This Blessed Earth – The book Nebraska’s Governor doesn’t want you to read

It’s disappointing to see that politics are polluting something as benign as One Book One Nebraska 2019. In this 15-year-old program, a committee from the Nebraska Center for the Book selects one book a year and encourages everyone across the state to read and discuss. The book always is either written by a Nebraska author or has a Nebraska theme or setting. Nebraska’s Governor usually issues a proclamation. There are book clubs and public readings and the author travels the state giving talks.

The 2019 book, This Blessed Earth: A Year in the Life of an American Farm Family, written by Ted Genoways, follows a farming family from harvest to harvest.  “Ted Genoways explores this rapidly changing landscape of small, traditional farming operations, mapping as it unfolds day to day. This Blessed Earth is both a concise exploration of the history of the American small farm and a vivid, nuanced portrait of one family’s fight to preserve their legacy and the life they love.”

Pretty benign, right? This year, Governor Pete Ricketts, our ultra-conservative Republican governor, and big Trump fan refused to issue a proclamation. Ricketts, who admits he hasn’t read the book, says he won’t issue the proclamation because Genoways has been critical of Trump. He claims that Genoways is a political activist. Ricketts is known to use his family’s millions (his grandfather started Ameritrade) to stack Nebraska’s one-house non-partisan legislature with senators who will vote the way he wants them too.

I’m resisting the urge to say “Governor Ricketts, naner naner boo boo” because the controversy has led to the book selling out! Ha! Nebraska’s economy is driven by agriculture and anything that helps Nebraskans, and anyone else, understand the backbone of our state – our farmers – can only be a good thing.