John Block Reports from Washington

Hello, everybody out there in farm country. The John Block commentary today will focus on Christmas. Yes – we still have the Covid virus to worry about, but families and friends will becoming together for dinners and parties.

And now today’s commentary.

When I was a ten- or twelve-year-old boy, my mom, dad and 2 sisters would join my mother’s
sister and her family. We exchanged gifts and had a delicious dinner. My father opened the event
by thanking God that we could all be together on the farm after a safe harvest.

We talked about our school experiences in our one room country school. Just the week before
Christmas our school with 10 students – eight grades, one teacher -- put on a Christmas program
for all of our parents. We sang songs- Away in a Manger, Silent Night and more. It was our job
to entertain our parents. It was so much fun.

I remember some of the gifts our parents would give us at Christmas. One year my sisters and I
each were given a sled. There was snow on the ground that day and we were so excited to go up
the hill not far from the house and begin sliding down. One year my father gave us a basketball
bank board and hoop. He nailed it up inside the barn. It was on the second floor where we had
stored hay. We never again put hay in that loft until I graduated from high school. Neighbor kids
and friends from our little town would come out to play basketball. That was our gym.

Christmas will be this Sunday. Hope you can get family together and celebrate. It will be cold for
a lot of people. Wednesday December 21 was officially the first day of winter. We don’t want to
let the long list of challenges that our country faces today ruin our holiday season. We have
inflation, a war between Russia and Ukraine, an open border on the South with millions of
immigrants just walking into our country. We need legislation to fund our government so we can
get through the rest of this fiscal year.

In closing I want to thank the American farmer and ag industry. We have only 1% of our people
farming. In Africa 65% of their people farm. And they still have to import $74 billion worth of
food. We export $140 billion worth of food. That’s the contrast.

If you would like to review my radio shows going back more than 20 years, just go online to
www.johnblockreports.com.