Nebraska isn’t known as a battleground state when it comes to presidential elections. That tag usually goes to Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, along with Georgia, Nevada, and Arizona.

With a snap of your fingers, we are all suddenly in the middle of a new season. School is back in session.

All of us in central Nebraska, I imagine, have a bevy of things for which we ought to be grateful. However, in the modern era, the methods by which we express that gratitude have evolved.

As we all know, state legislators have been called back to Lincoln for a special session this summer to tackle the state’s high property taxes. As has been written here before, good luck with that.

On Sunday, the world’s top golfer wept, and, if I have to admit it, I got teary-eyed too. Unless you have been living under a rock, there is a good chance that you have encountered, in one way or another, the Olympic fever that has swept the globe and has engulfed the United States.

Summer is usually a relaxing time in Lincoln. College students have left, state lawmakers have gone home, the weather gets hot, the backyard tomatoes get ripe, and the biggest debate around town is whether this is the year the Huskers become relevant again in football.

Rural communities across Nebraska have struggled with population loss for decades. The last census indicated that, of the state’s ninety-three counties, sixty-nine had lost population between 2010 and 2020.

When you turn on your television to watch the local news, scroll through your phone, log in to social media, or even just swap gossip over a cup of coffee in the morning, there is a lot to see, listen to, and learn.

By the time you read this, state senators are expected to be trudging back to Lincoln for a special session on property tax relief. The word “trudging” reflects the general distaste senators have for special sessions, which disrupts the lives of these part-time, underpaid ($12,000 a year, plus all you can eat and drink) lawmakers.

Anyone who has ever had older siblings knows that in life there is a pecking order, and often that order never changes. Sure, there are moments— like when you are nine years old and it’s your birthday, so your parents let you ride in the front seat—that the pecking order is relaxed, but for the most part, no matter how old you get, things stay the same.