Overcoming Difficulties Through Self-Reliance & Initiative

This spring has brought more than its fair share of difficulties by way of unforeseen and tumultuous weather. Talking with members throughout North America, the story has varied from too wet to plant or too cold to plant, to the extreme of having no rainfall at all. We expected to have this news relayed in discouraged voices but that hasn’t been the case. The willingness to find the strength and the technology to overcome these challenges has simply been the demonstrated behavior.

Government actions, and in some cases inaction, can threaten the livelihood of our members. When this occurs, as it does all too frequently, we aim to point out the injustice and warn members of the need to take action to protect their future. But as we were reminded recently by a long-time member, “Don’t let the bad news and warnings ever become overwhelming.”

In that spirit of positivity, we share from Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) one of the best editorials we have seen recently:

Fair or foul, U.S. officials diverted floodwaters to farmlands to save cities as the mighty Mississippi spilled its banks. But there was a surprise: Farmers chose not to be victims. The weekend was full of disheartening news of tornadoes striking Missouri and Minnesota, as well as creeping floodwaters making their way down to the Gulf states in the worst flooding in at least two decades.

But there was one unexpectedly heartening development. News photographs from tiny Vicksburg, MS, where 2,100 people have been displaced, showed dozens of farm houses along the Mississippi River and its Yazoo tributary encircled by homemade levees, many of them shielding these homes from the destruction of the river.

IBD called around the area and found that these levees were the result of self-reliant farmers taking matters in their own hands in a classic instance of Made In America preparation, initiative and ingenuity. Vicksburg residents told IBD the farmers acted on their own, not waiting around for the government to rescue them or tell them what to do. Vicksburg and its surrounding towns were also hit by Katrina. But their cleanup was a model of orderly self-reliance instead of the series of errors that followed the New Orleans cleanup.

As a matter of fact, there would actually be a good reason for Vicksburg to blame the government and call for a bailout: The decision to flood the farmland to save bigger cities came from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps had its reasons — but it’s indisputable that such a decision came at a high cost to the farmers.

But despite the raging waters, these farmers wouldn’t let themselves be victims. They chose to fight. Their courage in the face of the ravages of Mother Nature is a victory itself.

After reading the above editorial, it’s hard not to think of our members, who each and every day find ways to overcome problems and disappointments. The determination to succeed and overcome challenges is exactly the same as those who fight the rising waters and pickup the twisted rubble from the last killer storm and rebuild.

It’s a pleasure representing you — our manufacturers — along with your teams of suppliers and marketers. You too inspire everyone to be more self-reliant, even in the face of adversity. ◆