35 Years-- Good Decision Making Minds the Present and Future
Our 35 years of decision making have taught us that good decisions are based on what is best for our local community and beyond, for this generation and future generations. An early meeting with a Sandhills irrigator taught me something I will never forget.
In my formative years at the Center, I had the great fortune of working with Jim Wolf, a successful rancher and banker from Albion, Nebraska. Jim helped form a group called the Sandhills Resource Council to challenge irresponsible irrigation development on fragile Sandhills soils.
An irrigator himself, Jim knew the difference between responsible irrigation development on appropriate land and irresponsible development where the land was suited only to grass. Jim worked with me in understanding the federal tax incentives for irresponsible development.
In the early 1980s, when I testified at a field hearing of the US House Agriculture Committee on agricultural tax policy, I asked Jim to testify with me. We sat with several Congressmen in the Sioux City Stockyards, including South Dakota Representative and future Senate leader Tom Daschle, who then was nearly as wet behind the ears as me.
Jim spoke about irresponsible irrigation development, and I spoke about the tax provisions that subsidized it, while helping the largest farms squeeze out smaller operations and beginning farmers. Daschle asked Jim whether he supported my proposals to curtail certain tax breaks that even family farmers used to reduce their tax burden.
Jim said yes and afterward told me something I will never forget. He said that he had been successful and had benefited from those tax provisions, but supported curtailing them because it would be good for his community. Jim understood his stake in his community and knew that his true interest was tied to the good of the community – the common good.
Jim’s words reflect the wisdom of the ages. The renowned theologian Martin Marty, preaching recently in West Point, Nebraska, for the town’s sesquicentennial, shared the same message from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. The prophet told the Israelites as they languished in Babylon to seek the welfare of the city in which they exiled, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
As Marty told us, that wisdom guided the pioneers, founders and builders of communities across rural America. We’ve reflected that wisdom in one of the values that guides our work – conscience that balances self-interest with a commitment to the common good.
We don’t claim to represent the narrow self interests of rural people. We work to build a future based on values that reflect the best in rural people, for in that lies the common good and the true interest of rural people.
Contact: Chuck Hassebrook, 402.687.2103 or chuckh@cfra.org.
In my formative years at the Center, I had the great fortune of working with Jim Wolf, a successful rancher and banker from Albion, Nebraska. Jim helped form a group called the Sandhills Resource Council to challenge irresponsible irrigation development on fragile Sandhills soils.
An irrigator himself, Jim knew the difference between responsible irrigation development on appropriate land and irresponsible development where the land was suited only to grass. Jim worked with me in understanding the federal tax incentives for irresponsible development.
In the early 1980s, when I testified at a field hearing of the US House Agriculture Committee on agricultural tax policy, I asked Jim to testify with me. We sat with several Congressmen in the Sioux City Stockyards, including South Dakota Representative and future Senate leader Tom Daschle, who then was nearly as wet behind the ears as me.
Jim spoke about irresponsible irrigation development, and I spoke about the tax provisions that subsidized it, while helping the largest farms squeeze out smaller operations and beginning farmers. Daschle asked Jim whether he supported my proposals to curtail certain tax breaks that even family farmers used to reduce their tax burden.
Jim said yes and afterward told me something I will never forget. He said that he had been successful and had benefited from those tax provisions, but supported curtailing them because it would be good for his community. Jim understood his stake in his community and knew that his true interest was tied to the good of the community – the common good.
Jim’s words reflect the wisdom of the ages. The renowned theologian Martin Marty, preaching recently in West Point, Nebraska, for the town’s sesquicentennial, shared the same message from the Old Testament prophet Jeremiah. The prophet told the Israelites as they languished in Babylon to seek the welfare of the city in which they exiled, for in its welfare you will find your welfare.
As Marty told us, that wisdom guided the pioneers, founders and builders of communities across rural America. We’ve reflected that wisdom in one of the values that guides our work – conscience that balances self-interest with a commitment to the common good.
We don’t claim to represent the narrow self interests of rural people. We work to build a future based on values that reflect the best in rural people, for in that lies the common good and the true interest of rural people.
Contact: Chuck Hassebrook, 402.687.2103 or chuckh@cfra.org.
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