Tragedy and news over the weekend

Greetings! Where to start?

Very early Saturday, June 14 Vance Boelter, dressed as a police officer and driving a police car, entered the home of Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and shot and killed her and her husband, Mark. Hortman’s home is located in Brooklyn Park, a suburb located north of Minneapolis. Next, just nine miles away in a town called Champlin, Vance Boelter entered the home of Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and shot him and his wife, Yvette. Both are still alive but in critical condition in a Minneapolis hospital.

A statement put out by our South Dakota legislature reads, “Our deepest condolences go out to their loved ones, colleagues, and the people of Minnesota. In this moment of grief, we also pray for peace, compassion, and a renewed commitment to civility in Minnesota and across our country.”

The gunman, Vance Boelter, left the second home on foot after exchanging gunfire with local law enforcement. The police did confiscate his unauthorized police car.

In the fake police car a list of his targets was found; a list of who he planned on murdering. It is numbing just trying to write about this horribly tragic event.

Also on Saturday, the Army celebrated its 250th birthday. Yep! The Army was born before our nation, which celebrates its 250th birthday next July. It makes sense because we had to fight the Revolutionary War before we became a nation.

In Washington D.C. the Army had a huge celebration with a huge parade, music, fireworks and an eight-minute speech from our commander in chief.

Saturday was such a beautiful day, Marcia and I recorded the parade and watched it Saturday evening (fast forwarding through the commercials). What a spectacular event. Of course my favorite part was the golden knights parachute team jumping in with a U.S. flag flown at the capitol and one of the young paratroopers presenting the U.S. flag to President Trump. Doesn’t get any better than that. Hooah hooah! If you didn’t get a chance to watch the Army parade, pull it up on the internet. It is a must see. Go Army! Beat Navy!

The last huge event over the weekend was Israel taking a preemptive strike on Iran’s nuclear sites. This resulted in an all-out war of drones and ICBMs. Israel killed several nuclear scientists and most of the top generals in the first strike. 

I’m not trying to sensationalize this strike that has already escalated to full scale bombardment. This is a very scary situation. What happens if not all of Iran’s nuclear assets were destroyed? Will Iran launch a nuke at Israel?

Pray for peace. Pray for the families of the slain legislators in Minnesota.

Gov. Rhoden has postponed our special session regarding the state prison scheduled for July 22. Lt. Gov. VenHuizen asked that he do that. This is the biggest expenditure our state has ever endured, estimated at $830 million. I plan on attending the prison summer study meeting on July 8 and will report back to you. Pray for peace!