On one hand I have to give Governor Pillen a lot of credit. It takes guts for a politician to admit that they are wrong these days and change course. Though he never uttered the word, Governor Pillen admitted he was wrong when he decided to enroll the state of Nebraska into a Federal Governments program to help feed children during the summer months. Pillen first refused the money from a new EBT program would give families with children in need an additional $120 to help feed them during the summer months. This money will help provide nourishment when these children don’t have access to the free or reduced-price breakfasts and lunches at school.

Originally the Governor had rejected the eighteen-million-dollar federal grant to fund the program by saying that Nebraska already had programs in place to handle the needs of these lower income families. But upon further review — after talking to state Senator Ray Aguilar, seeing protesters outside his residence, a petition with over 6,000 signatures and a proposal in the Unicameral that would force the state to accept this money — Governor Pillen saw the writing on the wall and backed down.

And like I said, on one hand it takes guts for a politician to admit they were wrong. Even if the citizens of the state force him to admit it.

But on the other hand, it never should have gotten to this point in the first place. When Governor Pillen first announced that he wouldn’t be accepting those federal funds he made a point of saying that handing out this money would be redundant since they were already feeding those kids through other programs. But upon further review it appears the state didn’t really have those programs in the first place. That’s something he should have known before he made the bad decision.

Now to be fair the blame may fall more on Governor Pillen’s staff and advisors than it does on the Governor himself. I don’t know for certain, but there’s a good chance that his advisors didn’t inform him of the need, or if they did, they didn’t press hard enough to make him understand that there are children in this state that don’t get enough good food during the summer months.

Originally, Governor Pillen had said that he was opposed to taking the eighteen million dollars because he didn’t believe in welfare (even though his businesses had accepted government help in the past).

I was a child in the 60’s but even as a 12-year-old I was paying attention to the news. And I recall the anti-war and civil rights protesters of that era chanting a slogan that said, “If the people lead the leaders will follow.” And it appears that’s just what happened in this case. The people spoke up and the leaders heard them, and for that you have to give the Governor some credit.

Of course politics had to show its ugly head when Governor Pillen made the announcement that he had changed his mind. He only had Republican politicians behind him when he told the press of his decision. But it was a Democratic State Senator who introduced the proposal in the Unicameral and liberal groups like Nebraska Appleseed who spearheaded the campaign to accept those funds. It would have been a good time to show some bipartisanship since hungry children have no party affiliation.

But in these hyper partisan times, it appears that asking for a show of bipartisanship is asking for a little bit too much. So, it’s probably best to just appreciate the fact that Governor Pillen changed his mind. Now he didn’t admit that refusing the money in the first place was a mistake — because you’ll never find a politician from either party admitting that they made a mistake. However, you rarely find a politician from either party agreeing to change their mind, especially on a program that had such a high profile.

So let’s give the Governor some credit. It’s better late than never. Maybe the families that will receive this money can show their thanks to our pork producing Governor by using some of that money to buy bacon or ham.

Tom Becka is a long time Nebraska broadcaster who for over 30 years has been covering Omaha and Midwest issues on both radio and TV. He has been a guest on numerous national cable and news shows, filled in for nationally syndicated talk radio programs and Talkers Magazine has recognized him as one of the Top 100 talk show hosts in the country 10 times. Never afraid to ruffle some feathers, his ‘Becka’s Beat’ commentaries can be found online on Youtube and other digital platforms.