Stormy Weather

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Spring’s being a tad harsh in Prairie Country these days, with thunderstorms and lightning lighting up the darkened skies, and tornadoes up to F3 force rampaging through the pines, leaving damage in their wake.

Even worse for the folks just south in Iowa, where a tornado wreaked death and destruction amid what should have been a time of comraderie and working for leadership goals by Scouts at the Little Sioux Scout Ranch. And Cedar Rapids where the downtown is now flooded, with water rising. Other portions of Iowa coping with such hazards as well.

Hardly seems fair for a state that had to endure long weeks, months even, of being flooded with politicians and pollsters and pundits and media [Ha! You thought I’d say press, didn’t you?] as the first state in the primary process.

Today’s news notes that the National Guard has been called out to help. This is where we think of our National Guard at its best…state by state, ready when duty calls. Serving their fellow citizens in times of disaster or emergency.

Too many of them have not been well served by the rest of us, or the governments they serve.

An op-ed piece in our local newspaper this week got me to thinking. Michael A. Ross calls to task Gutless Governors for abrogating their responsibilities to the National Guard and the citizens of their states.

We are quick to castigate the Congress for not tending to their responsibilities of oversight, of allowing this President to exercise dictatorial control over the country. But the governors, the states, have responsibilities, too. States rights? Or is that quaint like the Constitution? Some damned old piece of paper, as Bush called it?

Might be nice to see that quaint ol’ concept used for good, for restoration of yet another segment of rule of law, instead of its nasty ol’ incarnation pushing discrimination.

We need the right kind of change this campaign season, one candidate for President tells us, promising not to be the same as Bush…in front of a pre-screened, controlled-access town hall gathering.

He says it’s “not that important” when our troops come home. Tell that to the families who have hugged and said good-bye never knowing whether they’d ever reunite again―one, two, three, four, five, six, seven….times after times, tearing apart families, tearing apart communities.

You’d better be damned sure you’ve got it right before you send men and women into harm’s way…and leave so much of America to harm with inadequate defenses―from nature, from neglect, from serious internal dangers meant to do us all harm.

Stormy weather has beset the nation. And too little attention is being paid these days to the war our troops are weathering.

But oh, didn’t it look nice and green and serene for Bushie in the Vatican Gardens today.

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