The Prairie Empire

When the rays..break the day…as so many…waves upon a planate shore,

What’s undone…is left in view…needing struck again…so it may be discharged,

Thus repeats…our task here now…we will forge on towards…our unfinished business.

Love though abstract conveys:
the heft of omnipotent stares,
the breadth of lands with no heirs,
and the enchantment everyone bears.

And so it goes – and so it goes…
‘round the cycles of heaves and hoes,

you push it back – you shove it back…
inerrant empathy you inherently lack,

and resist the thought – fight back the thought…
her being someone you wish you she were not,

sadnesses that bother – the anger grows hotter…
it’s inevitable: the baby goes with the water.

New England Enterprise: A Short Story

America the Beautiful

Ken Burns, especially known for his Civil War documentaries, has a new program on PBS rotation.  I, like many Americans have fond memories of several of our national parks.  We are relatively light on national parks in Kansas, but have several within a good day’s drive.  What national parks have you visited?  What are your favorites?  What problems do you forsee our park needing to overcome as we move through the 21st century?

http://www.pbs.org/nationalparks/

Immigrant Farmer in the Field

Although it has become politically incorrect to ask such questions, I am curious what if any impact a group’s ethnic background plays in their success or population coagulation.  It would appear that a homogenity in background keeps a coummunity glued together.  This is surely due to many factors including a common religion, type of employment, etc.  Is to be a melting pot community conversely a handicap?  Are we not quickly becoming a population of mutts?  How does all of this factor in as we plan and struggle to predict the future?

On the road to a country church...

If I can walk what might seem a controversial line for a moment, how important is one’s religious affiliation to small town survival?  Are towns with a more devout citizenry more likely to flourish?  Does the specific religion play a role?  I am interested in all aspects of this issue.  Does a faith which promotes large families benefit coummunities?  Do certains faiths press their followers out further into the world?  I welcome any thoughts or opinions, as long as they are respectful.

Farm Progress

The existance of our rural communities is the end result of more than a century of pruning.  Transportation, education, and economic infrastructures or the lack thereof have determined which survive and which fade into the sands of time. 

Towns receiving the favor of the railroads where not always the same as received the valediction of a highway.  Then, as our transportation geography changed, many more towns lost their rail or highway link to the greater region.  Less traffic in, more traffic out.

Schools were founded as community gathering points, only sections apart and spread across the recently populated plains; so too did communities flourish.  As we have consolidated these many schools down to a few, we have lost not only the community pride and social connection, but we have often too lost the communities. 

The economies of our towns were founded in agrarian splendor more than a century ago.  The transport and sale of agricultural commodities determined the supporting businesses in the manifold towns.  As the ag business flourished, so did the local mercantiles. 

“One sees great things from the valley; only small things from the peak.”      -G.K. Chesterton

Walking alone through the wasteland...

As Robert Putnam noted in his seminal book  Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community, the decline in person to person intellectual and social intercourse has had a dramatic effect on American society.  It would appear to me that this decline has been exaggeratedly demonstrated in rural areas.  The decrease in participatory numbers within American Legions, Moose and Masonic Lodges, and their manifold kindred organizations has an abrogating effect on small communities.  Whether it be town team basketball, the Lions Club, chambers of commerce, or the odd softball tournament:  we all suffer for their lack of ambitious partakers.  What can increase shareholdership, or do you feel we are on a corrective path already?

Autumnal Street

As I have moved from one relatively small rural community to another, I have noticed various commonalities and differences.  The characteristics that define a given community in large part determine its success or failure.  The religious, cultural, demographic history, and geographic features of a population all carry significant weight.  Over the next couple of weeks I am going to see if I can’t hammer on the keys a little.

“Moving is something somebody else does until you do it.”   – anonymous