I will be away from the foundation for a week to ten days helping my wife who is undergoing knee replacement surgery. My wife is a nurse practitioner and she always takes care of everyone in the family who needs medical attention –so now it is her turn to be the patient. My job is to be the “rehab assistant” once she returns home from the hospital.

In Missouri and Kansas the state legislatures are winding up their legislative sessions.

In Kansas, hopefully Governor Mark Parkinson will bring a fresh approach to the partisan discussion that has taken place the last few months. Governor Parkinson is one of the finest people public servants I have met… he is a leader with both substance and common sense values. I am hopeful he can get legislators focused on solving issues rather than playing politics.

I used to work in the for-profit sector as a banker and as a publisher of a business newspaper. It was customary for us to regularly conduct focus groups or surveys of our customers to find out what they were thinking about our product or services. Based upon this input, we would redesign our products to offer improved services to our customers.

The month of April is National Child Abuse Prevention Month. This is an issue that is very special to me. Early in my life I worked at Butterfield Youth Services in Marshall, Mo. and I saw firsthand the results that physical, emotional and sexual abuse caused young children. I saw a young boy with burn marks all over his body given to him by his drunken mother.

In the last few weeks two people who have had an important impact on my life passed away—Mike Russell and Gurnie Gunter.

In the last few months the Health Care Foundation has hosted several poverty simulations across the community. In less than two hours a person attending these simulations can feel the pain, heartbreak and despair felt by families every day who live in poverty without jobs and health insurance.

Last week I was in Jefferson City attending a social function for a friend. The dinner was held in a popular downtown restaurant. It was so good to see old friends but I could not get over how difficult it was for me to eat in a restaurant that allowed smoking. Jefferson City is not a clean air community and as soon as I opened the door of the restaurant, the nasty smell of cigarette smoke filled my senses.