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| Power Belongs to The People Always Has In A True Democracy Especially Those Who Grow Sustainable Food |
Recount fever has hit hard in the Missouri where Amendment #1 is concerned. This "so-called" Right To Farm legislation narrowly passed with three organizations demanding a recount to ensure transparency and accuracy in the vote counting process. All of these organizations are ones that stand strong for the small independent farmer in the "Show Me" State: Missouri Rural Crisis Center, Missouri's Food for America and Missouri's Farmers Union. The recounts are scheduled in different voting precincts for this Friday in Barton County. While I had planned to volunteer to witness the recount process, other things -- like paying gigs badly needed to pay medical bills -- are going to prohibit my participation this democratic validation of what really went down on August 8th in this State. Too close to call is an understatement.
As the President of the Missouri's Farmers Union stated in a press release, only a few votes per voting district could make a difference. My silent prayer was that it was so close that it would end up on the November ballot where it really belonged in the first place. Why Governor Jay Nixon claims that Amendment #1 was unnecessary in press junkets and then turns around and approves the move of this amendment to the August primary election instead of keeping it where it belonged in November is a mystery only he can answer. Constitutional Amendments are harder to get rid of than ticks on a summer cat. They're slippery creatures that slide in and out of places that you didn't think they would go, they stay forever unless something drastic is done. A Constitutional Amendment can only be reversed if thousands of voting citizens' signatures are collected in petitions demanding that the amendment be voted on again in a later election. How soon would the People be able to re-vote on Amendment #1 and have it removed? Probably not until 2016 according to someone more knowledgable than me about these matters of state politics. However, there are people out there who were motivated by the volunteerism that cropped up during this past effort to defeat Amendment 1 and they are not standing still. Recently, Boone County held a People's Visioning Session with good ideas and pioneer spirits trying to unit for change in Missouri. We need more of a balance of power in the legislative halls of Jefferson City. Right now that balance is out of whack for sure. My favorite States that I've lived in over the years have had a good balance between Republicans and Democrats who collaborated to bring about positive change that was driven by those who voted them into office. Where have those days gone? Where are those public servants? Face it. Our government -- state and federal -- officials have not been living up to their campaign promises. A friend back East refers to our dual Party system as the "Repuglicans" and the "Democraps." Makes me laugh whenever I hear my friend use the terms because it makes so much sense to me these days. My respect for elected officials has dropped to zero with the events of the past seven years. My belief is that most of them say what they believe will get them elected, then proceed to forget every promise made to their voters because they think the voters will forget. Let's not forget and go to the polls in force next November to show them that voting is still our right to choose who represents us.
So, if the Amendment #1 vote stands, that means people who finally woke up and realized they probably didn't vote they way they'd intended for Small Independent Family Farmers practicing sustainable agricultural methods by voting YES on Amendment #1 cannot try to reverse the damage that their vote caused. Some of them are waking up and are pretty upset about being fooled by those misleading television ads fueled by deep-pocketed, carpet baggers from out-of-state entities and foreign-owned monster corporations and employees of Political Action Committees funded by Big Ag companies. But it will take until 2016 for that reversal to happen. Two years with Big Ag and foreign-owned corporations calling the shots on Missouri farmland ownership and what gets grown in what way -- a sustainable way? Don't think so. What do you think will happen in those two years? Well, GMO labeling will probably go to the back burner or be forgotten about entirely if some people have their way. Other measures to protect humane treatment of farm animals, as well as domesticated breeds and hunting prey, will head for the back of that same stove as well. What comes to mind as people lament to me that "I didn't understand what I was voting for" is the phrase when God's son was on the cross dying, "Father forgive them for they know not what they do." That's how I feel about every person who says to me, "Well, it was labelled 'Right To Farm' so I wanted to support small farmers like your family members!" or "Wow, you mean it wasn't about the right to farm but something else?." Shook my head more than a few times and expressed dismay that they didn't ask or do their own research before stepping into the voting booth. Makes me sad and mad at the same time. Being a citizen in the United States enables us to practice something that many cultures in other countries do not have -- the right to vote on those who run our country, the laws that govern our country and the legislation that will chart the course for the future of our country. How we exercise that right to vote is entirely up to us in this free country. It means having the responsibility, intelligence and wherewithal to go out and investigate what we are voting for and what it will mean for the greater good and future generations. People who voted "Yes" for this ill-formed legislation did not take the time to investigate those other states that have said "Yes" to similar legislation … states that are now facing water shortages, polluted land, poor soil and diminishing returns on crop yields.
A friend on FB queried today, "Wonder what the next big thing will be?" He got some humorous and serious feedback. What's my theory? Man and womankind will wake up and realize that we are going backward where our Planet is concerned, but it will be too late to reverse the impact. As a follower of Science Fiction movies as well as documentaries, certain parallels emerge when I'm watching both genres. My future world looks something like a cross between Ray Bradbury, Rod Serling and Issac Asimov and could play out something like this: Monkeys will finally be fed up with being in cages and treated like second class society so they revolt then turn the tables on mankind - Pigs are pretty smart, too, so they might join the revolution; water resources will dry up and become so precious that the only way you can have clean drinking water is to purify it from the ocean, which will lead to a drought of another kind as we drain the ocean to fill our never-ending consumption and tendencies to destroy without replenishing the natural resources that sustain this planet (Wait a minute! That's a news story I heard this morning on CBS Morning News, so this is already happening in California, y'all.) . CAFO Country will become a reality as bogus "Right To Farm" legislation sweeps our nation. Ecoli bacteria will create new strains of diseases that only a reemergence of the ebola virus will out shadow. Wait a minute. Saw that on the news as well. Hmmm … reality and fantasy seem to be converging here.
While the droughts take over formerly rich farmlands like California, Iowa, Missouri and other States, water will cease to be the blessing that it has been to the farmers for years because it will be depleted by irresponsible irrigation systems installed by ignorant factory farmers and others who think that water always comes back and will replenish itself. It will be wasted on people who irrigate fields right after rainstorms while county water tables shrink. Someday, we'll be restricted like other States are to our usage and when or where it happens. Just moved here from Arizona -- and that is a reality. Lots of water conservation projects there because in the High Desert, people know how precious water is to agricultural and urban populations. My few early years as a radio newswoman who read the weather regularly taught me that trees attract storms and create conditions for those thirst quenching downpours that so many farmers seek this time of year right before harvest begins. Trees are being pulled down right and left to make more room for these factory farming operations. When CAFO Country becomes more of a reality in Missouri than it already is for those of us who'd hoped to live out our days in green pastures grazed by herds of grass-fed, hormone free cattle and other farm animals frolicking under blue skies surrounding us, life and peace will cease as we know it. As we watch those beautiful stands of lush green forests be bulldozed down until our pristine green prairies give way to land that looks more like the deserts of Nevada or the Dust Bowl that Kansas became once upon a time with rain as only a distant cleansing memory. Then, the changes in weather patterns become more severe so the devastation in the movie, "The Day After Tomorrow," happens for real. Maybe then people will wake up and listen. It's another good one to rent on Netflix or watch your favorite movie channel. If you want to read a little before renting, here's what Wikipedia has to say about it:
It will make you think twice about Global Warming and whether or not it could be a reality someday.
What comes to my mind while pondering what's happening politically in this State where I was raised and our country in general is music. This place that has changed so much most often is expressed in the music of Bruce Hornsby and his song, "Look Out Any Window." Here he is singing that tune at a past Farm Aid concert in 1990:
A long road stretches ahead for those who want to try and preserve the agricultural sustainability of this State by fighting against those who would turn it into a wasteland of overused land that cannot yield the crops that it so easily brought forth in days past. It will be a hard road and only the tough will survive the struggle ahead. Let's all rest up, gather our spirits, assemble the people who believe as we do and get ready for the next round with those who would beat us down. Well, the wind has shifted from the North so gonna take the dogs for a walk while they can breathe without coughing from our unwelcome neighborhood factory farm.
It will be a tough road with impending clouds, but the rain, greener pastures and better sustainable food resources will bless those who persist. And the future generation will be thankful to those who held their ground against bigger and tough opponents today. A group of rag-tag soldiers and people with a dream to create a new vision of freedom for the colonies back in the 1770's did as much and created a great democracy as a result. Let's see if we can restore that spirit for tomorrow's generation. Get out and vote. Tell your friends and do your "homework" to find out who and what you should be casting your ballot for in November.
It will be a tough road with impending clouds, but the rain, greener pastures and better sustainable food resources will bless those who persist. And the future generation will be thankful to those who held their ground against bigger and tough opponents today. A group of rag-tag soldiers and people with a dream to create a new vision of freedom for the colonies back in the 1770's did as much and created a great democracy as a result. Let's see if we can restore that spirit for tomorrow's generation. Get out and vote. Tell your friends and do your "homework" to find out who and what you should be casting your ballot for in November.
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| "Missouri Farm Road and Storm Clouds Coming" Courtesy of Photoartdb Consulting Copyright 2014. All Rights Reserved |
Author's Note: Comments are by this individual writing the blog and no other company, nonprofit or other organization has approved or endorsed them. Am not a scientist, so can't claim my own scientific research but just comment on what is happening. These words are my sole opinion and no one else is responsible for these remarks. Anonymous comments not accepted. Stand up for your opinion. Thanks for your thoughtful and kind responses. Please keep language clean and our farmlands green. :)
