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Proud to call it my homeBy Trent Loos The Great Plains of America is the vast center part of the nation that most Americans know absolutely nothing about. Zebulon Pike first referred to it as the "The Great American Desert" and more recently it has been labeled "Buffalo Commons." The most ignorant of Americans call it the "fly over zone." No matter what label others want to put on the region, there is still a fairly large, yet thankfully not metropolitan, population that calls it home. In the past few weeks, the Great Plains have once again been the subject of national media. Two weeks ago, National Geographic printed a story called "The Emptied Prairie." It focused on the vast number of ghost towns and falling down buildings. Here is one paragraph that will give you an idea of their perspective: "This is the place where American assumptions about the land proved to be wrong. The homesteaders believed rain followed the plow. In the grasslands of western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, they learned better. And so for almost a century we've watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October. In most of the United States, abandoned buildings are a sign of change and shifting economic opportunities. On the High Plains, they always mean that something in the earth and the sky mutinied against the settlers." If that National Geographic story wasn't enough, The Economist magazine followed with their own version of despair. The title of the article gives the idea about the rest of the content, "The Great Plains Drain." Once again they walk their readers through the out- migration of young people from the Great Plains of America. In this particular article, however, they did attempt to share some of the positive things in the region. For example: "Rayetta Palmer, a councilwoman in Cheyenne Wells, (CO) can nonetheless cite a list of local strengths. The few children get lots of attention: Kit Carson's schools have a pupil-to-teacher ratio of 7-to-1, compared with 18-to-1 in Denver, the state capital. As a result, they do well in tests. Crime is rare. The community is strikingly cohesive: at the petrol stations that double as cafés, locals do not take empty tables, but sit together, as in a school dining room." I spend a great deal of my time on the very issue of these articles and to be honest I am split. First, I personally don't care what some person who lives near Washington, D.C., and writes for National Geographic thinks about the Great Plains. This is the same person who spends more time sitting in traffic commuting to and from work than they do in meaningful conversations with their kids. If life on the Plains continues to be a mystery to them, so be it. When they write about the Plains just to point out that the ever-socializing elected officials we send to the same urban center decide we should enact legislation to help those poor souls--that is when I draw the line. We got ourselves into this position and we can and will get ourselves out, without further government intrusion. Now one must ask the question, "What is the position?" Yes, I do fear that too many bright young people are leaving to seek greener grass on the urban side of the fence. Although I honestly am meeting more and more young people that tell me they don't care what additional salary comes along with that city job, they are going to raise their kids the way that they were raised. That is refreshing. Personally, there isn't much I would change about today's Great American Desert. Everything I love about the Great Plains is exactly what the authors of such articles don't understand. I love the open space. I love the muddy road that requires four-wheel-drive just to get home. I love the small town atmosphere where you know everybody and all the good and bad that comes with that. I love the fact that my girls go to school with 135 kids in grades K-12. I love the fact that I can leave my vehicle running without a second thought while I run in to pick up a gallon of milk. In fact, I just spoke in Mohall, N.D., and the temperature was well below zero. After the meeting, most of the participants headed for a local establishment for a more informal atmosphere. As I walked out of the hall, I noticed that all vehicles sitting outside had been running long enough to defrost the windshields. Try that in any major city in the country. The only problem that I see right now in the Great Plains of America is that too many of us are reading articles from people who just don't get it. We ourselves begin repeating the negative rhetoric that we read and we coach our kids to leave. We send them to college where they hear only about the great opportunities beyond the plains. The answer doesn't require governmental assistance, it simply requires more of the correct words from us as parents. When was the last time you told your kids that raising kids in this environment is the greatest opportunity we have. Kids grow up to understand the cycle of life, to appreciate the little things, to do a good, hard days work and to have respect for all of God's creations. At the end of the day what else is really important? There is nothing more important than that in my home in the heart of the Great Plains of America. Editor's note: Trent Loos is a sixth generation United States farmer, host of the daily radio show, Loos Tales, and founder of Faces of Agriculture, a non-profit organization putting the human element back into the production of food. Get more information at www.FacesOfAg.com, or e-mail Trent at trent@loostales.com. 1/28/08 Date: 1/24/08
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