Thank you farmers

These photos were taken about a week ago in southwestern MN. The Fall Harvest goes non-stop until all is done. Thank you all, good farmers of America, and around the world.....and to the ingenuity that invented the machinery to release the rest us non farmers to do our parts to contribute to society. I could not swing a hammer ...all day and grow enough to eat at the same time. We owe much to those who do the planting and harvesting.

This Has Been Along Time Coming

From a email I posted 5/1/2010

Today is the 35th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, and there may even be a few editorial written today, saying we should have fought on to some mythical victory, or some will say we should have never gone. As we all know, should have, and could have, isn't what happened, and for all of us who were around at the time, and made the choices we made. We are left to live with those choices.

So after all these years, rather than debating either side of should have, could have, I'd like to briefly describe my April 30th of 35 years ago. The impact of those images of Saigon falling will never leave me.

35 years ago today I was living and working in Lincoln Nebraska. I had bought a old house the year before; I was working as an apprentice carpenter; I thought I had worked my way through all my inter-conflicts with my time in Vietnam seven years earlier, and life was good. Then I came home to my old two story frame house in need of many repairs, after work on April 30, 1975, and turned on the TV, got a beer out of the frig, and sat down to see what had happen that day on the news. Saigon was falling right in front of me. For along time I wanted the war to end, but never gave consideration as to how it would look. Well, seeing those images on television that day, it didn't take long to realize, my inter-conflicts were still present and accounted for.

There I was, forced to face a truth which I had avoided from the time I came home in 1968 to that moment. “It was all for nothing.” To give your all in a six minute wrestling match, or forty eight minutes of a high school football game, and loose. Well, everybody lives to play another day. In war, when it's all over after giving it your all, there are some who don't live to fight another day, win or loose. It was overwhelming sitting there trying to comprehend the amount of death and destruction, some of which I caused, as if I were tallying up the final score. Then the tears came that I had been holding back for the previous eight years. The events of that day made for a long night, but by morning, I had everything stuffed back down as all good soldiers do for god and country, and went to work in the morning. It was another ten years before I said ouch, thus beginning my journey home, finally.

Every soldier, of every war, win or loose, lives with the remnants of their wars. It's a downside that isn't given equal measure as countries give in it's lives lost, and dollars and cents spent. Maybe someday. Then we just might pick our wars differently

There is a connection

Looking for a cause?

There is a connection from this, " my way or the highway, or " no way," of some our politicians behavior, to this bullying of, and by our children. Bullying is taught or conditioned into children out of fear, as much as they are taught basic manners. There are 300 hundred million people in this country, who are each unique. To govern means compromise and acceptance. Our children need to hear and see it practiced

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Be Guided by the truth

To quote Delbert McClinton, “If you can't lie no better than that, you better go ahead and tell the truth.” People have fought and died to defend the Constitution which in part protects freedom of speech, and each of us have an obligation to all those who have paid the price for that freedom, to speak the truth, especially when it relates to facts about our governance. Here is a link to give one and all an idea how far off course our country has veered. Agree or disagree, but make sure you are guided by the facts. Here are some examples of the truth be damn. We have to do better, or we'll all be damn
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=obama&sp-a=00062d45-sp00000000&sp-advanced=1&sp-p=all&sp-w-control=1&sp-w=alike&sp-date-range=-1&sp-x=any&sp-c=100&sp-m=1&sp-s=0&x=47&y=13

Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again. ~Henri Cartier-Bresson

Example one... a moment after they had both finally retired and before dad died, probably sometime in 1981, they finally had just each other to care for, and I think they did in their quiet ways. Thanks to brother Patrick for taking this photo, and thanks mom and dad for everyting else. It is photos like these that keeps the "everything else" in focus for me, and especially them.

If you don't believe excess carbon in the air/atmosphere is having a negative effects on the planet, here's an experiment you should try. Clear out your two/three stall garage of all the crap you haven't used in the last three years, pull the most used family car back in, and start it up. Close the garage doors, and fire up the barbie. But wait, don't run off, rather gather the family in the garage, and invite a few of your closest friends for some good old fashion dead burnt flesh......then muliply the effects by say 2 billion, given the number of humans on the planet That is just one days worth........Weee just ventng