious methods that have been utilized to make them attractive to the youngsters. A favorite toy for years and advancing in popularity is the miniature engine pulling a train of metal cars. A track is furnished and it can be so arranged that the train is able to travel around and around until the locomotive has exhausted its wound up power.”

LET’S KEEP TRADE ROLLING

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Over the last four years, we have updated our trade relationships and trace agreements at a historic pace. We secured updated comprehensive trade agreements with Canada, Waco, and South Korea; entered into Phase One agreements with China and Japan that address many significant impediments to U.S. exporters in these major markets; and achieved important progress to remove trade barriers faced by particular sectors in several other countries. Together, these nations purchase almost 50 percent of the United States’ current exports. These agreements facilitated increased opportunities and fairer treatment forAmeriean producers and consumers struggling during the pandemic, and they are important platforms to open additional opportunities for US. exporters in the future. In part as a result of these agreements, we have seen exports increase 27 percent from the May low. Mile these agreements continue to bear fruit, it is vital we teat them as the first steps of a long journey toward more open markets and equitable treatment for US. goods and services, not an Excuse to relax when thee so much more work to be done

ROUNDTABLE RECAPS

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While votes are still being counted and recounted, there are other things we must focus on as well – like getting our economy back on track. Through the use of tools like Zoom, I am able to meet with Nebraskans about our economy without skipping a beat.