GREATER COMMITMENT, LARGER COMMUNITY

Cooperatives from coast to coast regularly trumpet our commitment to community. We go on about our exploits of installing lighting at little league fields, granting college scholarships, sponsoring blood drives and encouraging local economic development. On Veterans Day, it is appropriate that we recognize the fact that these efforts are trivial in the light of the great commitment to the world community made by our veterans, past and present.

While I have stood before the monuments of all the wars in our nations capital holding my 9 year old daughters’ hand trying to explain each time why a different generation gave everything for us, I never really put a true face on war until a young man from my home town was called to Iraq several months ago. His name is Sgt. Levi Long. He, like me, was raised in Timber Lake, a small town with a population of less than 600 on the wind-swept plains of western South Dakota.

He and I are separated by some 20 years in age but linked by generations that have come and gone. My grandfather, a former county sheriff and co-op board member, and his, a World War II veteran, raised kids, crops and cattle just a few miles apart for the largest part of their lives. An uncle of his, a Vietnam Veteran, taught me how to hitch and harness a team of draft horses. A younger uncle of his stood up with me on my wedding day as I did for him. My nephew and Levi were good friends in high school and attended college together until Levi was called to active duty. Like many of us from Midwestern small towns, we are bound by common strands that weave a shared rope that now stretches across different worlds.

Memories give me the ability to see and feel the rural roads we both traveled on the school days and late nights of our youths. CNN now lets me imagine the roads upon which he is guarding convoys of military vehicles. Many yesterdays ago, I used to watch for snakes, loose gravel and the occasional person in need of a ride. Today, Levi is watching for land minds, ambushes and can never be sure if the person walking up to him has a bomb strapped under the robes or not.

My mother waited up many a night anxious for my return from errant travels I often did not share with her. Levi’s parents now wait day and night for his safe return from events that may be unspeakable for different reasons. I look at my kids at times when they are sleeping safely at home and my heart goes out to those parents staring at the empty beds of our soldiers. My kids are safe only because kids like Levi are standing over them in a far off land.

“Rub some dirt on it” is what we say at our house when somebody complains about what others consider to be a minor ache or pain. To us it simply means “get back in the game”, whatever the game happens to be at the time. Recently, the hometown paper arrived with Levi’s picture on the cover. My heart jumped because I knew he wasn’t due home anytime soon. Levi was in an explosion that gave him some scraps and temporary hearing problems. In days, he was back in the “game” and serving all of us. I now have a new appreciation for “rub some dirt on it”.

I am sure many of you can substitute a name and a town to write your own story. What we all must remember on Veterans Day and every day is that these boys and girls of the armed forces need and deserve our support. It should not matter what political affiliation you hold. It should only matter that these kids belong to us and are performing their duty while putting their lives on hold. I send an occasional email to Levi and the message is simply, “no matter what, I support you and am proud of you”. Every soldier needs to know this and can only truly know this if we tell them. Express yourself and make a lonely, sand covered soldier’s day.

Cooperatives will remain committed to the communities we served in many small ways. We only need to remember that our country’s soldiers have made the greatest commitment to a larger community in order to serve us all with honor. Respect them and show gratitude on their holiday, be proud of them every day.