the Weekly Reader episode at our home caused a great upheaval. I have no response from the weekly reader people, so my wife went to the web site of the organization proposing it. it is from South Dakota.......are all you Dakotans crazy??? any way here is my wife letter and the response
Hello,
I am a Kansan, lived here all my life, have loved a rich life on the farm. I grew up exploring through pastures, riding the tractor with my father, and watching a dark blue sky crawl across the horizon as far as I could see.
How many people who live in Washington DC or Los Angeles or New York or Detroit or anywhere else can say they've experienced that?
So why are we so intent on taking land away from people who love it, rather than taking cities away from people who hate the land and have COMPLETELY destroyed nature where they live? New York was once beautiful farmland. So was every city in America. And yet, no one ever says, we need to tear down these concrete slabs of ugliness and restore it to the beauty it once was.
Is it because YOU people live in cities? So YOU need a beautiful, natural environment to visit? WE LOVE OUR LAND, WE LIVE OFF OF OUR LAND, it sustains us and we sustain it! The only thing we do to the land is farm it to feed your faces and farming is NOT pouring concrete and building houses.
Cities have destroyed nature, not farm ground and not farmers. I DARE YOU to visit the heartland, then walk through the streets of any major city, and you tell me what true destruction is!
Where are these farmers going to go when you "buy them out?" We don't farm for the money, we farm because we love seeing deer running across the field, spotting that bobcat down by the creek. We live here because we love it and if you love it so much, then you come live here too. But don't take it away from people who have invested their hearts in nature and want to raise their children to appreciate it as well.
I don't want to live in one of your ugly cities so I can come and VISIT the land I get to enjoy every single day. I am all for preserving my lifestyle, by teaching my children what is valuable. I cannot for the life of me, figure out why no one takes a stand against the destruction that CITY PEOPLE cause.
Think about it, maybe you'll realize you're all hypocrites and leave those of us alone who leave you alone in your destructive cities! Thank you!
A FARMER'S WIFE, MOM, LOVER OF ANIMALS AND NATURE
Dear Kansas Mom,
The Great Plains is 400 million acres in size. A couple million acres protected by willingly local folks is hardly threatening. Nobody is taking anybody's land away. That is crazy and impossible.
But let's not forget: Indian people were forced to beg for ladles of blood --anything at all to eat -- as they were shot and starved into submission, while their ancestral lands were taken away. Taking people's land away is what other people did; why as a minority majority organization would we want to do the same?
65 million buffalo, 125 million pronghorn, and 5 billion prairie dogs were slaughtered. There has been so much bloodshed, suffering, and sorrow.
In 2006, there is still so much hatred, war and ugliness in the world, and your words are just more about war.
Bringing all people together, black, white, Indian, Hispanic, Muslim, straight, gay, handicapped, elderly, rural and urban, to save a tiny portion of our shattered, sacred Earth, and offer hope to our children, may break the ugly vicious circle of our civilization. We are working both in the outback, and in the city, to protect, restore and heal our lands and water. Half of GPRC's work is centered right in the inner city and at the city's edge.
Some of us grew up dirt poor in rural or inner city neighborhoods. Whether we live on a plowed field or a street or a ranch, we still live on the Great Plains, we still share the same sun, storms, wind and water (how about that cold north wind today!) and finding a way to work together offers a chance to open a new door into the future.
Nobody is taking anybody's land away. Rural, city, and Indian reservation folks are working together to create a couple small wildlife refuges that represent a tiny fraction of the Great Plains. This is only happening on land where the landowner willingly wants this. Our entire Northern Plains program is run by poverty-stricken Oglala Lakota residents of the deeply rural Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
May God Bless you, and I pray that you may not live with such hate in your heart, and that you may see with clear eyes who your real enemies are. If you haven't watched the news, the world is approaching ecological collapse and multi-system failure; even evangelical Christians are sounding the alarm. We are all in this together, and I truly pray that few moms have as much hate and violence in their hearts as you do,. It's time to get past the wars; meanwhile those who are laughing all the way to the bank get your votes, and wage more wars.
Sincerely,
A Vegan Athlete, Texas Papi, with rural roots, who lives in incredible Awe of God and Earth
Hello,
I am a Kansan, lived here all my life, have loved a rich life on the farm. I grew up exploring through pastures, riding the tractor with my father, and watching a dark blue sky crawl across the horizon as far as I could see.
How many people who live in Washington DC or Los Angeles or New York or Detroit or anywhere else can say they've experienced that?
So why are we so intent on taking land away from people who love it, rather than taking cities away from people who hate the land and have COMPLETELY destroyed nature where they live? New York was once beautiful farmland. So was every city in America. And yet, no one ever says, we need to tear down these concrete slabs of ugliness and restore it to the beauty it once was.
Is it because YOU people live in cities? So YOU need a beautiful, natural environment to visit? WE LOVE OUR LAND, WE LIVE OFF OF OUR LAND, it sustains us and we sustain it! The only thing we do to the land is farm it to feed your faces and farming is NOT pouring concrete and building houses.
Cities have destroyed nature, not farm ground and not farmers. I DARE YOU to visit the heartland, then walk through the streets of any major city, and you tell me what true destruction is!
Where are these farmers going to go when you "buy them out?" We don't farm for the money, we farm because we love seeing deer running across the field, spotting that bobcat down by the creek. We live here because we love it and if you love it so much, then you come live here too. But don't take it away from people who have invested their hearts in nature and want to raise their children to appreciate it as well.
I don't want to live in one of your ugly cities so I can come and VISIT the land I get to enjoy every single day. I am all for preserving my lifestyle, by teaching my children what is valuable. I cannot for the life of me, figure out why no one takes a stand against the destruction that CITY PEOPLE cause.
Think about it, maybe you'll realize you're all hypocrites and leave those of us alone who leave you alone in your destructive cities! Thank you!
A FARMER'S WIFE, MOM, LOVER OF ANIMALS AND NATURE
Dear Kansas Mom,
The Great Plains is 400 million acres in size. A couple million acres protected by willingly local folks is hardly threatening. Nobody is taking anybody's land away. That is crazy and impossible.
But let's not forget: Indian people were forced to beg for ladles of blood --anything at all to eat -- as they were shot and starved into submission, while their ancestral lands were taken away. Taking people's land away is what other people did; why as a minority majority organization would we want to do the same?
65 million buffalo, 125 million pronghorn, and 5 billion prairie dogs were slaughtered. There has been so much bloodshed, suffering, and sorrow.
In 2006, there is still so much hatred, war and ugliness in the world, and your words are just more about war.
Bringing all people together, black, white, Indian, Hispanic, Muslim, straight, gay, handicapped, elderly, rural and urban, to save a tiny portion of our shattered, sacred Earth, and offer hope to our children, may break the ugly vicious circle of our civilization. We are working both in the outback, and in the city, to protect, restore and heal our lands and water. Half of GPRC's work is centered right in the inner city and at the city's edge.
Some of us grew up dirt poor in rural or inner city neighborhoods. Whether we live on a plowed field or a street or a ranch, we still live on the Great Plains, we still share the same sun, storms, wind and water (how about that cold north wind today!) and finding a way to work together offers a chance to open a new door into the future.
Nobody is taking anybody's land away. Rural, city, and Indian reservation folks are working together to create a couple small wildlife refuges that represent a tiny fraction of the Great Plains. This is only happening on land where the landowner willingly wants this. Our entire Northern Plains program is run by poverty-stricken Oglala Lakota residents of the deeply rural Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota.
May God Bless you, and I pray that you may not live with such hate in your heart, and that you may see with clear eyes who your real enemies are. If you haven't watched the news, the world is approaching ecological collapse and multi-system failure; even evangelical Christians are sounding the alarm. We are all in this together, and I truly pray that few moms have as much hate and violence in their hearts as you do,. It's time to get past the wars; meanwhile those who are laughing all the way to the bank get your votes, and wage more wars.
Sincerely,
A Vegan Athlete, Texas Papi, with rural roots, who lives in incredible Awe of God and Earth
:evil: 
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