Election Thoughts

These are just a couple points I found interesting to consider.

In some of my previous posts I’ve mentioned some of the racist comments I’ve heard about the election and Sen. Obama since arriving in rural Illinois.  However, a theme present in a lot of them is fear about what his election could mean.  By this I mean fear that African Americans will march on Washington and be handed free lunches now that ‘one of their own’ is in charge, or fear that he is in cahoots with evil dictators and will sell out America, or that Obama won’t salute the flag/put his hand on the Bible/, etc.

This has made me uneasy at times, but in talking with my Aunt Maria yesterday she pointed out that a lot of this fear may come from a discomfort that many Americans feel with our nation’s history of race relations.  I think as someone who was alive during some of the uglier moments in the 20th century she brings a perspective that I could never have, but essentially she posited that for many people, there may be a guilt/shame/unsettledness with the way minorities have been treated at times in US history, and they simply don’t know what to think about the idea of a minority as the big kahuna (notice the Hawaii reference?).  This may not apply generally, but it’s got to be a factor on some level.

The second is about one-issue Jewish who’s primary concern is Israel.  It appears that there is a significant number of such Americans who plan to vote for the candidate they feel will best protect and support Israel.  I understand that the emotional factors here have to be enormous, plus the facts that many of those voters have family there, Israel is a country that needs American support constantly and (I’m under the impression) is a place where it can be difficult to ever feel truly safe (the way Americans expect to feel daily and the only thing I knew in my life before September 2001).

However one of my Jewish friends recently told me that this line of thinking frustrates him.  In a nutshell he pointed out that either candidate will work to keep Israel safe from its aggressive neighbors, and that he can’t stand that his family members in America who believe that while Obama is a better candidate for America, McCain would be better for Israel, and thus they plan to vote Republican.  In his view, it is borderline treasonous to be an American citizen, yet in our elections vote for politicians based on who has the interests of another country best at heart.

Some food for thought.

harvest 2.0

This is a continuation from a previous post.

Once the beans are dry and mature enough to harvest, it is time to combine them:

The combine is fitted with the proper header for beans (the same used for milo and wheat) which pulls the top of the bean stalks towards the machine while a moving sicle bar on the bottom cuts them lose from the roots.  An auger on the header pulls it all into the combine and the beans are separated from everything else.  The beans are loaded into a hopper on top of the combine and the rest is discharged out the back.

Once the combine is full (150+ bushels) the grain is transferred into either trucks or wagons waiting nearby, and once those are full it is time to go to the local elevator

Halloween

So I’ve been exposed to a new set of Halloween traditions in Centralia, Il this year.  As crazy as it sounds, tonight (October 24th) is trick or treat night here.  “Why?” you ask.  Because tomorrow night is the 82nd annual Centralia Halloween Parade!  The town has been hosting this event for decades and in order to retain its prominence in the region and attract locals from other towns, it is always held near, but not on, Halloween.  And thus because the town has decided that this is “Halloween weekend,” The Man has proclaimed that trick or treating shall occur tonight.

I’m going to go on the record and say I’m opposed.  It seems a little bit greedy to celebrate a holiday on a different day just so that you can attract more people to your own party.  Also it comes with the price of literally having no Halloween celebrations next Friday (which is actually the day of the holiday!)  A further consequence is that all of the merc’s in the area get to go trick or treating twice because they drive here tonight from other towns tonight and the opposite happens in a week.

Lastly I was surprised and intrigued to learn that local churches here are sponsoring alternative events tonight (games, face painting, prizes, etc), because they frown on Halloween as a Pagan ritual.  Now I’m not advocating heresy, but I would argue that Halloween in its current incarnation has become more of an American holiday than a religious one and is celebrated as such with millions of kids getting to dress up and go get candy simply cause it’s fun.  I think the kids should be out in the streets getting sick on candy tonight.  And by that I really mean on the 31st.

harvest 1.0

this is the first of several posts that will hopefully give an overview of what we do and what we look for during harvest on the farm.  most of it for now will be about soy beans because thats what’s ripe right now and where we’ve concentrated.

the first thing we need is for the beans to be ready.  the first photo shows a field that has beans in various stages of maturity.  the greenest ones on the front left are furthest from mature.  once days get shorter and the beans are closer to harvest, they begin to turn yellow like the ones in the back left.  eventually they turn tan or brown (depending on variety) and lose their leaves.  this leaves just the stalks with a number of bean pods hanging off of them like the ones on the right.

at this point we begin testing the moisture content.  if the beans crack when you bite them, they may be ready.  once they pass that test, samples are run through moisture testers and if they are low enough (around 13% moisture content), they can be combined.  higher moisture content means that the price will be penalized at the grain elevators because they will have to dry the beans manually.

beans at various maturities

the campaign atmosphere

increasingly over the past few weeks i’ve had to respond to an unsettling number of alarming accusations about Barack Obama that are concerning people i meet here in southern illinois.  They range from him being secretly Muslim, refusing to salute the flag, refusing to put his hand on a Bible on election day (granted I haven’t heard that he will, but I am assuming, and either way i believe he has the right not to), that millions of African Americans will march on DC and demand free everything now that ‘one of their own’ is in the whitehouse, that his family from Kenya will move in and live that fat life, and today, that his campaign has so much money because it is financed by evil dictators who will then have control over him once he is elected.  Paticularly disconcerting is Gov. Palin’s comparisons between him and terrorists.  I’m sure most people have seen clips of a woman at a rally saying Obama couldn’t be trusted (or something to that effect) because he was an Arab.

This is a type of fear mongering and hateful politics i’ve never witnessed before.  I can’t speak to times before the 1980′s, but even when the political climate was frosty and personal (Florida/Jeb Bush/Supreme Court stuff in 2000 or the Clinton impeachment), I never remember the types of accusations that tried to convince voters that a politican was evil or would actively lessen the security of the US.  To me this is unprecedented and seems like the kind of language that might have been used in other places and times right before starting some serious persecution.  Its also distracting to the issues.  McCain (very honorably) is now spending his time defending Obama’s character and cleaning up Palin’s rabble-rousing messes instead of focusing on the issues that are actually important in the election.  This has gotten so out of control that his attempts to maintain civility have propted booing at his own rallies!  I think that Fox news and especially O’reilly (a source of a lot of this stuff) is really doing conservatives a disservice by making Mccain deal with this problem on top of obama’s already widening poll margins. I also find it interesting that although i’ve heard a lot of griping by mccain supporters about how obama isn’t attacked in the media because of his race etc, it seems to me that attacks of this nature wouldn’t be considered against politicans without such attributes.

I feel like McCain was one of only a few true Statesmen left.  He’s served this country well in all possible ways during his life, has always put others before self, traveled the world as a respected politician by everyone who he met and managed to stay above partisan beefs.  Unfortunately barring some serious developments (finding Osama?) it looks like he’s lost the election at this point and I hope that the mess that other’s have created for him doesn’t tarnish his legacy as a great American.

Either way, we need our politics to focus on the issues and not attempt to strike fear into the populace.

Harvest

On friday we began the harvest on the farm.  We combined some soy bean fields and began filling up wagons and trucks.  Combining is pretty fascinating to watch; the combine mows down neat and exact rows of crops, sucks in everything and then separates the beans from stalks, pods, leaves etc, puts the beans in a hopper and expells everything else.  Once we have enough grain accumulated we take a run into town and deliver everything to the local elevator.  There it is collected from hundreds of farmers in the area and transported to places like St. Louis to be put on barges.

I’m gonna try to get photos of the whole process and upload them because every step is pretty interesting to see.

Energy

I may be a relatively simple man stating the obvious in that it appears increasingly necessary for the US to develop energy independence.  This has been a buzz phrase that we’ve all heard countless times recently with high gas prices affecting everything including the cost of food.  It also seems to me to be possibly the most important security concern for the US right now.  The reason we are bogged down in Iraq, have had to endure decades of rocky relations with the Middle East and have thus attracted the ire of would-be terrorists is our need for foreign oil.  Again, i’m no expert but i’m under the impression that we’re also importing a decent amount from places like Russia and Venezuela, two countries that aren’t real hot on us these days.

So it appears to me that the biggest cause of foreign relations headaches for our government is the constant need for access to oil and dealing with opec countries.  If we could drop this one burden, we’d have the ability and strength to deal much more effectively with stuff we’d like to do as opposed to needing to do (maybe focus on piracy, genocide, hunger, whatever).  It appears that everyone is on the same page politically that America needs energy independence but i’m not aware of much action on that front.  In presidential debate 2, Brokaw asked a question about whether the answer was a Manhattan Project style approach or lots of little independent operations that might come up with the solution.

My uncle and I talked a lot about it the next day and agreed we’d like to see a Manhattan Project effort level with this.  Its something that would really benefit the country and could do a lot to get Americans back to work on a major initative.  Most importnatly, we think its something that Americans are ready for.  We are in the middle of an unfortunately ugly political atmosphere right now and lots of people (especially blue collar folks in southern illinois) are worried about bleak economic prospects, and it would be great for the whole country to pitch in on (even if only on an emotional level) something that would benefit all Americans.

guns

Since my arrival in Illinois I’ve done a lot of thinking about guns which have gone to reinforce my already existing thoughts…

Guns are fun to shoot.  People who have guns like them a lot, and that shouldn’t be a problem.  I understand gun control advocates who feel that eliminating guns in America will end a lot of violence.  This is probably true but is also unfeasible and isn’t going to happen.

However I feel that at this point in America’s 230+ year history a different angle must be taken to the situation.  People need to accept the fact that guns are part of America’s cultural fabric, and that through simple custom as much as constitutional interpretation they are the reality of what the US is as a nation. Millions of Americans like to hunt, sport shoot, and collect guns.  They grew up with guns in their hands and to them guns are a tradition, a right, family heirlooms, and part of who they are as individuals.  I fully appreciate that an antique shotgun handed from grandfather to grandson is something to cherish.

People don’t like guns because of the violence issue, and I’m no expert, but my understanding is that people with legal, registered guns aren’t actually the problem here.  I’m opposed to gun violence as much as anyone but its the guns bought illegally on the street that are racking up body counts.  I would be interested in hearing why there aren’t better penalties for the types of gun use that actually are problematic.

Why not have a discussion about harsher punishments for posessing an unregistered firearm?  How about for illegal concealment?  I think that if getting caught in Baltimore with a piece you bought on the street came with a 5 year mandatory minimum (maybe something else but you get my drift), it might change the way criminals make their decisions about tooling up. I don’t know what kind of punishment a gun charge earns you these days but I’d be interested to see information on increasing it enough so that potential offenders take serious notice.

Let’s stop locking up homeless guys for 2 vile possession charges and make the repercussions for carrying illegally so severe that its not worth it to walk around armed?  Maybe this idea could help all Americans concerned about gun violence while also reassuring safe and legal gun users that the man isn’t coming after them. Instead of passionate but misdirected policy, let’s consider a more focused and effective approach.

Fear about gun regulation is a serious issue in many places (including in rural Illinois).  I’ve met more than a few people who appear to be single-issue voters and their fears about Obama’s gun control is enough to put them securely in the McCain camp.

Baltimore at Indy

This weekend I’m driving to Indianapolis to see the Ravens play the Colts.  Obviously should be a good game between two teams with potential, and the sting of close losses to Pittsburgh and Tennessee combined with the anger Baltimoreans feel about the Colts move in 1984 should give the Lewis, Flacco & co. some inspiration.  I’d like to see the ravens get above .500 again.

Also: Flacco is legit.  He’s holding his own and minimizing mistakes as a 22 year old signal caller in the NFL.  He’s gaining confidence and learning the system better all the time.  Expect him to be around a while.

The midwest part I

You may know that right now I am living on my family’s farm in south central Illinois for the fall.  I am working for my uncle through the end of the crop harvest in November attempting to learn about the family business, connect with some roots a little better and hang out with a great and hilarious bunch of conservatives.  As an Obama supporter I am constantly under verbal attack but the experience has been great so far.

One of the themes to be covered over the next few months will be differences between urban east coast and rural midwest cultures and hopefully some good anecdotes.   To give some context, I was recently warned by Fox news viewers that they heard that if Obama wins in november to watch out because his poor relatives in Kenya might move themselves into the whitehouse and just live the life off of American taxpayers.  Out here that is considered a rational reason to support McCain.  Probably one of the funniest things i’ve ever been told.  However back east it’s something that might merit you a slap across the face.  I’m definitely gaining an appreciation for the different political climates that exist around the country.