View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

It was hard to comprehend now, when it rains and rains. When the fields have big sloughs that never seem to dry out. When some fields never even got planted because of all of the rain. But we actually have had two years of drought. Last winter was maybe the worst with almost no snow.

By the county road near our cabin, a farmer planted corn last April in dry dirt. We would walk by and talk about how much hope and faith it took to just go ahead and plant in that sandy soil. But then the rain came and came and came. And we didn’t get all our crops in because the soil was too wet. But our neighbor’s corn is tasseling now. Because he had faith and hope in the future.

I felt faith and hope again when I heard about Great Britain’s parliamentary election on July 4th. In a parliamentary election, the party with the most votes gets the majority of seats in the parliament and that party’s leader becomes the prime minister. But it wasn’t the election that made me so optimistic, it was the way the British politicians responded to the results. 

I lived in Britain as a young person and their parliament is a rowdy place with catcalls and a lot of noise. But this time, the leaders acted with respect and restraint. On July 5th, we found out, the Labour Party had won and its leader Keir Starmer became Prime Minister. In his acceptance speech, he stressed national unity. He said; “country first, party second.”  And the leader of the Tory (conservative) Party, which had been in power for 14 years, Prime Minster Rishi Sunak conceded defeat, also stressing national unity saying; “Today power will change hands in a peaceful and orderly manner, with good will on all sides. That is something that should give us all confidence in our country’s stability and future.”

That, to me is a true democracy; the peaceful transfer of power. Focusing on what is good for the whole nation, the people. It is not about winning and losing, because it is not a game. If I vote for a party that loses the election, I can vote in the next election and maybe then the party I voted for will win. Even though I have worked as an election judge before, I went to training today for working as an election judge again this year. The training is thorough and much work has been done to ensure that our elections are fair and safe and secure.

I think it is hard to live in a world where politicians are vilified and campaigning is dominated by money and dirt throwing. The news we read mirrors our opinions, so we walk around in an “echo chamber” where all our sources of information and all the people we interact with have the same opinion on politics as we do. How can we solve the big problems we face in this complicated world if we are unable to listen to other points of view? Our political leaders are civil servants. To me that means they are to serve the people with respect and civility. We should all work to have a civilized society with “peace and justice for all,” where our children can grow up and we all can face the future with confidence.

As President Biden said upon hearing about Donald Trump being shot: “We must remember that we may disagree, but we are NOT enemies. We are neighbors, friends, co-workers, citizens and most importantly, we are fellow Americans.”

Going back to our neighbor planting corn in dry soil, which takes courage, we should have courage to face the future together with a common goal in mind; to care for each other and to continue the building of a nation, not only prosperous and strong, but a caring nation. For our people. For our climate, and for our neighbors. In the words of the late Minnesota senator Paul Wellstone: “We all do better when we all do better.”