View From a Prairie Home

by Hege Hernfindahl, Columnist

It is early morning, on the cusp of fall, but still summer. Officially fall doesn’t start until Sept. 21, the fall equinox. But the air is crisp this morning and the sun, up now, slants and sends its rays onto the surface of the lake where ripples transform them into small flecks of shimmering light. I know that the warm days of summer are few now, so we stay here at our cabin as often as our busy schedules allow. As usual, watching beautiful Lake Koronis makes me feel at peace.

Here, my morning exercise is usually a quick swim in the rapidly cooling water. Feeling energized, I am able to face today’s news, so I grab my iPad and start reading multiple newspapers. I am anxious about the election, which I am sure many of you can relate to. And it is hard to read about the hateful and often untrue comments hurled across political aisles.

I am reminded of another presidential campaign; this one in 2008. John McCain was running against Barack Obama. At a campaign stop in Minnesota, John McCain heard a supporter screaming disrespectful slogans about his opponent. Mr. McCain grabbed the microphone and said that Mr. Obama was a good man, a family man. They might have different ideas of how to govern, but they still respected each other for who they were. This reminds me of the current campaign and how Tim Walz, having been vilified for retiring from the military after 24 years, responded by praising all people serving, including his opponent JD Vance. He said that everybody serving in the military should be honored for their sacrifice.

I am also reminded of how my friend Connie, now departed, and I used to commiserate about the horrible bullying our families had experienced. She and I, as I wrote last week, would sit on our deck and sometimes talk. Connie had nine grandchildren, but she most often would talk about her granddaughter, Grace, who had Down’s syndrome. Grace was kind and supportive of Connie. They would often bake together and talk. Because Grace was different, she was bullied at school and she would sob in Connie’s arms.

I told Connie about my sister, Marianne, who had brain damage. This caused her to be different and I, as her older sister, was witness to the terrible bullying she endured. I was her supporter and defender and was never kind to those who bullied her. In our elementary school, kids knew I had her back and their cruelty to Marianne didn’t surface until I left elementary school. This school was on a hill with walls around the school yard. In Norway, the philosophy is to give children breaks in fresh air multiple times during the day. One teacher will always walk around to supervise the kids, but there are many of them and hard to be everywhere at once. Once, the bullies threw Marianne over the wall. She rolled down the hill causing her multiple injuries and a sprained wrist. Another time she was attacked on her short walk to our home. It was snowball weather, so some kids put rocks in the snowball and threw it at my little sister. That time my father called the police when she came home bruised and crying.

Peace and respect. We all deserve it. Whether we are running for office or whether we are different. We all have feelings. We have to learn to respect people for who they are even if we don’t agree. Connie and I were friends even if we had different political views. As this late summer day turns to evening and the sun sets in a myriad of shades of pink, I marvel at the miracle of God’s world where all humans are equally valuable.