May You be Blessed (or cursed) to Live in Interesting Times

I’ve heard many times that this is an old Asian proverb, and whether you think it’s a blessing or curse, it’s certainly come true; these are interesting times.  In my most recent blog, I said that the camel’s nose was under the tent, well, not only is the camel in the tent now, it’s knocked the thing down and trampled it!  Radical animal rights groups made great strides over the summer in their goals by intimidation, stock purchases and just plain fear.  Sound familiar?  It should…sounds like stories of mafia activity in big cities in the 70’s and 80’s before RICO legislation turned the tables, somewhat. 

Congress left town with so much business undone, it’s scary.  Should one of us be fortunate enough to go on a six-week cruise, or tour of Europe, if we left town with all of our bills outstanding and no plan in place to pay them in our absence, do you think our creditors would be as understanding as the American public is being forced to be?  No?  Me either.  But, here we sit; no farm bill, no estate tax legislation, no lots of things that matter to farmers, and no assurance of when it might happen….maybe lame duck, maybe in January….maybe, maybe maybe.  At no time has congress recessed without a farm bill in place, not since the very first one in 1933…back in the days when farming was still important to folks in Washington.  Seems that most of them think that their food comes from the grocery store, and as long as brick-and-mortar businesses are going strong, we’re all going to eat okay. 

But, the bright side to this is that legislators are in their home districts, either campaigning or manning the post, so I encourage you to reach out to your federal legislator’s office and speak up.  At no time is your voice more important to an elected official as in the home stretch of a major election year, whether they’re up for re-election or not.  

So, really…these people WORK for YOU, we elected them to do just that, and not only do they have a responsibility to listen to you, they have an obligation.  If you contact your federal legislator or legislative candidate and feel the proverbial brush off, you know how to fix it…in the voting booth on November 6^th.

Now, for a little mea culpa…I’ve been signing these blogs for quite some time now with ‘feel free to contact me at rhonda@sfntoday.com’.  I only recently learned that I had not been receiving those emails for technical reasons that I’ll not bore you with. (shorthand for ‘I don’t understand’) But, it’s fixed now, so if you’ve sent an email to me at the aforementioned address and received no reply, I’m truly sorry, it wasn’t that I didn’t think your remark, question or point valid…I just never saw it.  And didn’t know I didn’t see it.  When this little problem was discovered, there were 18 pages of unopened emails…yep, 18 pages.  Soooooo, I said just to delete them all and start over!

So, I’ll say So Long for Now, and once again encourage you to contact me with any advice, comments, questions, what have you at rhonda@sfntoday.com and I promise I’ll answer this time!

Rhonda Garrison
Director, Southern Farm Network & SFNToday .com