By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 18, 2018 — My life seems to keep getting better. And I’m beginning to believe that it’s because I have cancer. Isn’t that odd? It’s my perspective, of course. I hope all those I know and love don’t have to get a cancer diagnosis to appreciate all they have.…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, July 4, 2018 — Well, God bless America anyway. That’s the mindset good farmers like our neighbors Doug & Karen Lawton have to put themselves in this Independence Day. Yes, the corn looks way better than the old “knee-high by the 4th of July” standard of the pre-hybrids era of…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, June 19, 2018 — Gail Walker, executive director of the international humanitarian organization “Pastors for Peace,” had the same thought I did last week when we all watched in amazement as the United States dramatically ended its decades-old isolation of North Korea. My goodness, could that happen with Cuba, too? …
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 5, 2018 — If you’ve known Terry Rich well over the years, you’ll be shocked at this — when I asked him the other day what being named the 2018 “Bell Tower of Fame” award winner means to him, he lowered his chin, choked back some emotion and said softly,…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER JEFFERSON, Iowa, June 6, 2018 – By proclamation of the Greene County Board of Supervisors, this past Sunday, June 3, was officially “Carla and Chuck Offenburger Day” here in our home county. Reports from the field are that there were no injuries, property damage, fights, protests or arrests. Carla and I are…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, May 25, 2018 — Big news at our Simple Serenity Farm: We are getting a television! It will be the first television in our home since 2004 when we moved here. Before that, since 1996, we had one in the “spare” room for emergency watching of politics or sporting events.…
By CARLA OFFENBURGER OXFORD, Ohio, May 10, 2018 — This is getting serious, folks. Granddaughters Lindsay (10), Casey (7) and Audrey (3) just did a fourth “Master Chef Junior” meal with me last weekend. It proved to be another success for the chefs and for the recipients of a great meal. We spent Friday evening…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER DES MOINES, Iowa, May 1, 2018 — It was fun being able to celebrate with two Des Moines Register editorial writers over breakfast one day last week — the recent Pulitzer Prize winner Andie Dominick and her predecessor on the staff, Bill Leonard. After he retired and then Dominick got his job in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER COOPER, Iowa, May 15, 2018 – It’s been 20 years since a gubernatorial campaign in Iowa has made me squirm as much as this year’s race. Back in 1998, the candidates were Democrat Tom Vilsack, of Mount Pleasant in southeast Iowa, and Republican Jim Ross Lightfoot, from my hometown of Shenandoah in…
By CHUCK OFFENBURGER CARROLL, Iowa, April 26, 2018 — You want voters to understand how important the public library is to people of all ages? You want to have fun with old-timers recalling happy moments in their lives? You want to wake up people about the seriousness of sexual assault in our rural communities? Then…
