Lessons I learned in Nebraska

is hard to believe that I spent only a little over two-and-a-half years living in Norfolk, Nebraska, when I consider the number of people I met and things that I got to do.

Before heading for Nebraska on Labor Day 2015, I had visited just 10 states. By the time that I left in April 2018, that number had doubled. There were many people that I interviewed, ranging from Nebraska Gov. Pete Ricketts (who is also the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs) to an ex-boyfriend of Kim Kardashian’s who had roots in our newspaper’s coverage area.

There were also the winters. In northeast Nebraska, major snowstorms are a common occurrence every winter — and sometimes even in the spring, like when we got 7-8 inches of snow on April 14 one year. Another common occurrence? Cold weather. The thermometer dropped below -20 two of the three winters that I lived there — which makes the cold stretch that we had in February look almost balmy.

However, I also learned a pair of very important lessons when I lived there.

The first lesson that I learned is that when it comes to matters of politics and government, be informed.

One of the (at the time) perks of living in Northeast Nebraska is that it was very close to the Iowa State line during the countdown to the 2016 Iowa caucuses. Not long after I moved there, I realized that I could finally see a lot of politicians up close that I had heretofore only seen on television.

While seeing (and meeting) many of them was indeed exciting, what really stood out to me is how getting a fuller picture of them — and more importantly, their positions on the issues — changed my opinion of many of them. It gave me a perspective that I did not see just watching the evening news.

Too many times, people don’t take the time to get informed on political candidates and political issues. It is really easy, especially in this busy world, to just rely on a 30-second soundbite on Fox News or CNN, or a post on social media. However, to get a proper understanding of a candidate or an issue, a person needs to take the time to do research. Read the newspaper. Visit their website. And if you do get a chance to attend an event they are speaking at, please do so. We need to base our decisions on who is going to lead us on more than just soundbites and social media posts.

The other lesson I learned is that more people need to get involved when it comes to government and politics. When I covered the Norfolk City Council, one of the things that we always did was take a headcount of everyone in attendance at the meeting — not only of the elected officials that were present, but also of the city leaders that were there and of how many citizens were in attendance.

One thing that always surprised me is unless it was a hot-button issue, it was very common to have less than five citizens attend a city council meeting.

I’m not saying everybody should attend every city council meeting, every meeting of the planning and zoning commission, every school board meeting or every county commission meeting. But it is important to stay in tune with what our elected officials are doing, because their decisions affect us.

Local government bodies make decisions about mill levies that determine how much our property taxes will be. City council ordinances can determine whether or not Poplar Bluff residents can talk on the phone while driving through town (I used to live in a city that banned it), how city residents must maintain their yard, or even what kind of pets a resident can own.

When I worked at the Norfolk Daily News, we always closed our meeting preview stories with the words “Remember, government works best when citizens are informed and involved. Attending the public meetings of governmental bodies is an excellent way to accomplish that.”

Mike Buhler is a staff writer for the Daily American Republic. Contact him at mbuhler.dar@gmail.com.