Why Is Progressivism So Wrong for America?

The topic of discussion for this Constitution Monday concerns enemies of the U.S. Constitution. This year America celebrates 250 years since the time that patriots first declared independence from Great Britain. It may be time for us to declare independence once again.

In his article published in The Daily Signal, Tyler O’Neil reported on a speech given by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. The talk was part of celebrating America’s 250^th anniversary, and it exposed “the greatest threat to the Declaration of Independence today – the ideology of Progressivism.” 

“Progressivism was the first mainstream American political movement – with the possible exception of the pro-slavery reactionaries on the eve of the Civil War – to openly oppose the principles of the declaration,” the justice said in a speech at the University of Texas at Austin Wednesday. “Progressives strove to undo the Declaration’s commitment to equality and natural rights, both of which they denied were self-evident.”

With his characteristic brilliance, Thomas cut through the Orwellian masquerade of Progressivism to reveal what it truly is – a fundamentally backward movement. By rejecting the solid footing of the declaration, Progressivism opened America to central planning and administrative rule.

While the declaration bases governmental authority on the consent of the governed and God creating human beings with inalienable rights, under Progressivism, “liberty no longer preceded the government as a gift from God but was to be enjoyed at the grace of the government.”

Explaining Progressivism

Thomas noted that President Woodrow “Wilson and the progressives candidly admitted that they took it from Otto von Bismarck’s Germany, whose state-centric society they admired.

Progressives like Wilson argued that America need[s] to leave behind the principles of the founding and catch up with the more advanced and sophisticated system of relatively unimpeded state power.”

Yet Thomas also quoted President Calvin Coolidge, who delivered a powerful address on the 150th anniversary of the declaration.

“If all men are created equal, that is final,” Coolidge said. “If they are endowed with unalienable rights, that is final. If governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed, that is final. No advance, no progress, can be made beyond these propositions. If anyone wishes to deny their truth or their soundness, the only direction in which they can proceed historically is not forward but backward.”

The Rotten Fruit of Progressivism

Thomas laid out exactly how backward Progressivism would take America.

“Progressives believed that Darwinian science, the idea of ever-advancing progress written into biology itself, had proven the inherent superiority and inferiority of the races,” he noted.

“It was only a small step for Wilson to re-segregate the federal workforce. It was only another step for the government to launch sterilization programs on those deemed by the experts of the day to be unfit to reproduce, upheld by my court in Buck v. Bell.”

The declaration’s central claims trace back to thinkers like John Locke, and Thomas noted that “European thinkers have long criticized America for remaining trapped in a Lockean world with its weak, decentralized government and strong individual rights.”

“But we were fortunate not to trade our Lockean bonds for the supposedly enlightened world of [Georg Wilhelm Friedrich] Hegel, [Karl] Marx, and their followers,” Thomas said.

“Fascism – which, after all, was national socialism – triggered wars in Europe and Asia that killed tens of millions,” he noted. “The socialism of the Soviet Union and the People’s Republic of China proceeded to kill more tens of millions of their own people. This is what happens when natural rights give way to the higher good notions of history, progress, or as Thomas Sowell has written, the visions of the anointed.”

(Sowell’s 1995 book “The Vision of the Anointed” exposes the hubris of America’s intellectual and political elite and the mentality behind their destructive policies on education, crime, and family life.)

“None of this, of course, was an improvement on the principles of the declaration,” Thomas added, wryly.

Why the Speech Matters

Thomas’s speech comes as President Donald Trump has attempted to root out much of the Progressivist “woke” ideology out of the federal government and other parts of American society.

Progressivism’s preference for technocratic government today travels alongside other ideas, such as critical race theory (the notion that America is systemically racist and requires a fundamental overhaul), transgender ideology (the idea that a man can become a woman and vice versa), and climate alarmism (the idea that the world is ending due to human use of fossil fuels).

These issues converge into a worldview I describe as “woke,” and that worldview forms the basis of the Left’s infrastructure – which heavily influenced federal policy under President Joe Biden.

Trump has put woke ideology on the back foot, but the Left is not rejecting these ideas. America is strangely fortunate at the 250^th anniversary to have a president who takes pride in its founding, rather than one who rejects the founding as racist, backward, or “transphobic” – but that does not mean the threat is over.

Americans must heed Clarence Thomas’ warning. The battle between the Declaration of Independence and Progressivism isn’t a matter of disagreeing on means to achieving the same ends – such as asking whether raising or lowering taxes will better handle the deficit.

Unfortunately, the battle often boils down to whether America remains faithful to its founding ideals or rejects them in favor of the Left’s latest justification to grasp unlimited power.

Thomas rightly explained that woke Progressivism is actually extremely backward – and America must reject it, not just on the 250^th anniversary of the declaration, but yesterday, today, and forever.

  

What Can We Learn from the Israelites’ Experience?

My Come Follow Me studies for this week took me to Exodus 14-18 in a lesson titled “Stand Still, and See the Salvation of the Lord.” The lesson was introduced by the following information. 

The Israelites were trapped. The Red Sea was on one side, and the army of Pharaoh was advancing on the other. Their escape from Egypt, it seemed, would be short lived. But God had a message for the Israelites that He wanted them to remember for generations: “Fear ye not. … The Lord shall fight for you” (Exodus 14:13-14).

Since that time, when God’s people have needed faith and courage, they have told this story. When Nephi wanted to inspire his brothers, he said, “Let us be strong like unto Moses; for he truly spake unto the waters of the Red Sea and they divided hither and thither, and our fathers came through, out of captivity, on dry ground” (1 Nephi 4:2). When King Limhi wanted his captive people to “lift up [their] heads, and rejoice,” he reminded them of this same story (Mosiah 7:19). So did Alma, when he wanted to testify to his son of God’s power (see Alma 36:28). And when we feel trapped—when we need a little more faith to “see the salvation of the Lord”—we can remember how “the Lord saved Israel that day” (Exodus 14:13, 30).

The scripture block teaches several principles, including (1) The Lord can do a “great work” in my life (Exodus 14; 15:1-21); (2) The Lord can make bitter things sweet (Exodus 15:22-27; 16:1-15; 17:1-7); (3) The Lord offers me daily spiritual nourishment (Exodus 16); (4) Jesus Christ is my spiritual rock and living water (Exodus 17:1-7). This essay will discuss principle 3 concerning daily spiritual nourishment.

The Lord offers each of us daily spiritual nourishment. Just as we need daily food to nourish our bodies, we also need daily spiritual food to nourish our spirits. Yes, the Israelites needed food as they wandered in the wilderness for forty years, and manna provided that nourishment. However, manna provided an important spiritual lesson.

The Lord provided manna every single day except on Sunday. To make sure that the Israelites had food on Sunday, He sent twice as much manna to them on Saturday and told them to gather for two days. The experience was given to teach the Israelites the importance of relying on God.

The Israelites’ experience with manna is a lesson for us also. There are things that he has given to us that we should “eat” every single day. Two of those things are personal prayer and scripture study. As we are obedient to offer daily prayers and to study scriptures daily, we can gather enough spiritual food to sustain during that day. As we live one day at a time by eating of the spiritual manna, we will grow closer to Christ and more like Him.

Some videos that help to teach this principle are: “Daily Bread: Pattern;” “Daily Bread: Experience;” "Daily Bread: Change;" "Daily Restoration.” 

Why Are Better Marriage Rates Essential to Improved Birth Rates?

 Families grow stronger as they can “build” upon prior generations. Whether it is faith or wealth, parents can strengthen the next generation by what they say or do, and strong families strengthen communities, states, and nations.

Babies are necessary to build families. Any time that a couple decides not to have children, they are decreasing the size of their family for all future generations. If a couple has two children and one of the two children does not marry and have children, the posterity for that family is cut in half. If the pattern continues in future generations, it will not take long for the family to disappear. Family continuance is one reason that birthrate matters.

Another reason birthrate matters is national security. As the birthrate drops, there are fewer individuals willing to defend the country. A third reason birthrate matters is care for older generations. If there are no younger generations, who cares for the elderly? There are other reasons, but all of them deserve study and better understanding.

The important thing to take from this essay is that the birth rate continues to fall in the United States, and this is not a good thing. In her article published in The Daily Signal, Rachel Sheffield

explained “The Real Reason America’s Birth Rate Keeps Falling.” 

Birth rates in the U.S. continue to fall, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

U.S. birth rates have been steadily declining for more than a decade now, and the total fertility rate (the number of births a woman is projected to have over her lifetime) has continued to hit new lows for several years.

The preliminary data released this month from the CDC suggest the downward trend in fertility continued in 2025. The birth rate dropped from 53.8 births per 1,000 women in 2024 to 53.1 in 2025, and the total number of births declined by 22,534.

Some media outlets and scholars say the drop in birth rates is good news, and that it is driven by declining teen births as well as by women in their 20s delaying relationships and motherhood until they are more financially and emotionally prepared. They argue births will be made up for down the road.

The reality is not so rosy, though. Teen births did decline, but the overall drop in the birth rate is driven mostly by a declining share of Americans marrying and forming families at all. Declining births among women in their 20s are not being made up for later on either, as marriage is delayed ever further into the life course.

Examining the change in birth rates by age:

·       Birth rates among teenage young women dropped, particularly among older teens (ages 18-19).

·       The largest decreases in birth rates were among women in their 20s.

·       Birth rates among women age 30 and over increased, or in some cases remained steady (among women ages 45-54).

Yes, it is true that teen birth rates fell, which is good news, particularly when we are talking about minor-aged teens. But teen births are too small a share of total births these days to move the needle of the overall birth rate much at all. This is especially the case if you look only at births to minor-aged teen women, the group we should be most concerned about.

Teen births peaked in the early 1990s, after rising for several years. Since then, they have declined drastically, a positive and remarkable reversal. Today, teen births are a small fraction of U.S. births.

In fact, if we had only seen the declines in teen births while the birth rates among other women had remained stable (no decreases among women in their 20s and not even increases among women ages 30 and above), the overall birth rate would have remained nearly stable.

What is happening is that an ever-increasing share of people are failing to marry and have children when they are in their prime childbearing years. With every passing year, the age of marriage increases, fewer people are marrying, and that leads to fewer children being born. Delayed marriage reduces the likelihood of ever marrying. Researchers project that roughly one-third of Gen Z will not have married by age 45 and may never marry at all.

Married couples are much more likely to have children. The average number of children born to married couples has been steady for about three decades, although with some dip in the last few years. The drop in the birth rate is primarily driven by a decline in marriage rates.

While there has been a bump in births among women ages 30 and older – indicating that some of the decline in births to young women are delayed births rather than births foregone – the increase in births among women 30 and older are not enough to make up for the declines in births among younger women.

There are more consequences to declining marriage than fewer births, too.

Marriage is a good in itself. Marriage is one of the strongest factors associated with adult happiness and is also connected with increased household income, better health, and greater psychological well-being for adults.

Children raised in married-parent families also do better on these outcomes, as well as several others: greater educational attainment, lower delinquency rates, reduced likelihood of abuse.

While there are some silver linings in the new birth rate data then, including declining teen births, the underlying story is much bleaker. It’s a story of declining marriage and family formation. This comes at great cost – including a shrinking future generation.

 

Why Is America Destroying Iran?

The liberty principle for this Freedom Friday concerns the principle to “Know Your Enemy.” This principle involves discernment, which helps us to see past the smiles that do not reach the eyes and the agreeing words. It means more than “Trust but Verify.” It means to truly know your enemy: know the culture, know the national history, know the personal history, and know the patterns and records.

The United States has a pattern of being split down the middle on whether the US should be fighting a war in Iran. One half remembers the history of the past 47 years, and the other half does not. Being a child in 1979 or being born after that date is not an excuse. Here is information that all Americans should understand. This division emboldens our enemies.

Suzanne Downing produces a daily newsletter for Alaskans titled the “Alaska Story – where the conversation happens.” In a recent newsletter, she recounted the history of the US-Iran issue and stated that Iran hopes that Americans do not have a long memory about the terrorist regime. 

The trouble with public memory is that it resets itself every few years when a new crisis arrives, a new slogan takes over the airwaves, a new generation of commentators discovers the same old regime and speaks about it as though history began last Tuesday.

Iran benefits from that amnesia. The clerical regime in Tehran has spent decades cultivating proxies, arming terror networks, directing covert attacks, and leaving behind a trail of dead Americans, dead Jews, dead dissidents, and dead civilians across multiple continents.

Yet every so often, the conversation circles back to whether Iran can be trusted, whether it only wants security, whether the West has somehow misunderstood its intentions. The record says otherwise.

For at least three decades, Iran has been identified by the United States as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism. It reflects a long pattern tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and its Quds Force, which have financed, trained, armed, and directed groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Shiite militias in Iraq, and the Houthis. Tehran prefers the language of “resistance.” The graves of Americans tell a more truthful story….

A partial list of Iran-sponsored terrorism, as provided by the State Department [follows]:

·       November 1979: Iranian students, backed by the regime, seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran -- taking 66 Americans hostage in a 444-day standoff.

·       April 1983: The Islamic Jihad, an Iran-backed terrorist group, carried out a suicide car bombing at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17 Americans.

·       October 1983: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 241 U.S. military personnel – including 220 U.S. Marines and 21 other service personnel – in a truck bombing at a Marine compound in Beirut.

·       March 1984: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists kidnapped CIA station chief William Buckley on his way to work in Beirut, ultimately killing him the following year.

·       September 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed 23 innocent people – including two American service members – in a car bomb attack at the U.S. Embassy annex in Beirut.

·       December 1984: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists hijacked Kuwait Airways Flight 221 enroute to Pakistan, diverting it to Tehran—where they brutally tortured and killed two American officials.

·       June 1985: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist hijacked TWA Flight 847 on its way from Athens to Rome, torturing a U.S. Navy diver before shooting him point blank in the head and tossing his body onto the Beirut airport tarmac.

·       July 1989: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed U.S. Marine Col. William Higgins after kidnapping him the previous year while serving with a United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

·       April 1995: Iran-backed Islamic Jihad terrorists killed eight people – including one American citizen – in a car bomb attack in the Gaza Strip.

·       August 1995: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing an American and three other passengers, and wounding more than 100 others.

·       February 1996: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber blew up another bus in Jerusalem, killing three Americans and wounding three other Americans.

·       March 1996: A suicide bomber linked to the Iran-backed Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist groups killed 20 people – including two Americans – in a suicide bombing at a Tel Aviv shopping center.

·       May 1996: Iran-backed terrorists killed an American-Israeli dual citizen and wounded another American citizen in the West Bank.

·       June 1996: Iran-backed Hezbollah Al-Hijaz terrorists killed 19 U.S. Airmen and wounded nearly 500 others in a truck bombing at a U.S. Air Force housing complex in Saudi Arabia.

·       September 1997: Iran-backed Hamas suicide bombers blew themselves up at a shopping mall in Jerusalem, killing an American-Israel dual citizen and wounding seven other American citizens.

·       August 1998: Al-Qaeda suicide bombers, facilitated by Iran-backed Hezbollah, simultaneously bombed U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people – including a dozen American citizens.

·       August 2001: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a Jerusalem pizzeria, killing three Americans.

·       January 2002: An Iran-backed al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade terrorist killed an American-Israeli dual citizen in the West Bank.

·       July 2002: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist killed five Americans in a bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

·       June 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas suicide bomber killed 17 people – including an American citizen – on a bus in Jerusalem.

·       August 2003: An Iran-backed Hamas terrorist blew up a bus in Jerusalem, killing five Americans and wounding one other American.

·       October 2003: Iran-backed Popular Resistance Committees terrorists killed three U.S. diplomatic personnel in a bombing in Gaza.

·       Between 2003 and 2011: Iran-backed militias killed at least 603 U.S. troops in Iraq – “roughly one in every six American combat fatalities in Iraq.”

·       August 2006: Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorists killed American citizen and Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldier Michael Levin during the Second Lebanon War – the only American to die in the conflict.

·       January 2007: A dozen men affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force killed five U.S. soldiers and wounded three others in Karbala, Iraq, after disguising themselves as U.S. soldiers and entering the Provincial Joint Coordination Center.

·       March 2007: Former FBI Agent Robert Levinson disappeared in Iran, likely dying in an Iranian prison.

·       July 2014: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed two American citizens serving in the IDF.

·       October 2015: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed an American citizen and his wife in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank.

·       December 2019: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed an American civilian contractor and wounded several U.S. service members in a rocket attack at K1 Air Base in Kirkuk, Iraq.

·       January 2020: 109 U.S. troops suffered traumatic brain injuries in an Iranian ballistic missile attack on the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq.

·       September 2020: U.S. intelligence indicated the Iranian regime was considering a plot to assassinate the U.S. Ambassador to South Africa.

·       February 2021: An Iran-backed militia fired a rocket at coalition forces in Erbil, Iraq, wounding a U.S. service member and four U.S. civilian contractors.

·       July 2021: Iranian-backed militias wounded two U.S. service members in a series of rocket and drone attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

·       September 2022: An Iranian rocket attack killed an American citizen in Iraqi Kurdistan.

·       November 2022: An IRGC captain orchestrated the killing of an American citizen in Baghdad.

·       March 2023: An Iranian drone attack killed an American contractor and wounded five U.S. service members and another contractor in a strike on a coalition base in Syria.

·       October 2023: Iran-backed Hamas terrorists killed 46 Americans and kidnapped at least 12 Americans in the October 7^th massacre.

·       December 2023: Iran-backed militias wounded three U.S. service members in an attack on Erbil Air Base in Iraq.

·       January 2024: Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah terrorists killed three U.S. service members and wounded more than 40 other service members in a drone attack against the Tower 22 military base in Jordan.

·       Between October 2023 and November 2024: Iran and its proxies conducted more than 180 attacks against U.S. forces in the Middle East, wounding more than 180 U.S. service members and killing three service members.

·       November 2024: An Iranian national and IRGC asset was charged for plotting to assassinate President Trump.

·       June 2025: Iran-backed militias attacked at least three U.S. bases in Syria and two U.S. bases in Iraq.

As one can see from this “partial list of Iran-sponsored terrorism,” Iran has been at war with the United States since 1979 when the regime first took Americans hostage. Since then, Iran-backed militias killed at least 996 Americans (plus hundreds of other people) and wounded hundreds of Americans (plus other people). Iran wants “Death to America” and has killed hundreds of Americans. It is past time that the United States fought back against an enemy that has been at war with us for 47 years! I am grateful that we have a President willing to take the war to Iran before they get a nuclear weapon!

What Else Is Hidden in Burn Bags and Secret Rooms?

Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) and “Deep State” or “swamp” are real. Ancient Americans such groups “secret combinations.” Many people hate President Donald Trump so much that they will oppos anything that he does. Other people thought TDS was just a figment of imagination, but it has proven to be real. It comes to different levels of severity. A mild case may simply be judgmental about Trump’s morality – two divorces, three wives, filthy mouth.

More severe levels affect the thinking: Whatever Trump says or does is wrong and must be opposed. Some people have such bad cases of TDS that they hope that Iran wins the war because they do not want Trump to succeed.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has been instrumental in uncovering records proving that there is TDS. In his article published at The Daily Signal, Pedro Rodriguez explained that Gabbard declassified and released documents on Monday that “she says show that officials within the Intelligence Community mishandled and politicized a whistleblower complaint that ultimately led to President Donald Trump’s first impeachment in 2019.” 

According to Gabbard, the newly released records allege that what she described as “deep state actors” collaborated with then-House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to advance what she called a “false narrative” surrounding the whistleblower complaint.

In a statement accompanying the release, Gabbard accused Schiff and Pelosi of withholding transcripts of closed-door congressional testimony from former Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson – records she said would have undercut claims of Trump-Russia collusion dating back to 2017.

Gabbard said those transcripts were kept from the House Judiciary Committee until March 24, 2026, when they were released following a forced vote led by House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rich Crawford.

The declassified documents, Gabbard said, show that Atkinson departed from standard inspector general investigative procedures and relied on what she characterized as politicized and manufactured narratives when handling the whistleblower complaint tied to Trump’s July 2019 phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

According to the records, Atkinson’s preliminary inquiry involved interviews with only four individuals: the whistleblower, a friend of the whistleblower who assisted in authoring the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment on Russia and weas an associate of former FBI agent Peter Strzok, and two character references who lacked firsthand knowledge of the Trump-Zelenskyy call.

The documents further state that the whistleblower acknowledged having no direct, firsthand knowledge of the call. One quoted statement attributed to the whistleblower reads, “I do not have direct knowledge of private comments or communications by the President.”

Gabbard said the records show that no formal or complete investigation was conducted before the complaint was transmitted to Congress. Despite lacking firsthand evidence, she alleged that Atkinson moved forward in a way that exceeded his statutory authority and “weaponized” the whistleblower process.

By disregarding guidance from the Department of Justice and relying on secondhand information, Gabbard said Atkinson facilitated the complaint’s transmission to Congress, its referral to the FBI, and its eventual leak to the media.

Gabbard argued that Schiff and Pelosi then used the secondhand allegations to drive media coverage and lay the groundwork for Trump’s impeachment by the House in December 2019. “The politicization of the whistleblower process by a former CIA employee who was working hand in glove with Democrats in Congress (is an egregious example) of the deep state playbook on how to weaponize the Intelligence Community,” Gabbard said.

“Exposing these tactics and showing how they undermine the fabric of our democratic republic furthers the critical cause of transparency and accountability and will help prevent future abuse of power,” she continued.

  

Can Improved Fencing Make Ranching Country More Friendly?

Tonight, I found an article that interested me and that takes my mind off the war in Iran, politics, and other such subjects that keep pounding like drums in my ears. This article has to do with ranchers, stock, fences, finances, conservatists, and numerous other topics.

Technology is helping ranchers and conservationists to work together rather than be antagonists. According to an article by Kevin Lind in the Deseret News, ranchers across the West are adopting technology to help control their animals. 

Most people know that dog owners use collars and virtual fencing to control their dogs. Now ranchers have an upgraded and much more useful version of that used with dogs. Instead of spending tens of thousands of dollars for fencing that is destroyed with the next elk herd or moose moving through the area, ranchers can use virtual fencing to keep their animals in an area, while allowing wildlife to move freely through the area. Lind reported, “Ranchers are using virtual fences to cut costs and use every inch of available acreage.”

Instead of wood, steel and barbed wire, all ranchers need are a hearty collar, some transceivers and a digital connection. It’s a tool one purveyor called an “unlimited fencing budget.” …

Rather than having to build miles and miles of expensive barriers that neither stock nor wildlife can get through, they manufacture variations of a collar that is affixed around a cow’s or sheep’s neck that carries a transceiver connected to a cloud-based software system. The collars emit light, sound, vibrations and – when necessary – a small shock.

Ranchers and the technology companies don’t love the comparison [with fences used for dogs] ….

In this case, however, the stock’s exact location is tracked and compared to the predetermined boundaries of a virtual fence. As the animal gets closer, it gets warned on the side of the boundary – the stimulus is delivered on either the right or left side of the collar – by sound, then vibration and, if ignored, shock.

The digital software part of the platform, however, really leaves that dog collar analogy in the dust. While it does many things, the platform’s most important function is to create virtual, uncrossable boundaries that ranchers can then set from the comfort of their own home, truck or horseback.

Almost like a video game, ranchers can design, change and move pasture boundaries with a few clicks of their finger in a user-friendly app. So long as they have a phone or tablet handy with a healthy wifi or cell signal, they can determine where to – and where not to – graze their herd.

The flexibility means that, depending on where there is healthier grass or more water, ranchers can move their “fences.” If there’s a particular parcel with great grass that cows don’t often frequent, they can ensure that the cows settle there. If there’s an overgrazed parcel, they can close it off. If they want to keep their cattle next to but not in their neighbors’ unfences silage patch, they can.

Virtual fencing is not cheap, necessarily, but some ranchers are penciling it out and finding the costs – considering fence maintenance, material, feed and time – are in the new technology’s favor.

The implications are not just exciting for ranchers, either. Conservationists and wildlife advocates also like the technology.

With 620,000 miles of fence criss-crossing the West on public and private land, there’s the potential to remove barriers that kill a large number of ungulates every year and disrupt the ecosystems reliant on those large mammals’ migrations. On public lands, cattle wearing collars can be corralled to help repair riparian areas, kept away from camping sites or used for various other regenerative efforts.

For the first time, virtual fencing allows livestock managers to manage only the animals in their keep, said Travis Brammer, the director of conservation for the Property and Environment Research Center, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on making conservation voluntary and economically sound….

Who Is Joe Tuia’ana?

My VIP for this week is Joe Tuia’ana who had his own mental health crisis when a dear friend died, but he saved another man from jumping off a bridge. Then he organized a support group for that one man. Lois M. Collins reported the incident in her article published at the Deseret News. 

Like many young boys, Joe acted the part of Superman by wearing a Superman pajama shirt and using a towel pinned around his neck as a cape. On January 29, 2022, he became a real-life hero. Even though he was struggling with his mental health, he was trying to be a good single dad to his three daughters. One day he was driving his youngest daughter to play basketball. He noticed a car parked wrong and impeding traffic. He squeezed past the car and glanced in the rearview mirror.

At the bottom, he glanced in the rearview mirror and saw the driver “kind of ninja jump over the protective fence.” The 20-something man was staring down at the highway below. By then, his kids were screaming frantically and Joe thought, “You’ve got to be kidding. I just don’t have any energy to put toward anyone but me, me, me,” he later said, before what he describes as a “come to Jesus moment.”

He went back, telling his oldest daughter … to call the police and [the two younger girls] to chill. Then he began to walk across the bridge.

He wanted to throw up. He was sweating profusely and having a panic attack. Two things were clear to him: He was not a superhero. And half Samoan and half Italian, he knew his size – 6-foot-3, 315 pounds – was intimidating. He was afraid he’d scare the guy.

“Please, please Lord,” Joe prayed, “let this man know he’s loved.” By then, he was close enough to see how sad the man looked and felt tears pouring down his own face….

Not sure what else to do, Joe threw his arms open wide, like a giant bear hug. Yelling over the roar of cars speeding by below, he approached, repeating over and over, “I love you, bro.” When he got close enough, he grabbed the guy and hauled him back over the barrier, where they sank to the pavement, arms around each other, both sobbing and trembling…. Joe just kept whispering in his ear, “I love you, bro.” …

After he’d been treated for the acute phase of his crisis, Aron [the young man] reached out to Joe, who’d given his number to a first responder to give to him. Joe was anxious to help him, but an online search for long-term suicide prevention resources tailored to men didn’t yield much.

So Joe created a support group just for Aron. He contacted a few men he knew, like a buddy from his fantasy football league, and cobbled together a group of six or seven guys willing to show up for a struggling stranger.

Nothing fancy. Not mental health per se. Just guys willing to share their own stories and listen to his. They all found it therapeutic.

The next time they met, a few of the guys had told other guys, so the group was a little larger. And so it went, week after week, until soon it was an actual thing that clearly begged to be formalized. So Joe, with no mental health training, but a big heart and a lot of love for people in crisis, launched the I Love You Bro project. It’s been growing ever since, with now 14 different weekly meetings from Logan to Spanish Fork. By now, more than 3,000 men have participated. Sometimes a handful of guys show up. Sometimes a couple dozen. There’s no formal program, no therapy, just a safe place to talk about what’s been bottled up inside….

Dr. Eric Monson of Huntsman Mental Health Institute says men are less likely than women to recognize their mental health challenges. And much more reluctant to talk about them. Depression can show up as irritability or feeling on edge. Men sometimes dive into work harder or they don’t feel well. They may use drugs or alcohol to numb their feelings. Monson said recklessness and temper flares are among men’s externalizing behaviors, and those can create legal problems.

My point for choosing Joe as my VIP for this week is to show that just average people – an average Joe – can do something to help another person.  In Joe’s case, the group he spear-headed after helping Aron has helped more than 3,000 other men. We never know what we can accomplish until we try.

For more of the article, follow this link.