The Supremest Court nominee ever

Here I am in front of the TV set again, waiting for the Prez to announce his pick for the Supreme Court. I’m wondering what Donald John looks like—clueless as ever? He’s in such a protected environment, poor dear, that he has no idea what a sleeping giant he’s awakened. In the last weeks, two major demonstrations even in little Columbia, the tiny blue dot in the red state. And another demonstration coming on Friday when the Save-My-Care bus comes through Columbia on its national tour. Every day, my e-mail in-box is full of advice on how to talk to your congress people, whether to send a letter or an e-mail, and what issues to focus on. For me, there’s always been a heierarchy of concerns. I pay most attention and offer leadership when the issue affects my family and friends, and right now that means the possibility of a CAFO coming into my neighborhood and the protection of our health and environment. Second tier is the long list of other concerns that affect the rural community—health care, consolidation of the food business, the overuse of cancer-causing chemicals. Then, my third tier of concerns includes the general environmental and women’s issues that haven’t gone away. The best score is if you can combine issues. Like when I call a friend to go to a march and we talk and build some power around a neighborhood issue. And, of course, you’ve got to pitch in on the issues that your friends care about since you expect them to pitch in on yours. Today, I got e-mails from friends who put women’s issues in first place and a phone call from a board member of Food and Water Watch asking for help to foil the Trump nominee for the EPA. Yeah, I can help on those—in a phone call or e-mail sort of way. But my real energy is going into the first-tier issues, of course. So, it’s not overwhelming if you figure out what’s important to you. Well, here’s the Prez. Whatever he does, it’s going to cause problems. But he'll never know about the protests, Poor Dear.

Kathy Ozer

January 28, 2017 Last week, I got the news that Kathy Ozer, Director of National Family Farm Coalition in D.C. had passed away. We all will miss her greatly. When I was at a meeting one year, my grown-up daughter Heather in tow, I needed to leave a day earlier than Heather. Kathy leapt to our rescue and took Heather home with her, fed her a good dinner and plenty of conversation and made sure she got the right train home in the morning. That was how she was...nobody was stranded when Kathy was around. Here’s her obituary: Kathy Ozer - A Fighter for Family Farmers With Integrity, Knowledge and Commitment   WASHINGTON, January 27, 2017   Almost everyone in the country involved with family farmer issues knew Kathy Ozer. We also knew that she had been sick for a while and thought she was getting better. On January 22, the cancer – non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – finally took her from us. She was 58 years old. Reflecting upon this loss, however, we state emphatically that her legacy and contributions are immense. Her commitment to establish a better and healthy life in America’s rural communities, both socially and economically, will continue to resonate throughout the country and the world. The National Family Farm Coalition (NFFC) was created in 1986, and in the early 1990’s Kathy Ozer became Executive Director, a position she held for 24 years. The coalition has 25 member organizations and Kathy learned from and advocated for them all. She worked hard to understand their needs and aspirations to develop fair and just agricultural policies to advance sustainable agriculture and build sustainable rural communities. Kathy’s husband David Battey supported her role in the coalition and was always there for her. He ferried food and visiting members to annual board meetings and attended other local and national events with Kathy, including many Farm Aid concerts. The NFFC  is very grateful that he has expressed interest in maintaining this longtime relationship. The NFFC headquarters is in the country’s capital city – Washington, DC – which has been a blessing in countless ways. Kathy's longtime residency there, combined with her penchant for details and profound expertise in understanding the policy process, made her an effective and respected family farm advocate in both the halls of congress and the United States Department of agriculture (USDA). Even before becoming NFFC's Executive Director, Kathy helped to draft and advocate for the Agriculture Credit Act of 1987. This act of Congress allowed many farmers to renegotiate their loans and to receive other services that helped them stay on the land. Kathy took a stand against NAFTA years before many of today’s politicians understood or knew what NAFTA was. She knew that, regarding agriculture, it was created to benefit large corporate agribusiness and would have a dramatically adverse effect on small farmers in the United States and Mexico. She worked hard to educate farmers and the public about the disaster NAFTA would cause and ways to lessen its impact on family farmers. One of her most important legacies is her stance against discrimination in agriculture. Kathy helped family farmers in so many ways, but her interests lay beyond policy development, organizing meetings and lobbying Congress and USDA. Kathy reached out to diverse communities by race and culture in rural America, and brought them together. She listened to them to learn about the compelling and often disturbing issues of racial disparity that also negatively affected US farm policies. She fought against this reality in her advocacy and policy work. In spite of her brilliance, or possibly because of it, she was humble and she listened even when she didn’t agree. In the lawsuits that Black, Native American, Latino and Women farmers filed against the USDA - because of long standing discrimination - Kathy was always there as a resource and voice of support. She helped coordinate the historic 1992 demonstration on the steps of the Capitol Building and marched with Black farmers to the front of the USDA to demand that Congress fund the Minority Farmers Rights Act. This act became the first federally funded bill to assist minority farmers, and is now known as Section 2501 of the Farm Bill. Kathy was an expert on the Farm Bill process and tirelessly worked to ensure that the concerns of family farmers were represented in every Farm Bill since the early 1990’s. Embodied in Kathy was the knowledge of the history of the agriculture movement from the 1980s to the present. Like no other, she knew its details, its dynamics, its ins and its outs, along with the key players. Her detailed knowledge and rationale for and about policies left many of us breathless, but Kathy was able to explain it in ways that made our work easier and our commitment greater. The complexities emanated from her with an impressive, astute and rare ease. We always knew she had studied the issues to retain the components and rationale to share with us. Kathy didn’t just talk and study and explain. She worked! She organized! She advocated for those in need, and while we will feel her loss for some time, we are blessed she came our way. Her work will not be in vain. It will be on-going. She taught us well. A memorial service will be held for Kathy at 3PM on February 11 at Sidwell Friends School in Washington. Member group Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance will celebrate Kathy's life and legacy in Boston on February 17; info and tickets at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/rock-the-boat-for-kathy-ozer-tickets-31474848118. Help continue Kathy's work at NFFC at https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/kathyozerfund. Note:  We are grateful to NFFC board secretary Margot McMillen along with agriculture advocates Heather Gray and  Jerry Pennick, formerly of the Federation of Southern Cooperatives/Land Assistance Fund, for their input in writing this statement. We also appreciate the numerous messages from advocates throughout the country.

Liberal? Conservative? Focus on your issues!

January 24, 2017 Not too long ago, somebody from town said to me, “Margot...you are pretty liberal for someone from a rural neighborhood.” Quite frankly, I had never thought of it that way. I am surrounded by rural neighbors. We all have opinions. They watch TV. I watch TV. We watch different stations. But I don’t see our opinions falling into neat categories like liberal and conservative. When we talk about who we vote for, I guess we could label each other that way, but when we talk about issues, the Trump voters and the Hillary voters are mostly on common ground. Nobody satisfies us. We’re all politically active, but not with certain parties. Sometimes I think that’s a mistake, and I should go to the party meetings. Or maybe become a Green. And I have gone, but I’m always disappointed. They’re all so intent on divisions. Personally, I’m more about sticking together. At the women’s march, I saw a lot of my friends and neighbors. In fact, I wrote a letter-to-the-editor at our newspaper, which some people think is waaaayyy too conservative and other people think is waaaayyyy too liberal. Here’s my letter, but I’ll replace the names with XXX and YYY since I didn’t ask if I could put them in my blog: Dear Editor: Callaway and Cole Counties were well-represented at the January 21 Women’s March in Columbia. I went to the march to express my support, and I ended up seeing friends and neighbors everywhere I looked! According to the “Guiding Vision and Definition of Principles” of the march, the event was planned for Washington, D.C. and spread worldwide. It was created by women’s groups committed to working together for women’s rights, indigenous rights, minority rights, LGBTQ rights and the rights of all to clean air and water. Many of the marchers, including some from Cole and Callaway, wore “Pussy Hats,” which are the pink hats with cat ears that caught on to express solidarity with women’s issues. The hats were inspired by a remark from President Trump. Estimates of the number that marched in Columbia varied from 2,000 to more than 3,600. The signs carried by marchers varied from passing the Equal Rights Amendment to addressing climate change to saving the Affordable Care Act. Jefferson City’s xxx attended as a member of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, the world’s oldest organization for peace. WILPF founders, including Jane Addams, began the organization before women had the vote. xxx told me, “I don’t think anyone had the insight to see that all across the globe there would be the turnout that there was. We had hoped to get our WILPF group together, but with the immense crowd that assembled that became impossible.” My friend, retired Westminster professor yyy, added, “It was a day of renewal and new beginnings, and it was encouraging and inspiring to be surrounded by so many people committed to finding ways to move forward positively and productively.” Westminster professor zzz (political science) told me about the need to reform the electoral college, saying that because some states have more electoral votes in comparison to their population, a person voting in Wyoming gets 3.6 times the weight of a vote in California. Another Fultonian, aaa, said, “The solidarity shown at the rally and march renewed my sense of purpose.” And, from the Guthrie area, bbb said, “Anytime there is an opportunity to promote justice, equality and inclusion, I want to take it.  I walked for my wife, daughter, and granddaughter – they should live in a world where gender makes no difference in their ability to be treated as equals, to be respected,  to live in a protected ecosystem, and to have their voices heard.” At an open-mike session after the march, twenty groups took the stage to talk about what they were doing. The audio was handled by KOPN 89.5 fm—a community radio station in Columbia. So, here in mid-MO, it was all about community. In Washington, D.C., more than half a million people flooded the National Mall for the Women’s March. So many people turned out that by midday the entire planned march route was filled with people. Sincerely yours, Margot McMillen And, here’s a note from my internet feed today: “Crowd estimates from Women’s Marches on Saturday are still trickling in, but political scientists say they think we may have just witnessed the largest day of demonstrations in American history. . . According to data collected by Erica Chenoweth at the University of Denver and Jeremy Pressman at the University of Connecticut, marches held in more than 500 US cities were attended by at least 3.3 million people.”

The Women's March

January 22, 2017 A good friend reminded me that the January 21 march wasn’t about the ACA or climate change or peace. It was a women’s march, kicked off in reaction to the comment that Trump made about grabbing a woman’s pussy "without their consent,” because “when you're a star, they let you do it.” Well, it’s true that women’s rights were the first issue, but the march became so much more. I looked up the Women’s March on Washington “Guiding Principles,” developed by the organizers. Rather early in their journey they discovered that all social justice and environmental issues are women’s issues. Their vision brings together all kinds of people “to affirm our shared humanity and pronounce our bold messages of resistance and self-determination.” At the march, people carried signs of support for lots of issues and causes, from women’s issues like saving Planned Parenthood and stopping violence to working on climate change. All of these are women’s issues. And although the majority of marchers were women, there were many men in the crowd, there to support women’s issues or to promote their own. Among the signs I saw and comments I heard: Keep the Affordable Care Act. Save Planned Parenthood. Fight Global Climate Change. End Racism! Stop Factory Farms. End the Death Penalty! No More Wars! Help Palestine Survive! Peace! Peace! Peace! And which of those, I ask you, is NOT a woman’s issue? None of the above.

The post-inaugural march

January 21, 2017 The post-inaugural march should become a regular thing...maybe a yearly thing! It was amazing to see so many people come out in Columbia, Missouri. People from all over Boone County, Callaway, Jefferson City...an estimated 2,500 people! Nobody could remember seeing such a crowd for a political activity...maybe there were some that big in the 1960s, the anti-Vietnam War era. But even that is doubtful as mid-MO wasn’t a hotbed of political activity. I went mostly in the spirit of community building. Truthfully, I don’t think Trump’s going to be able to follow through on his promises. And if he does—that’s when we really need to protest and support each other. As one of the signs said, “Resistance is not temporary.” But the march today was a good chance to show sincerity and see who’s going to be engaged. Our group—Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom--or WILPF—had a good showing of members and I also saw a lot of my Callaway County pals. Barb had created a “float” which consisted of a wheelchair with a large paper cutout woman inscribed “Affordable Care Act Dead by Presidential Decree.” On its toe was the tag “D.O.A.” It was a great concept and had the extra bonus of giving her something to lean on as she walked. And it was a pretty long march, so that was good. All afternoon, my phone blew up with texts from friends at other marches. John, James and Eli were in Oakland CA. Patty and Sam were in Madison WI. Holly was in D.C. D.C. was the biggest march and the media is saying “hundreds of thousands” appeared. I bet the phone companies made millions from all the people sending selfies and texts to each other!

The military vs. the stand-up comic

January 19, 2017 With the inauguration of Donald Trump tomorrow, the news feeds are full of one question—how did he do it? Democrats are baffled by the low turnout numbers after the high numbers of Obama voters. Republicans seem almost equally confused by their win. My husband Howard and I were chatting about this. He was reading an article from the New Yorker about how Trump benefited from stand-up comedy, using some of their techniques in his speeches and also benefiting from the comics who have mocked him. Since we have a kid who’s a stand-up, we thought we’d run the idea past him but haven’t gotten it done yet. Then, I thought I had it all figured out when we tripped into the idea that so many of our rural Missouri Trump-voting neighbors are veterans. We know that military service makes deep impressions on the kids. More than anything else—maybe excepting religion—the experience of being separated from family at a young age, thrown in with a bunch of other similar folks, taught to take care of each other, kept separate from society for a couple of years changes folks, especially in the area of responding to authority and forgetting how to think for themselves. So I googled the voting map and the military recruits map and put them side-by-side. Well, it didn’t help at all. Florida, Georgia and Maine were the major contributors to the military world, and all of them voted for Trump. But North Dakota and Utah have the smallest number of recruits per 1,000 and they went for Trump also. OK. No pattern there. Maybe it’s the stand-up comic effect after all. http://ijr.com/2015/02/251918-data-shows-highest-numbers-united-states-military-come/

January 16, 2017 I came home dancing on air after a meeting with the young owners and crew of Vicia Restaurant, soon to open in St. Louis. They will be working with the already-well-known Union Loafers (Bakery) to create fabulous locally-sourced breads for their fabulous locally-sourced vegetable-centric meals. As Michael described the menu, it will feature vegetables with meat on the side rather than a centerpiece of meat with veggies sort of an afterthought. And of course veggie-centric means in-season veggie-centric. Can it be more delicious? These kiddos have roots in St. Louis but have traveled to the coasts and become educated on the best strategies for converting eaters into health-conscious, flavor-conscious eaters. Michael and wife Tara took jobs at Stone Barn in New York’s Hudson Valley where a lot of NYC money has made it possible for small farms to survive. Another of the crew worked in Berkeley at Chez Panisse, Alice Waters’ mecca of locavore chef-erie. If that’s a word. But the thing I liked best about the meeting was the respectful way they talked about farmers. The truth is that the system has made farming so risky and farmers so indebted that they have to take on more and more acres to make ends meet. They have to make the equipment pay its way, see? Equipment alone can run into the millions of dollars. And processors want CHEAP inputs, so the poor farmers are squeezed from both ends. High debt and low prices when they sell their products. To break this cycle, we have to create more markets! And that’s what Vicia and Union Loafers—and a bunch of other young entrepreneurs—are aiming to do. So, at the beginning of this blogging I said my blog would be about rural culture. The more I think about that, the more I see that debt is a big part of it. It ain’t right but it’s so. As one of my bluegrass musician deejay friends used to say, back when there were live deejays on the radio.