HARD TIMES ON THE RANGE

                                               

I look at what is going on up on the Iron Range, with unemployment and it breaks my heart. It’s always been the dream of the American family to settle down someplace, have a family and not only make a mark for yourself but also to have the satisfaction that through your own hard efforts, you succeeded. All you needed was for someone to give you a chance. Just someone, to give you a job. Everyone needs a purpose in life and a job, besides giving you an income, gives you that purpose.

Growing up in Staples, a small town I remember coming home from school one day as a ten or twelve year old, to find my father, who was always working, sitting at the kitchen table in the early afternoon, talking with mom. He looked especially worried and concerned and that was just not dad, so I asked,” What’s wrong?” dad put his hand on my shoulder and said, “I have been laid off from the railroad.” Then he added, seeing my concern, “But it’s going to be alright.”

I look at what is going on, on the Iron Range and my heart goes out to those people. Thousands of them with no jobs. Thousands of them who want nothing more than to provide for their families and have purpose in life. Getting up each morning and not knowing if they should be angry or sad, but feeling so helpless. Some say,” Move away from there and go where there are jobs.” Let me set the stage. You’re forty-one years old and have lived on the range all of your life. Your dad was a miner and so was grandpa, your wife’s dad and three of your uncles. You have worked your way up the ladder at the plant to a supervisor and you’re proud of the place and all the people you work with. It’s been rewarding, a steady income. You have a modest home, a wife and three kids in school. That same school both of you graduated from. It’s a small town where everybody knows your name. So move away and do what? Start over in the middle of your life? You have a house you couldn’t sell if you wanted to. You’re a miner-- you have no other skills. All your friends and family live here.

Industries fail for many reasons but the number one reason is nobody wants your product anymore. It’s either to expensive or obsolete. In the case of the range, its product is not obsolete but it is too expensive. Replaced by cheap steel from other countries. The answer would be simple if we weren’t in a tit for tat deal with those countries. We buy their products and they buy ours. Yes, that’s what has changed. We are now in a world economy. As much as I hate government intervention into private industry, its time to diversify the range workers. Get some of those eggs that are now all in one basket, into something new. And with the proper incentives this could happen. This is where governments can help, without creating a welfare state. More benefits are a band-aid approach but that’s all right, if you have something better to replace them with in the near future that might be a solution.

My dad got his job back eventually but eventually too, the railroad left that town. But the people didn’t give up when it left and they brought in new industry and the town still thrives. It’s the same size today that it was when I left it fifty some years ago. That all happened a long time ago but it still works.

EARTH DAY

                                               

On April 22^nd of this year, we celebrated earth day once more. A day dedicated to this wonderful planet we all live on. For all of my life, from the day of reasoning on, I have been in awe of it. I find more beauty in a field of wild weeds and flowers then in anything mankind has ever created. The creatures we share this planet with, never cease to amaze me with their resilience, to all we have done to them. Sadly not all of them were able to survive the onslaught but in some cases we woke up to what we were doing and helped them. Sadly again, we can’t seem to stop what we are doing to destroy them and their habitat and so it all might all be a moot point.

Just the fact that 7.1 billion of us exist on this planet makes for an untenable situation. We all have to eat, drink, breath and give off waste and at some point we will overwhelm the earths ability to cleanse itself. At some point we will use up all of the natural resources such as clean water and clean air and at that point our numbers will decline in what seems to be a heartless cycle of birth and early death. None of this is intentional; it’s just a by-product of our existence. The end is inevitable if we continue the way we are, but it’s not the end unless we want it to be.

The same mankind, who has poisoned the earth, can through modern technology unpoison it but right now the desire is not there. Something called greed and money has gotten in the way. I have walked across the Mississippi river at lake Itasca and saw the clear clean water that gives birth to this mighty river. I have crossed it also at the other end, where it is for all practical purposes an open sewer, emptying into the Gulf of Mexico creating a death zone, or hypoxic area of 6,500 square miles where little can live.

Many places in the U.S. are running out of fresh water. Aquifers have been pumped dry and in some places seawater is encroaching them, filling the void, ruining them forever. The earth is literally collapsing over some of them in places. Rivers are contaminated with chemicals and lead. Even the oceans are filling with debris. Glaciers that fed streams with fresh water are receding. In Oklahoma the ground shakes everyday from man made earthquakes from fracking but the beat goes on.

I have only touched on a few problems for our earth created by mankind. Believe me there are many more. I found out in the last month that I have two great grandchildren coming in the next year. Today I wonder what kind of water they will drink and what kind of air they will breathe. When I was born, three quarters of a century ago, none of this was a problem. Just think how insignificant 75 years is, in the millions of years this rock has been rotating around our star. But that’s all the time it took us to put this earth on the path to ruination. I want those great grand babies of mine to still celebrate earth day like I did. To stand and sing, “Oh beautiful, for spacious skies. For amber waves of grain. For purple mountain majesties across the fruited plain” and be able mean it. Mankind will never destroy the earth; we will only make it uninhabitable. And then long after we are gone Mother Nature will slowly repair it-- but by then, it will be too late for us.

WHAT IS LOVE?

I read a letter in the paper a while back, written by a mother who’d just lost her three year old daughter. I was moved by her letter, but moved even more by her faith that is propping her up right now. Here was someone who understands what love and loss is really all about. For, in the midst of all her grief, she talked about the greatest love of all—the love that came to us all in the miracle of Easter.

I also read, online, of a woman who attended a Garth Brooks concert, back in Minneapolis, after having a round of chemo that very morning. She held up a sign during the concert that read, “Chemo this morning, Garth tonight, enjoy the dance.” He stopped the concert to have her brought right down in front where he could honor her. Yes, my friends, that is love.

There was an old man, down in Florida where we stayed, who walked his equally old dog every day. Their gait was slow and hesitant, but you could hear him talking to the dog and encouraging him along. I asked him how old the dog was, and he said “About sixteen.” Yes,” he said with a tired smile, “We’re both getting to the end of the road, aren’t we, Rocky? But that’s okay.” Again—more love.

I often reflect and remember when she was alive. I would be writing, and then looking up at her she would catch my eye, smile and wink at me, or touch my hair as she passed my chair, or sometimes, she just opened her arms and embraced me as if she never wanted to let go, and I never wanted her to let go. That, too, was love.

Why aren’t these the stories of every day instead of war and hate, and politicians smearing each other? Even our music has gone from Frankie singing “Yes you’re lovely. With your smile so warm and your cheeks so soft. There is nothing for me but to love you and the way you look tonight” to some rapper, spewing out profanity.

All too often, we have forgotten how to love. Love for many is now a new cell phone or a video game, shoved in your kid’s face, and “There, now leave me alone!” Love is not knowing what you like— but it’s knowing what your kids and spouse like—and acting accordingly. It’s playing catch with your son, in the backyard, when you’re so weary you can hardly throw the ball. It’s reading a story to your little girl, that you have read so many times you have it memorized, with a Raggedy Ann doll between you. It’s lying in bed, watching the love of your life sleeping, and feeling nothing but contentment and how lucky you are to be there, fifty years after you first met.

Everything I ever truly loved turned out to be something I never wanted to forget. Everything I truly hated only haunts me for the rest of my life. Dr Seuss said,” You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.” In true love there is no ‘you or I,’ just a desire to laugh together when you make a fool of yourself, and cry together when you are hurting. Oh, how much better our lives would be-- if we only knew how to truly love each other.

UNDERSTANDING OLD DRIVERS

                                   

Today I’m directing my article towards those of you who, at least to my line of thinking, have little patience for those of us who are in the twilight of our lives and still have to live in your world. There was time when I too, uttered an oath to my wife about the old fart in front of me on the highway who was going barely the speed limit. “They should give him a ticket for going this slow,” I muttered. To make things worse she didn’t always agree with me.” You see for some reason I was living in my world and didn’t care to know the reasons, this old fart was holding me up.

Most people drive the speed they are most comfortable at. For some that is barely the speed limit and for others that is at least ten to fifteen miles an hour over the limit. I’m not comfortable driving that fast, so I’m an impediment to those who wish me off the road. I can either make you “the speeder” happy and have an accident or I can make sure my partner and I get there in one piece. I have when travelling tried to stay out of others way, but that’s not always possible, as when you are on a two lane road. To be sure I don’t want to be the cause of an accident either, so I do try to go the legal limit, which I think in the eyes of the law, was supposed to be the fastest you should go anyway and not the slowest you should go, before the guy behind you has a melt down.

I tried once, as an experiment, to set my cruise control at the maximum speed limit on highway 25 from Brainerd to Foley. Every person who came up behind me passed me, including a patrol car. It’s not a safe road to pass on in most places so I finally relented and kicked it up a bit before I caused a wreck. I drove to Florida on Interstate 75, which is three lanes. I camped out in the middle lane and everyone passed me on both sides. Until there was a wreck and then we all sat still.

Now I know, I have all the time in the world, or at least some people think I have. I get no credit for judging the correct amount of time for my trip and leaving in plenty of time. I have noticed in my years of driving that the biggest problems for traffic jams are accidents. Accidents that would never have happened if people were driving safe for the conditions. Now we all sit and wait because you were in such a big hurry.

Modern navigation systems make planning your route a whole lot easier and have helped seniors a lot with their driving and especially when you are driving alone. But technology is still no substitute for being alert and aware of what is going on around you. Like the dimwit that is driving three feet off your back bumper weaving in and out looking for the slightest chance to pass you. He will be the one that will be right beside you at the next red light you stop at.