Opinions

Loren Lippincott, District 34 Senator As you’re getting to know me as your District 34 state senator, there’s something I want to state for the record: I firmly believe in American exceptionalism. The U.S.A.

This is the time of year that things seem to move very quickly. We are wrapping up our winter season for activities and getting ready to dive in the spring.

If I am not mistaken I probably mentioned something about the excitement of state wrestling last week. After surviving the weekend I think I probably underestimated just how exciting things would end up being.

The 2022/23 school year has been an exciting one as it’s the first full year in the new weight room. As I sit back and reflect on where the Strength & Conditioning program was when I took the job in 2013 to where it is now, I am reminded of the huge growth and emphasis that we have put on development in the weight room. My first 3 years we had three weight lifting classes during the school day with anywhere from 8-20 students in a class. This meant we were only seeing 50-60 kids per day in a weight lifting class. A lot of times kids could not fit the class in their schedule with only 3 sections offered so they’d have to come in before school and for the workout. Between high school and middle school we’d have 40-50 kids working out in the mornings at 6:45 a.m. It was far from ideal.

Loren Lippincott, District 34 Senator With the aptly named Constitutional Carry Bill (LB77) soon to be debated on the floor of the Nebraska Legislature, it is important we spend some time considering the subject of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and the whole issue of firearms and gun control, which has become such a hot button in our time.

Every Nebraska kid should be given the opportunity to have their educational needs met, whether they live in Omaha or Scottsbluff. Every parent regardless of socio-economic status should have the ability to decide what is the best school to meet their child’s need.

Here we are once again and I thank you for coming back to read my ramblings. Here we go.

I am always working to ensure that federal policies make sense for communities in Nebraska. Nebraskans know all too well that rules crafted by career bureaucrats rarely benefit us — in fact, they often harm us.

Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz was once asked to describe the difference between football players today and fifty years ago when he began his career as a head coach. “Simple,” he said, “today’s athletes talk about rights and privileges, and the players 50 years ago talked about obligations and responsibilities.” In my opinion, Holtz nailed one of the underlying problems with our current culture.