I Was Thinking... Taken for Granted
At the end of February, “60 Minutes” featured a story about life in the city of Kherson in Ukraine. While once under Russian occupation, they had driven the Russian army out but they had only retreated across the river.
From this position, the Russians regularly bombarded the city with tanks and artillery. You would think the prudent thing for the people to do would be to evacuate their town. But they weren’t willing to give in.
The featured person in the story was the lady mayor who worked under terrible conditions and constant stress to save her city and its people. The reporter also interviewed others who were proud of being Ukrainians and refused to give in to Russian aggression even though they were living in horrible conditions.
The second story of the evening described an Afghan woman’s attempt to smuggle 250 young women out of the country as the Taliban returned to power. She had started a school for girls and feared if they stayed, the education for these young women would be over. As it turned out she was right. The Taliban eliminated all schooling for girls beyond the 6th grade. 60 Minutes told the story of how dangerous it was to get the girls out and how they had to become refugees in a foreign country just so they could continue to learn.
On a recent trip, we drove through an area of southeast Arkansas. I often like to get off the freeways to see what an area really looks like. For about 75 miles, I felt like I was traveling through a different country.
Growing up in Wisconsin and living in Minnesota, I’ve driven hundreds of miles of back country roads. Along these I encountered farm sites, small towns, and many different homesteads. They differed widely, some were large, some were not. Some were new and some had been around for centuries, but most of them showed the pride of ownership.
In most cases the cities or homesteads were well kept. But along this two-lane road in Arkansas, it was totally different. This rural stretch of very small towns and farm country emitted a feeling of poverty I’d never experienced. Every mile had abandoned homes left to complete the decay and rot back into the earth. The homes still lived in often were cluttered with debris and junk all around. Most homes hadn’t been painted in years or just took on an appearance of being run down.
In the small towns, many businesses were boarded up or had been left abandoned with rubble piled about. Yards were unkept if they existed at all. The area seemed to emit a feeling of neglect and hopelessness.
After a winter with below zero temperatures, plenty of snow and still no signs of an early spring, most of us who live in southeast Minnesota wouldn’t consider ourselves lucky. We go on with our daily lives and our normal complaints and think very little of what we really have. None of us have to wonder if our homes will be bombarded by a foreign adversary any time soon.
We complain if we lose power for a couple of hours because we are missing our favorite TV show. If the temperatures drop too low, we just turn up the thermostat. Every day ALL of our children are provided a public education and are transported to and from school.
In addition, the school provides a wide array of extracurricular activities. At this time of the year, our seniors (boys and girls) are making plans for life after high school, and they have many choices available.
Unemployment in our state is at an all-time low and most businesses are trying to hire. For those that want to work, opportunities exist. A common complaint I hear about our communities is how fast they are growing. When I consider the alternative, that’s not a problem.
Spring potholes are a constant annoyance, but we know a new road is coming. When spring does arrive, flowers will be planted, lawns will be mowed, and the street sweeper will remove the sand left over from winter. We rarely step back and assess what we have. When compared with other parts of the world or even our own country, we really take a lot for granted.
Did You Ever Wonder? — Why do they call it ‘life’ insurance if you have to die to collect?
Photo: I was thinking Ron Albright