By Ken Root
Memorial Weekend has a beautiful glow as I look back at the festivities of the past three days. I have a tradition of going to the Indianapolis 500 race that dates back to 1984 when a kind man from Eli Lilly Animal Health hosted a group of livestock producers and farm broadcasters. I was working in Kansas at the time and was pretty wide eyed to see four hundred thousand people at one venue and then to see race cars go by so fast you couldn?t read the numbers to determine which was which. This year we met up again for my fifteenth time and for my long-time friend and former boss, Rich Hull?s thirtieth. Since it was the 100th race, we decided this would be our last but there was nothing bitter in the sweetness of the celebration and the unpredictable finish to America?s best known and largest one day sporting event.
As my wife and her two twenty-something sons accompanied me, we drove across the rural landscape from Iowa to Indiana and observed mile after mile of corn and soybean fields. The crops ranged from sprouting to six inches high with literally no fields showing weather related stress. The landscape gave me confidence we would be able to feed ourselves and a sizable portion of the world when harvest comes in this fall. I draw a lot more comfort from farm fields than from city streets but I realize there has to be a balance of producers and consumers with an infrastructure to bring the food to its final disposition.
Indianapolis is a big, small town. It is like Kansas City and Des Moines. The people are welcoming and kind. Our first example was the Indianapolis 500 Parade through the downtown business district beginning at noon on Saturday. Rich has applied for parade seats so many years that the only move up from where we sit would be to march down the street with the drum majors or ride on the seat of a police motorcycle.
Each float in the parade has a theme and all are very well done. On each Memorial weekend, the stars and stripes fly high and veterans are saluted. This year, on the seventy-fifth anniversary of the U.S. entry into World War II, a small group of men were aboard a float that recognized their service as survivors of Pearl Harbor. They looked to be well over ninety with some in wheel chairs and others doing their best to keep their dignity while waving at thousands who had their hats off and were clapping and cheering wildly.
As I looked at these men who near the end of their lives, it made me realize I was born just before the last Civil War veterans left this earth. Now we have lost all who fought in the first World War and almost all from the second. All the veterans from our undeclared wars are just now being properly saluted for their service to our country.
The celebration of our military men and women came first at the parade and then each row of drivers and their families came through sitting on pace car replicas, ready for the excitement and danger of the coming day.
At the racetrack on Sunday, the first major salute was again to our veterans with a lap around the two-and-a-half-mile oval by a line of trucks with two or more in uniform standing and waving. They were mostly young and received a wild salute with everyone standing, cheering and waving until the last of the convoy had passed by. When ?Taps? was played, the entire half million went silent. When jets roared overhead, everyone cheered and American pride swelled.
It really wasn?t what was said that showed me patriotism lives in the heartland, it was the respect. We are tired of war but our young will still accept orders to deploy and defend our nation. I found it interesting that there was not one sign of politics at either the race or the parade. I think we are sick of that too. What became clear to me is that this country has such a strong foundation, our politicians can?t destroy it. The people remain the greatest strength of our country. We hold the values of freedom. We stand up and face adversity. We find ways to prevail. Government may indicate it knows best in regulating our lives and taking care of us, if only we provide our money. I think we understand the role of government and I hope we convey the more important role played by citizens who elect and support that government.
Several years ago a lady told me the strength and values of people do not come from big cities and capitals of commerce. ?They come,? she said, ?From the people who live in villages and on farms.? We were in Moscow and she was Russian, speaking to me as our interpreter and guide. The year was 1990 and we were witnessing the collapse of the Soviet Union. A few months later, she came to the United States and lives here today as a proud and productive citizen.
Those who have lived only in this century have seen a great deal of adversity touch our shores and take our men and women into foreign combat. In their own way, I believe they are learning the lessons our parents learned in the terrible wars of the twentieth century. I don?t think there is any generational divide on the summation: ?Freedom is not Free.?
