Earlier this year, I started this post, but wasn’t able to pull it together, wasn’t able to communicate what I understood intuitively.
It was March, and COVID-19 was just working its way into South Dakota. I was talking with the dearest of dear friends one evening — we talk every night, for which I am grateful — when he alluded to a challenge he was facing. Initially, I wasn’t astute enough to pick up on it.
He mentioned ethanol plants were shutting down as the need for ethanol decreased. I didn’t realize this would impact the cattle industry until he spelled it out for me. Without ethanol, beef producers wouldn’t have what has become a standard component of most feed blends — distiller’s grain. His supplier had managed to find one load, but the odds of finding what was needed until the pastures filled out in June didn’t look good.
We talked about other options he had, and his concerns about each. With last year’s moisture — euphemism for “extensive flooding” — supplies of some alternatives were limited. He didn’t have to tell me that meant prices would go up.
As we talked that night, a single thought kept skittering through my mind — we’re really in this together. Cattle prices had already taken a beating when COVID-19 affected trade agreements. With higher production costs, producers were going to be hit again — because folks weren’t driving as much.
At the time, chemo was knocking me off my feet and the pandemic had put me in a virtual isolation chamber. I didn’t see people for days on end, and electronic devices provided my only contact with the world outside my apartment. Nausea and fatigue pounded me worse than an abusive lover, and more than once I would have greeted death with open arms had I been given the opportunity.
Still, I somehow knew that we were going to have to face COVID-19 as a nation, that the pandemic would affect all of us one way or another, and we would only find our way through the destruction and despair if we were united. Sadly, in facing this threat, we have not had leadership which united us. In fact, some of us have been abandoned to our own devices by leaders more concerned with building their political careers than with the people they were elected to serve.
Among them is Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota. She has been getting such a buzz from her close relationship with the president — the classic example of a leader who has abandoned those he was elected to serve — that she has been inviting COVID-19 into the state and then dashing off to build her national profile, leaving her constituents to suffer the consequences. Not only did she host a Fourth of July campaign rally at Mt. Rushmore for the president, which was attended by thousands, but she also encouraged bikers from across the country to attend the Sturgis Rally, which was attended by hundreds of thousands.
Through it all, she had one simple message: no masks required.
On FOX, which apparently has Noem on speed dial, she claimed that she threw her constituents under the bus because — and I quote — “I believe in our freedoms and liberties.” She went on to say, “What I’ve seen across the country is so many people give up their liberties for just a little bit of security and they don’t have to do that.”
Of course, she was right. Folks have given up freedoms. They have given up the freedom to drive drunk because government has said killing people is not OK (at least, it isn’t if you’re a drunk driver). Folks have given up the freedom to buy an airline ticket and board a plane without going through a sometimes invasive security check because government wants to stop terrorists from using planes as weapons. Folks have given up the freedom to smoke whenever and wherever they want because government has said action must be taken to prevent people from getting cancer where possible.
All of those freedoms were relinquished — even when they had opponents — for the common good. All of those freedoms were relinquished to provide a little more security for the people of this nation. Our roadways are safer without drunk drivers. Airlines are safer for travel with precautions taken to stop terrorists. Our public buildings are safer without secondhand smoke shortening the lives of nonsmokers.
Noem, with wisdom of a politician trying to rise on the coattails of an individual elected to an office higher than the one she holds, doesn’t think it’s necessary for us to give up our freedoms, though. However, since she’s not tried to eliminate laws against drunk driving or smoking in public places or tried to eliminate airline security, she is apparently only opposed to wearing face masks in order to save lives.
To date, in our sparsely populated state, nearly 200 people have died, 21 in the last seven days. To date, more than 18,000 people out of 880,000 have tested positive for the disease and the numbers are increasing every single day. In May, during the first major outbreak, the state averaged 82 new cases per day. Since Sept. 1, the state has averaged 271 new cases every single day. Hospitalizations are at an all time high.
It’s time for Noem to sit by a few hospital bedsides — without a mask if she doesn’t want to relinquish her personal freedoms. It’s time for Noem to return to her home state, instead of gallivanting around the country in an effort to build her national profile, and attend the funerals of those who have sacrificed their lives so that she could get more time on FOX and in front of voters nationwide.
It’s time for Noem to realize that her star is not going to rise if she tramples the people of her state in an effort to shine because — surprisingly — we are all in this together.
Create A New Heart 