Land, love and leadership

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WAYNE COUNTY, PA — As a public servant and farmer, and as a father and grandfather, Republican Brian Smith tries to lead by example. He becomes choked up when he speaks about the challenges of our era, and stands for the restoration of civility between citizens who do not share the same political views.  

As the end of day began to embrace the Smith farm in Damascus Township, he cared for his animals and spoke candidly when asked about his hopes for the coming election.

“Let’s  talk about my hopes for my family, that they have the quality of life that my wife and I had. About this country, I care about peoples’ ability to make an affordable living. I see what is happening to the price of land and what things cost everybody and it worries me horribly.”

“I’d like to see secure borders again,” he continued. “I do believe that this is a melting pot and a free country, and I’d love to see people come here who are ambitious and who want to work, but many, many people have done that illegally.”

“I’m hoping that Republicans get elected to do those things,” Smith said. “I hope the best for our country and our young folks, because—again—I want them to have the quality of life that we had.”

“When it comes to our county, it’s same thing. I worry about the future. I worry about farmers, about peoples’ ability to make a living on the farm. I think that we’ve done a lot of things locally that are putting things in place, like getting an ag  curriculum back in our local schools for young kids. I think we’re at that point again, where a lot of people are aging off their farms, and we need young folks to learn about agriculture.” Learning about agriculture “is not just milking cows, he said. It “is not just raising beef. There’s a lot of things you can do to diversify and get back on the farm.”

“Our national security is based on our ability to produce our own food on our own land for our own people,” Smith said. “That’s critically important. We need to come back to the land, back to a quality of life which I still desire for my children and my 17 grandchildren.”

Smith emphasized that this will happen with collaboration between political parties, not division—with a returned to comity. He uses the Wayne County Commissioners’ bipartisan collaboration as an example of that as a blueprint for those who think it’s impossible.

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