Mid-Nebraska Community Action Partnership

For twenty-plus years, and counting, your old columnist has sat on the Board of Directors of the Community Action Partnership of Mid-Nebraska. That is a mouthful so most just call it Mid for short. Throughout those years Mid has been doing good things for the citizens of McCook though few people know about it. The local coordinator, for many years, Barb Ostrum, still does things like caring for the homeless and yes, we have homeless individuals in our area. Mid provides rental and utilities assistance and even food assistance for those truly in need. Mid will help you find a job and steer those truly in need to finding assistance through the programs provided by HHS.

Mid is headquartered in Kearney and employs in excess of 250 employees. The majority of which are female as is Meredith Collins the CEO. Within the six counties in Southwest Nebraska plus several small areas in adjacent Kansas Mid operates three Senior Centers but not including McCook’s which is City run.

How about Head Start, pre-kindergarten training for the children, and parents, of families that meet low-income guidelines that need extra help with language and social skills, in getting ready to attend regular public schools? Look closely and you will find that Mid hires, trains, and pays the adults who work there, provides rent for the building and provides the curriculum.

Mid has a large division. RYDE, which provides public transportation throughout Kearney, Hastings and more of that local area. Recently another part of Mid has been busy providing inoculations, Covid 19 and the rest, to a large area up and down the Platte Valley. There are many other small programs that serve people in need throughout our area of responsibility.

Yes, Mid is a federal program and exists from legislation signed by President Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964. It was his innovation to “Stamp Out Poverty.” Community Action Agencies were established throughout the whole United States. Yearly CSBG, Community Services Block Grants, are given to each agency to accomplish their missions. This year’s CSBG for Mid amounted to $824,665.60 and is sometimes supplemented with additional funds as the fiscal year goes by. Actually with other funds flowing into Mid our revenues for this year amount to a little over $6,630,903.

Okay, the reason that your old conservative thinking columnist, me, consented to serve on Mid’s board of directors kind of went against my idea of small government and maximum liberty for all citizens.

Then I thought that the federal handout was going to happen anyway and perhaps mine could be a voice of frugal principle.

What I have found is that Mid carefully tracks every dollar spent to ensure that all goes to the original purpose for which it was granted. Their records are open and honest and have earned the respect of all they have touched. That is perhaps why not only does Federal contribute to help carry out Mid’s mission but also State and Local Government entities plus Community foundations, and local companies who give Mid grants for community good. The list goes on. Mid has proven a record of prudent responsibility that we can all salute. Fiscal responsibility that is regularly checked by independent audit firms from federal to local.

We Board Members are appointed to represent local governmental entities and represent a wide range of income levels. We are all volunteers and receive no money other than travel reimbursement and a free lunch once a month when we meet. I am proud to be a small part of a truly caring organization doing good for each of our communities.

For some years now this old guy has been a bit concerned about our country’s phenomena of social media. Our youth in particular seem to be glued to their computer screens. Many of the games they play are innocent and just plain fun but reportedly there are also a lot that are really bad influences on our youth.

I read of social media curtailing speech and canceling out things written by more conservative-leaning commentators.

They tout their right to do so but in my mind, some of their actions are in defiance of the free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment to our Constitution.

In my way of thinking the whole phenomenon of communication by computer, the social media thing is just new and hasn’t been worked out yet.

Thanks to a sermon that I heard on Sunday an idea has solidified in my mind. I am a student of the Bible. It was first written down thousands of years ago and later the Christian Bible following the time of Christ.

Prior to the written word faith was transmitted by word of mouth and those stories had a tendency to change over time.

Once written down and accepted by scholars and thinkers of each era the word no longer changes. The Bible is the unchanging rule and guide to morality and how people get along and live together.

Through the ages then millions of books were written down and made available to all persons the trend which continues even today. Still, the Bible does not change and all persons have a moral code at their fingertips that they can always pick up and read for themselves.

So far social media has no standard by which we can conduct our lives. Sure the Bible is available online but there seems to be little incentive to refer to it.

Non-believers have taken the Bible out of our public schools and no doubt are working diligently to keep its lessons out of social media.

Hopefully, social media will evolve moral standards, as the Bible has done throughout literature, and the world will be the better for it. One can only hope.

That is the way I saw it.

Dick Trail