Chip Filson
Each generation learns the price of liberty.
This July 4th, America and the world are indebted to Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine. His courage and commitment defending freedom is a beacon that will shine throughout the ages.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKSWmJk-kro)
Entering the July 4th weekend, my wife and I were looking to have an evening out and see a live stage show.
Our choice was Meredith Wilson’s The Music Man. Opening night had been delayed by several days because of Covid within the crew; tickets were easy to find on the Friday before the holiday.
We looked forward to the familiar story of Professor Harold Hill trying to con an Iowa town into believing he could create a boy’s band with uniforms and then skip out with the cash.
The musical’s songs are now familiar to all generations including Seventy-Six Trombones, Ya Got Trouble, Marian the Librarian, The Wells Frago Wagon, plus two barbershop quartets of men and women singing Lida Rose and Goodnight Ladies.
As one reviewer stated about the production on opening night: Professor Hill is a high-octane opportunist with a jaunty strut and an eye for all exploitable human weakness, Caverly’s Hill is so raffishly charming it’s no wonder River City falls for his racket — except for the librarian Marian Paroo .
Hill sells his con in the opening number: Watch his delectable sneer when he compares pool to horse racing (that devil’s sport!). Spot how he deftly weaves the evocation of a pool cue’s motion into his spiel. Relish the assessing glance he sneaks at his enthralled dupes. Hill is effective because he’s a brilliantly calculating showman — but also because he revels in his own hoax.
We did not know, until scanning a review, that this production would be by a cast of deaf and hearing actors. Professor Hill signed all of his songs while his companion, Hill’s old friend Marcellus Washburn, sings most of Hill’s songs, including the exuberant “Seventy-Six Trombones.”
Half of each barbershop quartet is hearing. All use American sign language with two parts backed up by singers at the side of the stage.
All of the “dialogue” whether spoken or signed is projected on screens along the top and back of the stage.
The theatrical experience was extraordinary. American Sign Language is communication with hands, arms and face. All of the deaf actors performed their lines with the same expressions and physical movements as if they were speaking.
It was not the static signed interpretation one might see in newscast alongside the main speaker. These people were performing their characters integrated fully into the play’s action.
For me one of the memorable moments was the opening dance number of the second act Shipoppi. Harold dances with Marion, and actress who both signs and sings. How did he keep the dance rhythm? Harold didn’t miss a beat, even without hearing!
When we had read that the production would include both deaf and hearing actors, we were skeptical.
But the experience was magical. The story and songs are the same presentation of a salesman’s flimflam hustle testing an Iowa town’s hard earned down-to-earth integrity.
To see deaf actors in leading roles and singing actors signing gave the production an exuberance that seemed deeply genuine not merely theatrical.
(photo by Teresa Castracane)
It is ironic that the show’s lead role, the huckster Harold Hill, had to overcome his character’s own moral failures while navigating his real human deafness in playing the part. In doing so, he gave the role a double meaning it would normally lack.
I could not help but think of a parallel to some of the experiences credit union people convey. Yes, they believe in what they do and want their institution to do well.
But the really great ones do more by showing that the meaning underscoring each relationship is that everybody does matter. Harold Hill’s character played by a deaf actor became about much more than a play.
Or as one character states: “I couldn’t make myself any plainer if I’see a Quaker on his day off.”
(This is an observation based on three previous write-ups about my 60th high school reunion.)
My reunion visit to Rensselaer, IN (pop.6,000) had some surprises beyond the high school alumni gathering.
Ten years before (2012), the town’s main street seemed in decline. New school buildings, a strip mall with a Walmart and several assembly/distribution plants were located on the outskirts, not in town.
In 2017 St. Joseph College closed due to financial shortfalls. The college served as the creative ying to the farming yang of the community. What could replace this intellectual and institutional resource?
At the Rensselaer City Council’s June 21st meeting a presentation was made from a firm which specializes in attracting new residents to smaller communities to support economic development. This is from the Rensselaer blogspot report of that proposal:
A company called MakeMyMove gave a lengthy presentation to the Council. The company, based in Indianapolis, is a marketplace that connects communities with workers who work remotely. So far this year they have helped 14 Indiana communities with 52 relocations with 59 others being processed. The idea is that a community pays MakeMyMove about $35,000 to prepare a marketing package and a listing on their site. The community also prepares an incentive package that usually includes funds for relocation.
The State of Indiana has funds that might be used to help a community with these costs. Some members of the Council were intrigued with the idea but others had reservations about the cost and whether Rensselaer would compare well with the other communities using the service, all of which were bigger than Rensselaer.
The community that was given as a comparison was Greensburg, which is about twice our size. The proposal was taken under advisement, and what happens next is unclear.
At the same moment the Wall Street Journal published a story with a similar theme: Rural Counties are Booming, But Can it Last?
The article pointed out that pre-pandemic, rural areas were growing slower and losing population compared to larger towns and cities. Those trends have now reversed for a number of small towns as related in the article:
My brief visit to Rensselaer supported many of these advantages. As shown in my earlier posts, wages are high and workers in short supply. There are new businesses opening and investment in older ones.
Here are two examples: a new brewery begun in 2017 and since expanded, and continued local ownership of the Ritz Theater first opened in 1925.
The local owner even works the snack and ticket line before the show starts.
The economy is becoming more diversified with new services opening including health care, retirement living, Walmart and new restaurants. Rensselaer also has three radio stations, two country and one classic rock.
Even though St. Joe college is closed, there are continuous efforts to use the buildings and campus for further education.
The public mural project is an example of a town going through a unique transformation that brings visibility and fresh thinking to visitors and residents.
Rensselaer is driving distant from three major cities, Lafayette (with Purdue University), Indianapolis and Chicago. The town continues to invest in public infrastructure and new government funded buildings such as the National Guard base, fire station and a government business office.
The origins of credit unions were common bonds, that is people who had pre-exiting relationships that could be the basis for pooling funds to help fellow members.
This “community” feeling is generally stronger in smaller towns and in rural areas which should make these a natural fit for a credit union, what might be called a home court advantage.
To succeed in these markets will require the same commitment, patience and creativity to support their transformation that local leaders are providing. Smaller size is an advantage in smaller markets.
Find out if there are Rensselaer kinds of opportunity in the areas you serve. To grow larger, most people believe that an organization should seek out bigger markets. In fact the opposite may be true.
Rensselaer’s five bank branches have an asset base of almost $400 million. A 6-8% market share of the town’s deposits would be a healthy branch or in some cases support a standalone operation. Once established, growing that share from out of area bank branches should be possible.
Almost every state has many more Rensselaers needing credit unions than there will be big city options such as Indianapolis, Gary, South Bends and Evansvilles.
For a number of these smaller markets the quality of life, the cost of living and the opportunity to make a difference will make them an ideal fit for lasting impact with a cooperative charter.
As the sign in the jewelry store said: Shop local, Buy local.
(This is the final of three posts about my 60th high school reunion visit to Indiana)
Buildings in downtown Rensselaer and parks are covered with 41 professionally painted murals. The above picture (by Moberg) of the town’s name includes a landscape of Indiana. Most of the paintings are completely unrelated to the town itself. They are public art by a group of professional artists from the US and overseas.
Most murals are painted on the backsides (alleys) of buildings. They present a whole new dimension for this small farming community of 6,000.
The initiative was spearheaded by Ryan Musch a local restaurant owner, member of the Prairie Arts Council, and a part time photographer-artist. He had worked with fellow council member Bob Lewis (who died in 2014) to develop the idea.
In 2016 with the support of the Tippecanoe Arts Federation he invited public artist Cameron Moberg to complete an initial work next to his business.
Cameron lives in San Francisco. He is a Pastor and a self-taught artist who fell in love with the trade as a child. His color deficiency, combined with his love of the 80’s, has influenced his use of vivid colors as they are the only colors he can truly see.
In this 2014 video (before his Rensselaer project) he raps about his purpose of working with kids and painting murals to give hope. He hopes his public art will show that there is something bigger than us; something bigger than what we can create.
The reaction to Moberg’s initial creation below was so positive that Musch drew up a 35 page business plan to use art to transform the community and to make Rensselaer a destination for visitors.
A 2019 article An Amazing Public Art Walk showed the success of this joint vision: This art initiative was possible thanks to the curator, Cameron “CAMER1” Moberg, who wanted to give Rensselaer an “inspiring identity” that would help its tourism, along with Ryan Musch, co-owner of eMbers (a local event venue, bistro and craft bar) who assisted in coordinating the project. Cameron came up with the initiative to bring in four of his friends, whom are all world-renowned muralists, to paint the town (literally).
But in the summer of 2019 disaster struck. A block long fire destroyed downtown buildings and some of the murals.
In 2020 the project was restarted with a Go Fund Me site seeking broad public support. Musch described the benefit in this public fundraising as enhancing the quality of life:
A creative environment nurtures creative thinking. Public art is for everyone. It’s a benefit for a community as EVERYONE can participate in some capacity. Over 100 adults and children picked up a can of spray paint and participated. EVERYONE that wants to participate, gets to participate. The REN ART WLK once again, is for EVERYONE.
This colorful initiative has brought a new look and spirit to this traditionally conservative community.
The Renn Art Walk web site has a map showing all the murals with photos and artist’s names updated through 2021. It lists the foundations, businesses and individual supporters of the works.
The history of this mural public art enterprise describing the eleven works added in July 2021 and them working backwards in time can be read at Rensselaeradventures.blogspot.
Now take a short art walk to view some of the paintings in this public gallery.
On the entry mat below is how one Rensselaer business greets its customers. A spirit inspired by having art all around.
(This is the second of three posts from my 60th high school reunion this June)
Most Rensselaer residents do not live there to seek fame and fortune. They value the intimacy of community, relationships going back generations and the shared experience of earning a living through one’s own skills.
The Saturday morning local Framer’s Market illustrates these common motivations.
It opens every Saturday from 7:30-11:30. Each participant pays $10 for a parking space size stand on the County Courthouse square. Or one can pay $40 for the entire season.
The Market is self-managed (a coop model) with a two-page Policy and Vendor contract. The purpose reads: The Framer’s market is to provide a retail business outlet (not wholesale) for local growers/producers of goods or to market their products. Established retail businesses are ineligible under Market policies.
There is an annual Call Out meeting in early spring to approve the policy and contract which each vendor signs. All must be full time residents of Japer County or an adjacent county, be 18 years of age or accompanied by an adult.
The Market Master is Brandy Luttrell who monitors the operations each Saturday, collects the $10 fee and insures the rules regarding signage, cleanliness, sales tax and booth locations are followed. Prior to becoming the Master, Brandy was herself a vendor.
The Local Vendors
Stephanie Davisson’s booth was the first in line the Saturday we visited. She grows and sells flowers, Lavender Lane cachets both dried and fresh. But this is just one of her many local endeavors.
She is the choral instructor at Rensselaer High School. Another responsibility is the Youth Leader and church organist on Sundays at the First Presbyterian Church.
Her Rensselaer roots go back generations. Her father-in-law is Terry Davisson who was my sister’s classmate in 1961. He was accepted at West Point but left after his father died. He played football at St. Joe’s and tried out for the Dallas Cowboys. I was next to him at left end when he was on offense as left tackle. On defense the coaches positioned him opposite the other team’s toughest player whether that was as a lineman or linebacker.
Terry died in an auto accident in 1977 at the age of 34. RHS established an annual football memorial scholarship award which reads: In honor of Terry Davisson former Rensselaer athlete, teacher and coach for his desire to instill in young people the dedication to live up to their potential, now matter what their potential was.
The Adam’s family booth is two sisters. They sell seasonal produce from their 5 ½ acre farm to earn money in the summer. They also raise rabbits, ducks and chickens for eggs, goats for milk and other occasional small livestock. The girls do the farming as the parents both have full time jobs.
One booth sells frozen meat. The price list shows the marks of inflation!
Working while waiting for sales.
A local wood carver.
Baked goods and jellies are numerous. I bought a bread loaf, biscotti and dandelion jelly.
Homes for birds including one in denim.
The morning’s end.
This brief Saturday commerce event is a microcosm of the larger town. We bought our share of local goods, but what we remember most was the conversations. People are enthusiastic about this opportunity to show and sell their handiwork, and talk.
Tomorrow: Transforming Rensselaer with public art murals.
(Note: the next three blogs were inspired by attending my 60th high school reunion in June. For most Americans, these years are the most widely shared common participations of our lives. These posts are a perspective on their influence later in life.)
The teenage high school years are times of ever-expanding new life experiences. However it may take decades before one understands the significance of these happenings as an adult.
Would attending my 60th high school reunion in Rensselaer, Indiana be worth the time and effort? I was in RHS only 2 ½ years there before transferring to Springfield, Il in the middle of my junior year when my Dad took a new job in the town in which he grew up.
I’d probably not recognize anyone. Had kept in touch with just two classmates. The only planned group event was a Saturday evening meal, with many whom I would be meeting for the “first time.” Would this just be a nostalgia trip?
After the weekend, one classmate shared a note which characterized her feelings. Even though my time in Rensselaer was much shorter at five years, her words also captured my experience:
The 60th anniversary milestone caused me to reflect on the blessings of the first 18 years of my life. My family, friends, schools, church and community provided a sense of security and belonging that I never questioned or doubted. The emphasis on self-discipline, hard work, integrity, wise choices and faith provided a solid foundation on which my whole life has been built. I am so grateful that I was–and always will be–an Indiana farm girl.
The reunion reminded me that who we are today is deeply influenced by where we came from. It also called attention to why the cooperative model’s roots were first planted in farming communities across America.
Rensselaer is a farming town, the county seat of Jasper County. On google maps, It is 84 miles from Chicago. It was sufficiently remote and lacking big city attractions that Chicago Bear’s owner George Halas held the team’s summer training camp at St. Joseph’s College in Rensselaer from 1944-1974. The athletes ate in a basement cafeteria under the campus’ large chapel building. There were strict curfews. Nothing to distract.
The College was founded in 1889 but due to financial deficits was closed in 2017. The campus is intact today waiting for its next evolution.
St. Joe’s chapel bell still rings each quarter hour. Cornfields bind the college on three sides while the sports grounds on the campus’ south side snuggled up next to the parking lot for the town’s bowling alley.
Rensselaer’s economic base is agriculture. Farming requires patience; nature can’t be hurried. Results accrue from persistence and hard labor. Time is measured daily from sunup to sun down. The changing seasons mark the longer passages of time.
Rensselaer is the country seat for Jasper County which had a negative .2% population growth over the last decade. In contrast the US population increased 6.5% and Indiana’s 4.1%.
The town’s population is just over 6,000. In the 2020 census, the county’s population is 91.2% white (non-Hispanic) and the demographic group increasing the most is Hispanic/Latino which comprise 6% of the population.
That probably explains why there are now four Mexican restaurants in town versus none when I visited ten years earlier for the 50th reunion.
One even featured a mural of Mexican artist Frida Kahol on the inside of a newly opened restaurant.
Several new businesses have opened in the town in the last decade, but farming is still the economic foundation.
The largest non-farm related businesses/employers opened after 2000 and include:
Businesses are hiring. Conagra’s Orville Redenbacher popcorn facility is looking for people by offering $20-$34 per hour, a 9% 401 K match, paid maternity leave, gym membership and a $1,500 perfect attendance bonus.
McDonalds is aggressively seeking help with the slogan We Need YOU and starting pay of $12 per hour.
Five banks have branch offices in Rensselaer. First Trust Credit Union had a branch but closed it ten years ago. Their former office now houses the town’s bakery. The five banks’ total deposits as of June 2021 were $363 million, a 16% increase over the prior twelve months.
My 1962 high school class graduated 106. Six decades later the high school’s 2022 senior class was just one more. Becoming bigger is not a primary goal of the community.
High school is the most widely followed experience in town.
The old high school building is gone, replaced by a new single level sprawling campus surrounded by multiple sports fields and courts on the edge of town.
Sports are a major high school commitment with ten boy’s and girl’s teams. In my one varsity junior year there were just three boy’s sports (track, basketball, and football) and no girl’s teams.
Today there is a full-time athletic director but most of the coaches are part time, with jobs outside the school system. In the last three years two RHS girls placed first in the state’s track meet in shot put. The boy’s football team won the state championship for division 2 (the next smallest out of 6 divisions) in 2014.
The school produced two plays this past year, the musical Princess Ida and a Shakespeare production. The seniors in the art class are able to paint and attach their work to the ceiling tiles around the school. They can paint their own spaces in the car parking lot. But no painted senior cords, the tradition in my era.
Instead of Latin, Spanish is now the foreign language option. Classes are offered for future farmers and technical trades including welding . The welding course was over subscribed so the school installed two more stations for the class. These students can walk right into local jobs one teacher said. Between 80-90% of seniors go on to further education.
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Religious options continue to expand in the community, both longstanding and new denominations. Twenty three churches are listed for Rensselaer in the Worship Guide of the local advertising handout.
My dad was minister at the First Presbyterian Church which is celebrating its 175 anniversary this year but is trying to find a full time pastor. The church yard contains the family grave for the person after whom the town is named: James Van Rensselaer.
Rensselaer had two local newspapers in my era. The six-day afternoon local paper was called the Rensselaer Republican. The weekly was the Jasper County Democrat. The Republican is now a once-a-week publication covering multiple towns and counties across northern Indiana. The Democrat no longer exists.
In the 2020 Presidential election Trump received 74% and Biden 25% of the vote in Jasper County. Statewide the totals were closer: 57% to 41%
The town’s most famous politician was Charlie Halleck who served in Congress from 1935-1969 and was House Minority leader from 1959 to 1964. He gave a speech nominating Wendell Willkie, a fellow Hoosier, as the Republican candidate in 1940. In 1948 he was thought to be a vice presidential option for Thomas Dewey who instead chose governor Earl Warren of California as his running mate.
As House Minority leader Halleck would partner with Senate Minority leader Everitt Dirksen to become the Washington face of the Republican party in their news conferences called the Ev and Charlie Show. Halleck opposed the social liberal programs of the democrats. But supported the Vietnam War and the several Civil and Voting rights Acts of the 50’s and 60’s.
Even as wind turbines now add a new source for farm income and new businesses open in town, change occurs slowly. Making a living from the land is for most farmers a lifelong commitment to a place.
Tradition matters. Summer events include tractor pull contests, vacation bible school (VBS), family picnics in the covered park shelters, summer plays (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), baseball and a full schedule of public library events.
Following Its Own Time Line
Indiana is divided into two time zones. Rensselaer is part of the northwestern counties that follow central time. The rest of the state and most big cities are on EDT.
Farming shapes the pace of change. Work flows with the seasons. Planting crops is a partnership with nature. It is not a manufacturing process to produce a product.
Nature’s output is at a different rhythm than the speed of the modern Internet economy. Growth must be nurtured and is always subject to forces outside one’s control.
This timeless human endeavor creates respect for the land and those who depend on it. Values of endurance and resilience are essential. Results come from consistency, not scaling up or being first to market.
Farming creates community through a shared destiny. For many farmers it is a multi-generational ambition. Their fondest hope is that their children will take over the family business. The You-Only-Live-Once (YOLO) mindset is contrary to the deepest instincts of farmers.
This conservative temperament is not limited to farming. It can be a foundation for a well-served life in any occupation or place. That I believe is what my classmate meant when writing she was glad to have been an Indiana farm girl.
In following articles, I will share an unusual public mural art effort in Rensselaer and visit the Saturday Farmer’s market. Both capture the town’s enduring spirit. And why it survives.
A 60th RHS reunion after dinner photo:
My best high school friend was Dale Garriotte. We shared sports together, delivered newspapers on our bikes and both ended up in the Navy.
Chip and Dale in 1961 during Easter weekend finishing up our junior year.
Chip and Dale at the 60th RHS reunion:
Noah Regan’s cartoon below portrays the logic of the Supreme Court’s overturning the Roe v. Wade precedent.
Supporters of the decision openly assert this puts the US back to what the situation was 50 years ago. The “freedom to choose” right will now be a state by state determination. The legal circumstances will vary widely in every jurisdiction. Even within a single state, the decision could be modified anytime there is new political leadership elected.
Women and their partners will find themselves in an ever changing legal and/or criminal status. This was an overt political decision. The courts and lawyers demonstrated their profession’s singular ability to present arguments about woman’s rights that are completely contradictory to each other. Therefore the solution will be political, not legal.
How does a Supreme Court decision that goes against both precedent and common sense get changed?
Two of the current justices were involved in the NCUA vs. First National Bank and Trust case decided in February 1998 in a 5-4 decision written by Justice Clarence Thomas. The lawyer presenting the NCUA-credit union position was John Roberts, now Chief Justice of the Court.
The court ruled that the NCUA’s interpretation of § 109 of the Federal Credit Union Act (FCUA) that: “federal credit union membership shall be limited to groups having a common bond of occupation or association, or to groups within a well-defined neighborhood, community, or rural district” -permitted federal credit unions to be composed of multiple, unrelated employer groups, each having its own distinct common bond of occupation” was incorrect.
NCUA General Counsel Bucky Sebastian in 1983 had interpreted, and the Board agreed, that in section 109 the word “groups” was plural, and therefore authorized multiple group charters.
The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Bank position that the NCUA’s decision was contrary to law because § 109 unambiguously requires that the same common bond of occupation unite each member of an occupationally defined federal credit union.
Justice Thomas wrote: “the NCUA’s interpretation makes the statutory phrase “common bond” surplusage when applied to a federal credit union made up of multiple unrelated employer groups, because each such “group” already has its own “common bond,” employment with a particular employer. If the phrase “common bond” is to be given any meaning when the employees in such groups are joined together, a different “common bond”-one extending to each and every employee considered together-must be found to unite them.”
This Supreme Court also overruled a district court’s decision that NCUA had correctly interpreted § 109 following the Chevron precedent of deferring to Agency discretion when implementing a Congressional statute. Note: this week the Supreme Court is expected to announce a decision which may modify the Chevron precedent.
This FOM ruling would have put federal credit unions back into the legal and practical world of 1934 when the Federal Act was passed. The court decision ignored the entire history of credit unions and the evolution of financial services under deregulation. Common sense and real world events made the court’s finding both impractical and a potential end to the federal chartering option.
For decades almost all state systems had much more flexible common bond regulations than NCUA’s. If the ruling stood, there would have been a wholesale conversion to state charters.
Credit unions mounted a coordinated and united campaign to change the federal law to continue NCUA’s common bond interpretation that had been followed for almost 20 years. The result was the passage of the Credit Union Membership Access Act (HR 1151) by congress and signed by President Clinton on August 7, 1998. This action preserved the NCUA’s FOM regulations albeit with a new set of regulatory requirements under the label of Prompt Corrective Action.
In this situation the state system was where consumer’s freedom to select a coop financial option was preserved.
In the Roe decision, the return to the states to determine what rights a women has, will have the opposite effect of the credit union example.
The Court’s decision echoes an earlier time in our history: “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” Lincoln warned Americans. “I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved—I do not expect the house to fall—but I do expect it will cease to be divided.”
The credit union case is very different in scope and political significance. However both decisions show the Court’s willingness to turn back the clock, to ignore real world consequences, and throw issues back to the political process.
The common thread in these retro interpretations is the role of Justice Thomas. He wrote the credit union opinion and assigned the Roe one.
The Roe reversal will, as in the credit union circumstance, require political action. The court’s abortion decision resolves nothing. Like the credit union case, it will eventually come back to congress.
The St. Louis Federal Reserve’s economic research unit (FRED) has published two brief articles this past week analyzing trends in gas prices, both recent and long term.
Both provide evidence for those who would seek to turn the debate political about the increases.
The first article is the Long Term Trend in gas prices. The analysis has two conclusions:
The macroeconomic result is that expenditures on motor gasoline made up a smaller percentage of GDP in 2019 (1.7%) than they did in 1990 (2.1%).
The second analysis tracks the relation between the price of oil and gasoline at the pump.
The article’s conclusion: When oil prices shoot upward, gas prices rise with them. And when oil prices fall, gasoline prices also fall; but they can fall at a slower rate. Economists refer to this market dynamic as “asymmetric pass-through.” A more colorful description of the phenomenon is “rockets and feathers.”
The chart in the article is dynamic allowing the user to focus on recent changes. This phenomenon doesn’t occur every time oil prices fall, but can be seen in recent months: at the beginning of December 2021 and at the end of March 2022.
How one interprets the charts and data in these articles will probably influence which political interpretation for higher prices a person is inclined to believe now.
Both articles highlight the reality of retailer market power and consumer search costs as reasons why many members (consumers) feel so frustrated by the seeming monopolistic pricing patterns when paying for gas at the pump.
Their anger is more than high prices. It is the absence of “consumer sovereignty” (choice) the supposed hallmark of a market economy.
“Enough looks inward at need, rather than outward at want, like consumerism does. Enough pumps the brakes when we are no longer hungry, or cold, or alone.
“Consumerism floors the accelerator, because there is always someone, somewhere to chase, fueled by consumerist envy.
“My father — a top-tier über-consumer — used to read stories about billionaires and critique out loud what he called “abstract levels of wealth”. “How many pairs of pants can they wear at once?! How many cars can they drive?!” In the next breath, he would chuckle about the six bagfuls of suits he just gave away, because his enormous closets were overstuffed, and “it got a bit crazy”. (quote from a column by Richard Rohr)
“Simple living is not about elegant frugality. It is not really about deprivation of whatever is useful and helpful for our life. It is not about harsh rules and stringent regulations. To live simply, one has to consider all of these and they may be included to some degree, but simple living is about freedom. It’s about a freedom to choose space rather than clutter, to choose open and generous living rather than a secure and sheltered way.
“Freedom is about choices: Freedom to choose less rather than more. It’s about choosing time for people and ideas and self-growth rather than for maintenance and guarding and possessing and cleaning. Simple living is about moving through life rather lightly, delighting in the plain and the subtle. It is about poetry and dance, song and art, music and grace. It is about optimism and humor, gratitude and appreciation. It is about embracing life with wide-open arms. It’s about living and giving with no strings attached. . . .
“Simple living is as close as the land on which we stand. It is as far-reaching as the universe that makes us gasp. Simple living is a relaxed grasp on money, things, and even friends. Simplicity cherishes ideas and relationships. They are treasured more because simplicity doesn’t cling nor try to possess things or people or relationships. Simplicity frees us within, but it frees others, too. . . . Simple living is a statement of presence. The real me. This simplicity makes us welcome among the wealthy and the poor alike. . . .”
At the entrance to the memorial park in Kyiv, there is a sculpture of an extremely thin girl with a very sad look holding a handful of wheat ears in her hands. Behind her back is the Candle of Remembrance, a monument with details reminiscent of authentic embroidery that can be found on traditional Ukrainian costumes. This is a monument that commemorates a historical event known as the Holodomor.
What is the Holodomor?
After the end of the First World War, Ukraine was an independent state, but in 1919 the Soviet Union “sucked” it into the community of Soviet states. The Ukrainians, who even then considered themselves a Central European people like the Poles and not an Eastern European like the Russians, tried to restore Ukraine’s independence.
In 1932, not wanting to lose control of Europe’s main granary, Stalin resorted to one of the most heinous forms of terror against one nation. In the process of nationalization, he took away the grain-producing land from the Ukrainian peasants, but also all its offerings, thus creating an artificial famine.
The goal was to “teach Ukrainians to be smart” so that they would no longer oppose official Moscow. Thus the people who produced the most grain in Europe were left without a crumb of bread. The peak of the Holodomor was in the spring of 1933. In Ukraine at that time, 17 people died of hunger every minute, more than 1,000 every hour, and almost 24,500 every day! People were literally starving to death in the streets.
Stalin settled the Russian population in the emptied Ukrainian villages. During the next census, there was a large shortage of population. Therefore, the Soviet government annulled the census, destroyed the census documents, and the enumerators were shot or sent to the gulag, in order to completely hide the truth.
World War. Their poison gas was hunger. Their Hitler was Stalin. Their Holocaust was the Holodomor. For them, fascist Berlin was Soviet Moscow, and their concentration camp was the Soviet Union.
Today, 28 countries around the world present the Holodomor as genocide against Ukrainians, which you could not learn about in school, because almost all evidence was destroyed and victims were covered up for decades, survivors were forcibly silenced by not having the right to vote until recently.
The Holodomor at that time broke the Ukrainian resistance, but it made the desire for Ukraine’s independence from Russia eternal. (I was sent this summary and do not know the source.)
From the Encyclopedia Britannica:
Holodomor, man-made famine that convulsed the Soviet republic of Ukraine from 1932 to 1933, peaking in the late spring of 1933. It was part of a broader Soviet famine (1931–34) that also caused mass starvation in the grain-growing regions of Soviet Russia and Kazakhstan. The Ukrainian famine, however, was made deadlier by a series of political decrees and decisions that were aimed mostly or only at Ukraine. In acknowledgement of its scale, the famine of 1932–33 is often called the Holodomor, a term derived from the Ukrainian words for hunger (holod) and extermination (mor).
Postscript:
From Brooke C. Stoddard, author who was at Holodomor Wreath Presentation at the Holodomor Memorial near the U. S. Capitol. He was asked by the Illinois State Society to participate on behalf of the Cleveland Club of Washington, D. C.
The Holodomor Memorial to Victims of the Ukrainian Famine-Genocide of 1932–1933 was opened in Washington, D.C., United States, on November 7, 2015. Congress approved creation of the Holodomor Memorial in 2006.
