Minnesota Prairie Roots

Writing and photography by Audrey Kletscher Helbling

Harvest time in Minnesota: God bless our farmers & keep them safe September 16, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:16 AM
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LIFE GETS ESPECIALLY BUSY this time of year in rural Minnesota as farmers gear up for harvest. They’re readying their equipment, preparing to move into the ripening corn and soybean fields. Some have already been out chopping corn.

As the days progress swiftly toward winter, farm work too moves at an often frantic pace with long days behind the wheel of a combine or a tractor or a truck. With those increased work hours come fatigue and the very real danger that one slip, one wrong move, could endanger a farmer’s life.

That’s why I’m glad to see projects like the Farm Fatigue Program, a collaboration of the Hutchinson and Glencoe Chamber of Commerce ag business committees. The two groups have teamed up to deliver donated items—like safety glasses, ear plugs, sun screen, apples, water and candy—to farmers laboring in the fields. Members also deliver a message of thanks and a reminder to stay safe, according to the Hutchinson Area Chamber of Commerce Convention and Visitors Bureau.

In the past two years the Hutch and Glencoe committee members have distributed 300 bags to farmers while patrolling the back roads and highways of McLeod County for several days during peak harvest. When the orange-sweatshirt-clad delivery men and women spot a farmer working the fields, they stop.

The Hutchinson group offered the program for eight years before partnering with Glencoe.

Just to the south in Sibley County, a rural church is also doing its part to remind farmers to “be safe.” This Sunday, September 19, Trinity Lutheran Church, located nine miles southeast of Gaylord on County Road 8, is hosting a Tractor Roll-In and Harvest Blessing Service at 10:30 a.m. “Drive your tractor or combine to church, or just come!” event promotional material encourages. “Come experience the Spirit of the Lord of the Harvest.”

Bishop Jon Anderson of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Southwestern Minnesota Synod and Trinity’s pastor, the Rev. William Nelsen, will bless attending farm families.

But the congregation is thinking beyond local farmers and their safety. Proceeds from an after-dinner service will benefit farmers in South Africa, where members of Trinity and its sister congregation, St. Paul’s, recently traveled.

I’m impressed with the strides that the Gaylord, Hutchinson and Glencoe groups are taking to thank farmers and promote safety. For me, farm safety is personal. While growing up on a southwestern Minnesota dairy and crop farm in the 1960s and 1970s, I was always aware of the dangers inherent to farming. My bachelor uncle Mike, who was like a second father to me, lost the tips of several fingers in a wagon hoist accident. Another distant relative lost an arm.

And then there’s my father-in-law, who on October 21, 1967, attempted to unplug a corn chopper. His hand was pulled into the spring-loaded rollers, which trapped his arm. Blades sliced off his fingers. I know the details of that accident because my husband, then 11 years old, ran for help, thus saving his father’s life. (Click here to read an account of that accident.)

An Allis Chalmers corn chopper, like this one recently exhibited at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show, claimed my father-in-law's left hand and much of his arm in a 1967 accident. That's my husband, Randy, who saved his dad's life by running for help. Randy remembers the accident just like it happened yesterday.

Randy showed me the spring-loaded corn chopper roller, where his dad's hand was pulled in and trapped.

My father-in-law lost his left hand and much of his arm in that farm accident. For years he sported a hook arm, but today wears a prosthetic hand and arm. He’s adjusted well. He had no choice.

Thankfully, farm equipment today is much safer than the farm equipment from decades ago.

Just look at the dangers farmers faced as shown in this threshing demonstration at the recent Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show. Thankfully items like exposed belts are mostly an issue of the past.

Yet, fatigue, haste or a lack of caution can still cause a tragedy in the field, on the farm or even along a country road or highway.

So when I hear about projects like the Farm Fatigue Program or the Tractor Roll-In and Harvest Blessing Service, I’m especially thankful.

Farmers, please be safe this harvest season.

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IF YOU KNOW of any other community farm safety programs here in Minnesota, please share the information in a comment. We all need to work together to keep farmers safe during harvest, and year-round.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

My unforgettable “road” poem publishes in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads September 15, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:39 AM
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TYPICALLY WHEN I write poetry, I turn to my past, to childhood memories.

That’s evident by my poems published in three volumes of Poetic Strokes, A Regional Anthology of Poetry from Southeastern Minnesota:  “Abandoned Farmhouse,” “Prairie Sisters,” “Walking Beans,” “Saturday night baths,” and “A school without a library.”

Occasionally I deviate from that trip down memory lane. “Lord, My Rock” published in the fall 2004 issue of The Lutheran Digest and “Tribute to a Korean War Veteran” published in the May/June 2009 issue of Minnesota Moments magazine.

My latest in-print-poem also detours from my typical subject of childhood days, although it stays on the road of memories, albeit this one a heart-wrenching, emotional recent memory.

“Hit-and-Run” has just published in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads, Volume Nineteen, debuting this Saturday at a Book Release Party in the Northwoods Bank Community Room in Park Rapids.

The poem looks back to May 12, 2006, the day my then 12-year-old son was struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing the street just a short distance from our home. Thankfully, my boy was not seriously injured. But the driver was never found and the memories of that horrible incident still linger. Now I’m sharing, in poetic verse, how that morning unfolded emotionally for me. Certainly, I have not forgotten this road.

Apparently my words resonated with the editors who reviewed the 200-plus poems submitted in this literary competition. “Hit-and-Run” was among the top seven poems selected by the editorial board for prize consideration by noted Minnesota poet Heid Erdrich. My poem earned an honorable mention.

“A terrifying imagery/memory,” Erdrich partially wrote in her evaluation.

Indeed.

If you would like to read my poem, the other winning poems and the fiction and creative non-fiction published in this latest collection by writers with a connection to Minnesota, check out the online purchasing options at The Jackpine Writers’ Bloc. The Park Rapids/Menahga-based group annually publishes The Talking Stick, which is sold by the Writers’ Bloc and several northern Minnesota bookstores.

I’ve read two of the past anthologies and I promise that you will enjoy some top-notch writing by emerging and established Minnesota writers. The Talking Stick has an excellent, long-standing reputation and I’m proud to be published in it.

If you’re a writer, consider entering the 2011 The Talking Stick competition. Submissions call for the 20th volume goes out in December with a March 1, 2011, submission deadline.

Finally, if you’re in the Park Rapids area this weekend, consider attending the book release party, which begins at 1 p.m. Writers published in The Talking Stick, Forgotten Roads, will read their works beginning at 2 p.m. No, I won’t be there as I have another commitment. But you’ll meet plenty of other Minnesota writers anxious to sell their books or compare notes on this journey we call writing.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

How some Minnesota schools are serving healthier meals September 14, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:19 AM
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DECADES AGO when my relatives from the Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul, for you non-Minnesotans), visited my southwestern Minnesota childhood farm, they would scoop up fresh garden produce by the bags full to take home. We didn’t mind, if we had extras, and were happy to share the bounty of the land.

I’ll admit, though, that even back then I felt a bit smug about our ability as farmers to provide food for the city dwellers. They had small gardens, but certainly could not grow what we could on our acres and acres of soil.

Today, as a city dweller, I’m the one carting home fresh garden produce from the country. No longer smug, I humbly accept the eggplant, tomatoes, spinach, cucumbers, okra, green beans, zucchini and other fruits and veggies that my country-dwelling family and friends share. I could live on fresh vegetables; I love them that much. But in my scrunched yard, I have room only for growing tomatoes and lettuce.

Some of the garden-fresh vegetables I got from my brother a few days ago.

Eating local, eating fresh, seems the healthy, trendy thing to do these days.

So when I read in the September 9 issue of The Gaylord Hub (a weekly newspaper where I worked in the 1970s) that students at the Sibley East, Arlington campus, will eat garden-fresh vegetables in their lunches this year, I took note.

According to the article, last spring students and staff planted a one-acre vegetable garden, which has produced beans, potatoes, cucumbers, onions, cabbage and squash. Later the garden will yield pumpkins, carrots and kale. Food service staff has been busy freezing the beans and making salsa and refrigerator pickles. The other vegetables will be incorporated fresh into meals.

Four grants are helping to fund the Farm to School Program project, which is more labor intensive and costly than a regular school food service offering.

Some Minnesota schools are growing onions in gardens.

Sibley East students grew cabbage, which will be made into coleslaw.

I don’t know if I’ve had my head in the refrigerator or what, but I don’t recall hearing about the Farm to School Program, which has been around nationally since the late 1990s and began in Minnesota in 2005.

Today a check of the Farm to School Program Web site reveals that an “estimated 69” Farm to School programs exist in Minnesota. (Sixty-nine doesn’t sound like an estimate to me but rather like a precise number.) Seventeen existing programs are profiled on the site.

Several districts, including Alexandria and Dover-Eyota, have planted apple trees.

Some Minnesota school districts have planted mini apple orchards.

In Bemidji, students at Solway Elementary School planted a garden and are now eating fresh, and frozen, vegetables. Others, including Dover-Eyota, plus Little Falls and Minneapolis Public Schools, are buying locally-grown produce.

Over in Montevideo, the public schools hosted an educational tomato-tasting event.

Down in the southeastern corner of the state, Winona Area Public Schools students are eating bison burgers and hot dogs thanks to a partnership with a local bison farm.

I liked what I read about these districts partnering up with local growers and producers. Even more, I like that some districts are taking the initiative and getting students involved by planting gardens and mini-orchards. Hands-on involvement, in my opinion, creates ownership, which spawns success.

Despite my excitement about the 69 Farm to School programs in Minnesota, I wonder why more districts are not involved. According to 2008-2009 statistics from the Minnesota Department of Education Web site, the state had 336 public-operating elementary and secondary independent school districts and 153 charter schools with a total of 2,006 public schools as of July 1 (2009).

Although I don’t know this for a fact, I suspect that funding is a problem in this tough economy and tight budgets. Perhaps also apathy and apprehension exist among parents, students, administrators and food service personnel. Finicky taste buds are likely a consideration given this generation is growing up on lots of processed foods and fast food.

Last winter I watched Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution on television as Oliver sought to get fresh, healthy foods into a West Virginia school. The task proved difficult as food service workers, students and others didn’t exactly embrace the health-conscious meals.

But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t keep trying. I would like to see more Minnesota schools join the Food to School Program and provide healthier meals for a student population that truly needs a healthier diet, both at home and in our schools.

Ditto for us adults. We certainly could learn to eat better too by buying (or accepting from family and friends) more locally-grown, fresh produce or growing our own.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

If only I could have gotten inside this prairie antique store September 13, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 10:40 AM
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LATE SUNDAY MORNING we turned off the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Highway in Springfield, pulled by the prairie winds.

That would be Prairie Winds Antiques, an appropriate name for a business on the edge of this farming community on the wind-swept prairie of southwestern Minnesota.

My sister Lanae had stopped there the day before and picked up an antique—shelves or a box or something—I never saw it.

“There’s an antique store in Springfield?” I asked, even exclaimed when she raved about the place.

“Oh, yeah,” she said.

And that was enough to draw me to Prairie Winds Antiques. So, Sunday, as my husband, son and I were returning to Faribault from a weekend in rural Redwood County, the guys indulged me (sort of) and we pulled off U.S. Highway 14.

I must clarify that this stop did not come without protest from the teenager in the back seat who was reading a book and was overtired from a night of star-gazing under the inky black expanse of prairie sky.

But we stopped anyway, and lucky for him, but unlucky for me, Prairie Winds Antiques was closed, despite the OPEN sign.

Despite the OPEN signage, Prairie Winds Antiques was locked late Sunday morning.

That didn’t stop me from poking around the exterior of the shop, where a cluttered yard full of antiques and collectibles sat exposed to the elements. Pails, tables, signs, farm machinery, garden art, soda bottles, wash tubs, bicycles, sleds, an old car…lots to peruse in the presence of an impatient son.

Even outdoors, you'll find lots of antiques and collectibles at Prairie Winds Antiques.

So I hurried as quickly as I can hurry around old stuff, snapping a few photos and wondering if the pile of stuff that looked like it was in a pile of junk to be burned was really a pile to be burned. I was tempted to take the painted wooden bird with the spindly wire legs from the burning pile because it reminded me of the kitschy painted wooden yard art my grandpa staked in his front yard.

But I didn’t.

You can bet that the next time we’re driving U.S. Highway 14—the road west so many years ago for those brave, adventuresome pioneers—that we’ll pull into Prairie Winds Antiques again. I need to get inside that place. Oh, yeah.

The wooden crates crammed with old soda bottles remind me of the days of my youth when pop was a treat reserved for special family celebrations like birthdays.

On-site prairie grasses dip and sway in the wind around old farm equipment at Prairie Winds Antiques on the west edge of Springfield.

This Flying Red Horse is attached to the garage at the antique shop. I've always had an affinity for this gas station symbol. As a youngster, when our family traveled once a year to visit relatives in Minneapolis, our dad always told us to "Watch for the Flying Red Horse." I don't recall why or where that horse was located; it may have been a landmark to direct us to the right road. I wish I could remember.

I spotted this grasshopper clinging to the edge of a long, weathered table sitting in the yard at the antique store. I immediately thought of the grasshoppers that, in the days of Laura Ingalls Wilder, infested this land and destroyed crops. Wilder wrote about the grasshoppers in her "Little House" books.

I do not like real chickens, not one bit. But these two free-range fake birds charmed me. I cannot even believe I just wrote that.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Returning to my Minnesota prairie roots September 12, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:58 PM
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THIS AFTERNOON, my husband, son and I returned from a weekend trip to my beloved prairie, southwestern Minnesota. The journey brought stops along the way and back—one which stretched into a 2-hour lunch at The Dam Store, a food/live bait/tackle place just outside Rapidan near Mankato.

This homey joint, which sits next to the Rapidan Dam on the scenic Blue Earth River, advertises the “BEST DAM HAMBURGERS AND PIE BY A DAM SITE.” That’s no lie. But you won’t read about it here. I’m planning a magazine feature story on this kitschy 100-year-old café/store. That explains the lengthy lunch hour (or rather two), of a cheeseburger and fries and dam good homemade chocolate caramel pecan pie, that evolved into interviews and photo-taking.

You'll find great hamburgers and homemade pies at The Dam Store, an unassuming century old eatery.

As we traveled west toward our destination in rural Lamberton in Redwood County, I filled my camera with images from the road, setting a fast shutter speed and zooming down the passenger-side car window or aiming through the windshield whenever a photo op arose.

All along that drive, I gawked at the sky, the wide, wide prairie sky that I can never get enough of no matter how many times I view it.

Likewise, I cannot get enough of this land where I grew up. Here the soil and sky and wind taught me how to see and smell and feel and listen, and because of that, how to write with a detailed, grassroots style.

Returning to southwestern Minnesota renews my gratefulness for roots that reach deep into the earth. Even though I left this land 36 years ago, I remain forever connected to the prairie, “home” in my heart.

Driving U.S. Highway 71 in southwestern Minnesota, you can see a sky and land that stretches beyond forever.

Empty corn cribs on the prairie await another harvest. Or perhaps they are no longer used.

Even a collapsed barn possesses a certain beauty on the prairie. While I saw many barns in disrepair or falling apart, I also saw many that still stand, strong and proud in this wind-swept land.

Sheep and a horse graze in a roadside pasture.

A lone silo leaves me wondering, "What happened to the barn?"

(I shot the landscape photos while we were traveling along U.S. Highway 71 between Minnesota Highway 30 and U.S. Highway 14 in southwestern Minnesota on Saturday.)

UPON OUR RETURN to southeastern Minnesota, I grabbed today’s Faribault Daily News from the mailbox to find my photo, and a feature story about me, splashed across the front page. Several days ago reporter James Warden interviewed me about my blogging.

I’ll be honest and tell you that I’d been dodging the interview with James because I’m a bit uncomfortable in the spotlight. I much prefer the other side of the notebook and camera.

Even though I would have preferred my story tucked discreetly inside the pages of the newspaper, I cannot contain my enthusiasm for James’ reporting and writing. He captured the essence of me and my blogging style by using words and descriptions and details that would be fitting of a Minnesota Prairie Roots blog post.

If you’d like to check out journalist James’ take on me and my blogging, click here.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A child’s perspective on 9/11 September 11, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 9:29 AM
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SOMETIMES A PICTURE truly is worth 1,000 words. In this instance, a child’s drawing is worth 1,000 words, maybe 10,000, maybe even 1,000,000.

Eight years ago my then 8-year-old son drew this image for a religious class assignment at the Christian day school he was attending.

The directions instructed: “Think about a time when it is hard to trust God…pray to God. Ask Him to make your faith strong.”

So my third grader, out of all the trying moments he could have depicted, chose to replicate 9/11. He drew his version of the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York one year and one month after the actual tragedy.

As a mother, I remember feeling deeply saddened (but also a bit proud) that my son, my elementary-aged boy, who should have been thinking about a quarrel with a friend or something more mundane, would choose to draw this. Clearly, even at his young age, this devastating moment in our nation’s history had made a monumental impact.

Today, on the ninth anniversary of 9/11, please honor those who died and remember these reassuring words from Psalm 100:5: “The Lord is good; His steadfast love endures forever.”

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Saddle up and ride on over to Northfield for The Defeat of Jesse James Days September 10, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:35 AM
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THIS WEEKEND, IF YOU’RE IN NORTHFIELD, you’d swear you were in Texas or Wyoming or Montana. This southeastern Minnesota community of about 20,000 transforms into a hang-out for cowboys and cowgirls during The Defeat of Jesse James Days, which runs through Sunday.

From a professional rodeo to a western style steak fry, a theatrical performance of Jesse, bank raid re-enactments and lots more, a western theme prevails. And it’s all to mark the townspeople’s courageous stand 134 years ago against the James-Younger Gang.

On September 7, 1876, the outlaws rode into town intent on robbing the First National Bank. They didn’t expect to find a defiant Joseph Lee Heywood, who refused to open the bank vault. Heywood was killed as were Swedish immigrant Nicolaus Gustafson and two of the would-be robbers.

The restored First National Bank, pictured here, is now home to a museum and the Northfield Historical Society.

A marker at Christdala Swedish Lutheran Church near Millersburg honors Swedish immigrant Nicolaus Gustafson who was shot point blank by outlaw Cole Younger. The church marker tells Gustafson's tragic story.

Since 1948, Northfield has celebrated The Defeat of Jesse James Days, today one of Minnesota’s biggest community festivals. If you’ve never attended, saddle up this weekend and head on out to this historic river town that, as cliché as it sounds, is quaint and charming.

Here, a river walk hugs the Cannon River, inviting visitors to stroll and peruse the artwork set up during the Riverfront Fine Arts Fair Festival this weekend or, on other Saturdays from early June to the end of October, the 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. Riverwalk Market Fair. The Market Fair also includes local produce and artisan foods.

This weekend's art fair will be similar to the Saturday Riverwalk Market Fair held from June through October along Northfield's riverwalk in the historic downtown.

Marsha Kolstad Morrill Kitchel displayed her artwork on a recent Saturday during the Riverwalk Market Fair.

A vendor sold fresh-baked fruit tarts at a riverside stand during the summer Saturday market.

Northfield’s abundance of eateries (some with outdoor riverside dining) and homegrown shops with everything from beads to antiques, books, local art and much more, draws visitors into a historic downtown that bustles with activity, but in a leisurely sort of way. Be forewarned, though, that during The Defeat of Jesse James Days, this town is a zoo.

Yet, Northfield is a pedestrian-friendly city where motorists actually yield to pedestrians, where a town square complete with fountain and popcorn wagon and summer concerts seems so “Norman Rockwell,” where the river walkway links a downtown defined by old buildings, where, honestly, you’ll feel comfortably at home.

This stray kitten showed up while I was dining recently on the patio of The Tavern, a downtown Northfield eatery.

And this weekend you’ll feel even more comfortable if you’re sporting the dress code of the day—western attire

Last year when I attended The Defeat of Jesse James Days Sunday afternoon Grand Parade, I spotted more cowboy hats and cowboy boots than I’ve ever seen in a single locale. On nearly every community float, even those from the big city, princesses replaced sparkling strapless gowns and crowns with western shirts, vests and jeans (or denim skirts) and cowgirl hats.

Western attire is protocol for princesses in the Grand Parade, which starts at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

The princesses bring their horses too when they appear in the parade.

They also brought their horses—plush pink ponies, wooden rocking horses, stick horses…with a few twirling lassoes and country western music to boot. Well, you get the picture.

Even the James-Younger Gang showed up with their guns ablazin’ as their horses galloped down Division Street.

Locals dress the parts of the James-Younger Gang for the Grand Parade and bank raid re-enactments, held through-out the weekend. Arrive early if you want to see the downtown shoot-outs.

Despite all that horse and outlaw hoopla, the parade presents one particularly memorable oddity. Northfield-based Malt-O-Meal gives away individual serving packages of dry cereal to parade-attendees.

I’ve received only one better parade freebie in my lifetime. Many years ago in Morrill in central Minnesota, a local bar handed out free cups of beer, which flowed freely from a parade float keg. Now that’s a parade even an outlaw could appreciate.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

The interesting faces and fashions at the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show September 9, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 8:06 AM
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I TRY TO BE SNEAKY. Really, I do. But with a bulky camera slung around my neck or gripped in my right hand, I don’t exactly blend into the landscape. Still I attempt to go unnoticed, because I aim to capture natural images through my camera lens.

This past weekend, I attended the Rice County Steam & Gas Engines Show in rural Dundas. I knew this event would provide plenty of photographic opportunities, especially for photographing interesting people.

So I scanned the crowd, worked the crowd and walked the show grounds with carefree abandon. It helped tremendously that a few others carried cameras like mine, some even bigger and better. After awhile, attendees seemed not to notice us camera geeks or, if they did, they didn’t interfere or run away (except for one teenage girl in the summer kitchen).

That said, I want to share with you some of the people shots I captured. Next time you’re out and about, take time to study the individuals you meet. Notice their faces, their expressions, their mannerisms, their clothing, their interactions with others.

Everyone can be a photo, even a story, even a new friend if you pause in the busyness of your life to notice and celebrate the differentiating qualities that distinguish us as individuals.

Jason and his son Austin, 4, from LeCenter, captured my attention, and my heart, immediately. The loving bond behind the two is obvious. It shows in the way Austin watches his dad and in the way Jason takes time to share his passion for engines with his admiring boy.

I cannot get over how folks at the gas and steam engines show are so loyal to a brand. Product branding is everywhere, even on the back of this cap worn by a John Deere devotee seated in a golf cart for the tractor pull.

"We're a band of gypsies," Erik of Bloomington tells me as I watch him grill marinated beef tenderloin in his family's exhibit area. They are gypsies, he explains, because they travel from show to show. Although a city boy, Erik inherited his love of old engines from his collector dad, also a city boy.

I wondered how this man could nap during the noisy tractor pull.

This is one of my favorite photos. First, I noticed the determined look of the boy riding the tractor in the pedal tractor pull competition. Then, only after I had uploaded photos to my computer, did I notice the boy on the left in the World Wrestling Federation t-shirt standing with his green cap tipped to the side. Doesn't he look just like Spanky from The Little Rascals or Beaver from Leave It to Beaver? I smile every time I view this image.

One of the many memorable fashions worn at the gas and steam engines show.

This woman drives a tractor in the tractor parade. I love her face, her happy, happy face.

When it comes to driving tractors, age and gender don't matter. This determined girl vies in the pedal tractor pull.

Just because I like monkeys, I photographed this flea market monkey.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

A closer look at the U.S. mission in Iraq, from inside Iraq September 8, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:18 AM
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LIKE MANY AMERICANS, I’ve become somewhat apathetic about the war in Iraq. The conflict has dragged on for so long that I’ve lost interest and become more focused on domestic issues such as the depressed economy, high unemployment and the healthcare crisis.

Really, I’m almost ashamed to admit that indifference given I am the daughter of a Korean War veteran and the sister-in-law of two full-time Air Force men, one of whom is currently on his second tour of duty in Iraq. But days, even weeks, pass by when I don’t think much at all about those still serving in Iraq or Afghanistan. I’m just being honest here and I’m not proud of myself.

Yet, with the recent deadline for withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from Iraq, I took note and wondered exactly how my deployed Air Force brother-in-law feels about the situation.

I e-mailed a list of questions and, as I expected, my relative provided some thoughtful insights from his current home at Joint Base Balad. He emphasized that his comments are solely his and not representative of the U.S. military or the U.S. government.

From his perspective, my brother-in-law seems unimpressed with the big to-do about the “last combat brigades” exiting Iraq. He writes:

To call what used to be “combat brigades” by the new “advise and assist brigades”  moniker is like calling a potato a spud. Spin it any way you want, there has been no real change to the mission. Officially, we’re providing training and support to the Iraqi security forces and police. We no longer lead any offensive missions. That’s pretty much what we’ve been doing for quite some time now!

For him personally, the ongoing draw-down means that as Air Force personnel rotate out of his Iraq assignment, they won’t be replaced at the same level. He’s slated to return to the Midwest in early December.

Next, I asked, “How do you define the results of the U.S. action in Iraq?”

He terms the “democratically” elected government as “very shaky” and “extremely ineffectual” since the elections last March.

One of the problems right now is that a lot of different factions are trying to undermine this fragile government by launching numerous attacks upon the security forces, the police, and even the common citizens. I guess the thought is that the government will not be supported if they can’t even provide for the safety of their own people! Who will be the winner in this mess? Only time will tell.

Whether a prevailing attitude among soldiers or not, my military brother-in-law says he never thought the U.S. could “solve” any problems in Iraq. Rather, he hopes that, as a result of the U.S. mission, life will be better for most people there. However, he adds:

We’ll have to wait around for 20 or 30 years to see how it plays out.

Additionally, he shares this take on Iraq’s future. (Maybe his opinion is nothing new, but I find it interesting.)

I have a personal opinion that Iran will have a great deal of influence in the (Iraqi) government because they are the neighbors and because of a common religion with the majority of Iraqis. China will gain a lot of economic advantages in the oil fields. U.S. companies aren’t investing here because the safety of their workers and security of their equipment and infrastructure cannot be guaranteed. China doesn’t worry about these problems and already has some leases in place; reportedly, they have gotten some real bargains too.

Those comments about China remind me of something my father, who fought on the front lines during the Korean Conflict, once told me. The Chinese, he said, would send 8 to 12-year-old boys out ahead of the troops into the battlefield. At the front of the line, those youth would be the first to fall, exactly as the Chinese soldiers intended. The Chinese main force would then rush into battle, over the nearly dead, screaming boys.

So my brother-in-law’s conclusion that “China doesn’t worry about these problems” touched a nerve with me. Given that observation, it would appear to me that attitudes have changed little in the 57 years since the Korean War ended. Maybe not a fair assumption, but…

China doesn’t worry about these problems….

That scares me.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling

 

Back at school: new bathrooms and new computers September 7, 2010

Filed under: Uncategorized — Audrey Kletscher Helbling @ 7:56 PM
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HE’S HOME FROM HIS FIRST DAY of his junior year at Faribault High School.

My 16-year-old doesn’t talk much. Prying information out of him is akin to pulling teeth. So I try really hard not to pepper him with questions. But I can’t help myself as I attempt to phrase questions that don’t require a simple “yes” or “no” answer.

Initially I fail miserably.

“How was your first day of school?” I ask.

“Good,” he says.

I follow him into the kitchen where he is downing a glass of milk. He loves milk, always has.

“What classes are you taking?”

He rattles off a list that includes AP physics, pre-calculus, chemistry, psychology, American government and computer aided drafting.

“You’re taking a lot of hard classes,” I observe.

He shrugs, doesn’t really answer. I know that for him, my scientific, mathematically-inclined, computer-oriented son, who scores way above average on those assessment tests that everyone else whines about, these classes are a perfect fit. I am glad that I am not him; I wouldn’t like, or do well, in most of his classes. I am not the science and math type.

He settles in with his laptop on a corner of the sofa while I continue working on a travel feature in my nearby office.

“They got new bathrooms,” he says, offering his first real take on his first day back at school. “And new computers.”

I rush into the living room. I’m not going to let this moment of conversational opportunity pass.

“What do you mean new bathrooms?” I ask.

“They got new walls, new toilets, doors,” he briefs me.

“They didn’t have doors?” I probe.

Not in one of the bathrooms, the one no one used, he says.

I’m dismayed at the lack of respect for students’ privacy. But I don’t tell my son that, only think it. He doesn’t particularly like his mom to have an opinion on school “stuff.”

Instead, I ask, “What kind of computers did they get?”

“I don’t know. I haven’t been in the computer lab.”

That ends our short exchange. He’s focused now on his computer screen, not really caring if I hear anything more about his first day of his junior year of high school.  After all, he’s told me the important “stuff” about new computers and upgraded bathrooms with new toilets and doors.

© Copyright 2010 Audrey Kletscher Helbling