The Tributary News November 27, 2019

The Tributary Where opinions & knowledge flow!

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Volume 10 Issue 46

In This Issue:

November 27, 2019

* Page 2 * Page 4

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Baseline Kevin Ross Attends Budget Hearings

– Way of the World –

by Bob Grand Impeachment is a serious matter. Under section four article two of the United State Constitution impeachment is the result of being found guilty of treason, bribery or high crimes and misdemeanors. The Democrats are convinced that the President is guilty of something, he has to be. The main crime being that of having won the Presidency and beaten Hilary Clinton.

Now I have thought about this and did some historical research. Upon hearing an interesting observation on one of the talk shows I decide to do some quick research, thanks to Wikipedia, I think I have found the model best describing what the House Democrats are using. “It all started in 1948 with a concept for Warner Brothers, leading to the first episode on September 15, 1948 with the production of the Road Runner cartoon entitled Fast and Furry-ous, how ironic. In that we were introduced to the Road Runner and his archrival Wile E. Coyote. There were 49 cartoons made averaging six to seven minutes. Chuck Jones, one of the principle writers, based on the coyote in Mark Twain’s book “Roughin it”. Twain described the coyote as a long, slim, sick and sorry looking skeleton, that is a living, breathing allegory of want. Wile E. is a pun of the word wily. The E stands for “Ethelbert”. It was noted that the coyote could stop at any time, if were not that he was a fanatic. The coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures. He his known for absurdly complex contraptions that always backfire on him. So now you understand why I think Road Runner, representing the President, and Wily E Coyote representing a multiple of Democrats are the model for what is going on. What do you think?

There is a piece in this issue by Jarett Stedman on Andrew Jackson. It deals with the Washington elite issue in Jackson’s time which just seems to have gotten bigger and worse over the years. With over 3,000,000 current government employees, it is easy to understand how the long time, bureaucrats can believe it is their organization and forget that they are supposed to work for the people. The latest testimony at the impeachment inquiry by state department officials appears to reflect that they fault the President’s approach as not using their tried and tested processes. Unfortunately, as time has shown, their tried and tested processes have overall, failed, and by the way, he is the President, who has the ultimate responsibility for foreign policy. Jackson’s observations are as applicable today as they were then.

Quite frankly they apply to all federal, state and local organizations. Government employees should remember that they work for the people, all the people, and not just for their organization or themselves.

Bill Bennett had a recent piece on his new book, America: The Last Best Hope. In it, he reminds folks to celebrate what is right about America and don’t just focus on our failures. He states that we should study and understand the times we have failed, sometimes badly, but also focus on the good. “ America history is the story of a great people who time and again have managed to save themselves and others to correct wrongs and preserve what is still the world’s best hope.” I am tired of people constantly berating our county, our heritage and what we represent. We are a nation of immigrants that have built and maintained a form of government that has become a magnet for the rest of the world. For those who constantly tear down what we are I have to ask, look around, what is really better?

Bill Barr, the Attorney General of the United States, had a piece on the Horn news, which were excerpts and comments on his speech at Notre Dame’s Law School recently. There he warns of the new religion of the left. He notes how hard it is for Americans to keep their faith in the land of the free. He noted the lefts control of mass communication, pop culture, the entertainment industry, and academics in their unrelating assault on everyday Americans. The majority of Americans are being exposed to what the hard left is attempting to do. We all should be focusing on policies and what they are or are not accomplishing. In my view the American people are being to see the Wily E. Coyote actions of the hard left that are doomed to failure as the Coyote was.

America needs a two-party system where both sides can negotiate and develop solutions to the many issues that we have. Our current modus operandi in Washington and Denver do not foster that productive dialogue. Until that happens, we will not make the progress we deserve from our elected officials, all of them.

As usual, your thoughts and comments are always appreciated. Publisher@ lostcreekguide.com

Cardinal Community Academy Looking for Volunteers

Are you looking for a new way to give back to your community? The Cardinal Community Academy (CCA) is actively recruiting candidates for a Community Member on its Board of Directors. CCA is a public charter school serving students in grades kindergarten through eighth grade. Board Members play an vital leadership role in governing the school toward a successful future. Board Members can expect to contribute up to 6 volunteer hours per month toward Board business. This opportunity is a great way to support one of our local schools, the children it serves and play an important role in your community!

If you are a member of the CCA Community and are looking for a rewarding volunteer opportunity, please look on the CCA website on the Board of Directors page for more details or e-mail Carey Thoene with question at careythoene@re3j.com. We are looking forward to hearing from you!

Postmaster: Send address change to The Tributary Box 581, Keenesburg, CO 80643 Periodicals Postage Pending at Keenesburg, CO

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T H E T R I B U TA R Y

Baseline

By Linda Meyer My name is Linda, and I am a farm kid from Illinois.

Welcome to Baseline. I am the Pastor at Community United Methodist Church in Keenesburg.

The publisher of the Lost Creek Guide offered to let me write a column for the paper. If he is crazy enough to make that offer, I am crazy enough to write a column.

When I have to introduce myself, I usually start with the fact I am a farm kid from Illinois. I think that explains a few things about me. I know the value of hard work, I know what it means to do business with a handshake, and I know how to stretch a fence and replace the grain pan in a combine. (Please do not ask me to help repair a combine. That was a long time ago, and farm machinery has made incredible leaps in technology since then.)

My husband and I, and our family, moved to Colorado in 1995. I grew up in a small church in a town of 500 people, so in many ways Keenesburg feels like I am home. I am getting to know the town and some of the residents. I have been a minister for just over three years. I was the Pastor at Evans United Methodist Church for three years, and became the Pastor at Community UMC on July 1, 2019. As a United Methodist Pastor, I am here for the whole community – not just the members of my church.

My college degrees are in Agriculture, and I spent over twenty years working with satellite imagery, aerial photographs, maps and geographic information systems before becoming a minister. This was not a planned career move, but now I know I have been training all my life to become a minister.

My brother and I now own the family farm in Illinois, all 244 acres of it. I realize that sounds small by today’s standards. It has been in the family since the early 1800’s, when it was homesteaded by an ancestor. As land prices continue to rise, we are content to own a small farm. We raise corn and soybeans. Due to the cold, wet spring we had this year in the Midwest, we were only able to plant one field of corn. We were unable to get the rest of the farm planted, so it’s a good thing we had crop insurance and were able to receive Prevent Plant payments. The field of corn has already been snowed on, but hopefully it will be combined in the next week or so. We custom hire someone to do all of the work on the farm; we do not lease the land to anyone.

Why Baseline for a title? In surveying, a baseline is a known location to start from to complete the project. For me, it is where I come from: my background and my experiences. Plus, I love baseball (three bases and home plate), and music (only that would be a bass line). I do not plan for this to be a religious column. I plan to write about my life and experiences, farming, baseball, weather, science – whatever comes up or anything I find intersting. Most people have a pre-conceived notion of what a minister is like, and I hope to show you those ideas aren’t always right. Most of us are regular people, who find ourselves doing something extraordinary.

Thanks for reading my column. Laughter is encouraged. Until next month, stay curious!

---Linda Meyer is the Pastor at Community United Methodist Church in Keenesburg.

Find Linda on Twitter at @RevLindaMeyer

November 27, 2019

TRIVIA Does Geppetto smoke, in Disney’s Pinocchio?

YES What fruit’s whit flesh is called copra?

THE COCONUT’S What was Jerry Terrell the only major leage baseball player to oppose in 1981.

THE PLAYERS’ STRIKE What is it that Hungarians call “gulyas”?

GOULASH What Brenda Lee biggie suggests: “Later we’ll have some punkind pie and we’ll do some caroling”?

ROCKIN AROUND THE CHRISTMAS TREE Who awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Jonas Salk and Tennessee Williams?

JIMMY CARTER What 1956 movie put Marilyn Monroe on the cover of Time?

BUS STOP What bird family does the cockatoo belong to?

THE PARROT FAMILY What section of Walt Disney World became home to the world’s largest geodesic Sphere?

EPCOT CENTER What Pennsylvania city did Charles Dickens not had “a great quantity of smoke hanging over it”?

PITTSBURGH What folk-rocker called Shot of Love his most perfect song?

BOB DYLAN What milestone age did Pat Boone reach in 1984?

FIFTY Who do the Siamese cats blame after trashing the living room, in Lady and the Tramp?

LADY What compoany’s slogan is “We bring good things to life”?

GENERAL ELECTRIC’S

November 27, 2019

Also on This Day ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY 2005 Aerosmith and 50 Cent headline a $10 million bar mitzvah For seasoned showbiz veterans Steven Tyler and Joe Perry of Aerosmith—middle-aged men long past worrying over their perceived “legitimacy”— the offer of a $2 million appearance fee for a 45-minute performance at a private event in New York City must have been a true no-brainer.

ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY 1942 Guitar legend Jimi Hendrix is born in Seattle. Hendrix grew up playing guitar, imitating blues greats like Muddy Waters as well as early rockers. He joined the army in 1959 and became a paratrooper but was honorably discharged in 1961 after an injury that exempted him from duty .

U.S. PRESIDENTS 1911 Elizabeth Jaffray, a White House housekeeper, writes in her diary about a conversation she’d had with President William Howard Taft and his wife about the commander in chief’s ever-expanding waistline.

WESTWARD EXPANSION 1868 Colonel George Custer massacres Cheyenne on Washita River Without bothering to identify the village or do any reconnaissance, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer leads an early morning attack on a band of peaceful Cheyenne living with Chief Black Kettle.

ART, LITERATURE, AND FILM HISTORY 1940 The actor and martial-arts expert Bruce Lee is born in San Francisco, California. In his all-too-brief career, Lee became a film star in Asia, and a pop-culture icon, posthumously, in America.

NATURAL DISASTERS & ENVIRONMENT 1703 An unusual storm system finally dissipates over England after wreaking havoc on the country for nearly two weeks. Featuring hurricane strength winds, the storm killed somewhere between 10,000 and 30,000 people.

T H E T R I B U TA R Y

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This Day in History - November 27, 1095 Pope Urban II Orders First Crusade

On November 27, 1095, Pope Urban II makes perhaps the most influential speech of the Middle Ages, giving rise to the Crusades by calling all Christians in Europe to war against Muslims in order to reclaim the Holy Land, with a cry of “Deus vult!” or “God wills it!”

Born Odo of Lagery in 1042, Urban was a protege of the great reformer Pope Gregory VII. Like Gregory, he made internal reform his main focus, railing against simony (the selling of church offices) and other clerical abuses prevalent during the Middle Ages. Urban showed himself to be an adept and powerful cleric, and when he was elected pope in 1088, he applied his statecraft to weakening support for his rivals, notably Clement III. By the end of the 11th century, the Holy Land—the area now commonly referred to as the Middle East—had become a point of conflict for European Christians. Since the 6th century, Christians frequently made pilgrimages to the birthplace of their religion, but when the Seljuk Turks took control of Jerusalem, Christians were barred from the Holy City. When the Turks then threatened to invade the Byzantine Empire and take Constantinople, Byzantine Emperor Alexius I made a special appeal to Urban for help.

This was not the first appeal of its kind, but it came at an important time for Urban. Wanting to reinforce the power of the papacy, Urban seized the opportunity to unite Christian Europe under him as he fought to take back the Holy Land from the Turks.

At the Council of Clermont, in France, at which several hundred clerics and noblemen gathered, Urban delivered a rousing speech summoning rich and poor alike to stop their in-fighting and embark on a righteous war to help their fellow Christians in the East and take back Jerusalem. Urban denigrated the Muslims, exaggerating stories of their anti-Christian acts, and promised absolution and remission of sins for all who died in the service of Christ.

Urban’s war cry caught fire, mobilizing clerics to drum up support throughout Europe for the crusade against the Muslims. All told, between 60,000 and 100,000 people responded to Urban’s call to march on Jerusalem. Not all who responded did so out of piety: European nobles were tempted by the prospect of increased land holdings and riches to be gained from the conquest. These nobles were responsible for the death of a great many innocents both on the way to and in the Holy Land, absorbing the riches and estates of those they conveniently deemed opponents to their cause. Adding to the death toll was the inexperience and lack of discipline of the Christian peasants against the trained, professional armies of the Muslims. As a result, the Christians were initially beaten back, and only through sheer force of numbers were they eventually able to triumph.

Urban died in 1099, two weeks after the fall of Jerusalem but before news of the Christian victory made it back to Europe. His was the first of seven major military campaigns fought over the next two centuries known as the Crusades, the bloody repercussions of which are still felt today. Urban was beatified by the Roman Catholic Church in 1881.

SUDOKU

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T H E T R I B U TA R Y

November 27, 2019

Kevin Ross, Weld Commissioner at Large Candidate Attends Budget Hearings; Finds County Approach to be Conservative

Kevin Ross, Weld County Commissioner at large candidate, recently attended both days of budget hearings for Weld County. The hearings consisted of every county department making their case for their requested budgets for the fiscal year 2020. Ross, the only candidate to attend the hearings for both days, had this to say regarding the process, “The budget hearings were great, I believe the best way to thoroughly learn about an organization is to dive into their financials. The county has done a great job of being fiscally conservative and that continues in the 2020 budget. I applaud all of the departments for taking on this mantra and doing their part in making sure that we don’t grow government any more than absolutely necessary.”

“The county is being very conservative on the expenditure side of the ledger; they are working similarly to my approach as Mayor of Eaton. We understand the added revenue from Oil and Gas is a wonderful benefit; however, it may not continue to be around for a long time due the continual attacks from our Governor and the State Legislature. The county is doing a great job of saving the additional revenue by creating a rainy-day fund and not growing long term liabilities that will not be able to be funded down the road should our state shut down energy production.”

When replying to what was the most exciting part of the budget process, Kevin stated, “The Commissioners had a very healthy discussion regarding the Mill Levy Rate for the upcoming year. Options were presented ranging from lowering the Mill Levy Rate from the current 15.038 by 1 mill, to leaving the rate currently set and taking some of the temporary relieved Mills and making them permanent (currently 7 mills are temporarily relieved). Ultimately it was decided after much discussion and investigation to leave to Mills where they currently are (some of the lowest in the state) due to the uncertainty in the legislative arena and economy. Think this is the wisest choice and ensures that future boards continue to have options to utilize down the road and won’t be saddled by constraints by an outgoing board.”

“There are many challenges financially that the board continues to tackle,” said Ross, “When you look at the bevy of state mandated programs that are pushed down to the county that in large part are unfunded by the state, it presents many challenges. I believe you must approach it just like I do in business and make sure you don’t over staff and continue to find more efficiencies in processes and technology. This would be my observation on how the county is approaching it as well. They are continuing to invest in infrastructure and keeping the size of government as small as possible, which I feel is the proper and responsible way to govern.”

“Ultimately,” Ross stated, “it’s all about being fiscally responsible with the tax payers’ dollars and making sure that we continue to lead the country as the only county that doesn’t have any long-term or short-term debt. We don’t want to saddle our children with a burden that they didn’t agree to!”