For most of the past two weeks, you might have noticed that my byline has not appeared on a single piece here at Daily Kos. That is because I have been blessed with what has been (knock on wood, as we still have two days to go) one of the most trauma-free and wonderful family vacations we have ever experienced. Now, one of the primary purposes of going on vacation, as anyone would attest, is to leave your job at home and clear your mind. With the first day of school bearing down on me next week, however, I have actually found inspiration for my work even as I was wandering through the Midwest in full tourist mode.
Visiting the Homestead National Monument in Beatrice, Nebraska, on a hot, breezy August afternoon, it was impossible for me as a history teacher not to stare into the distance (in a place where, as Molly Ivins once wrote of West Texas, the world is 87.3 percent sky) and wonder how Daniel Freeman and those that followed must've wondered "what the Hell have I gotten myself into?" as they pondered how to make this patch of prairie a working farm, as per the conditions of the Homestead Act.
As my wife talked to an incredibly nice lady at the quilt shop in Lake City, Iowa (which, endearingly, bills itself as a town that has "everything but a lake"), we got a real feel for just how deeply the rainless summer has impacted folks in her state. The corn is pretty much a goner, she conceded, though they hoped they could salvage the soybean crops. I could see that working its way into a government conversation about the intersection between science, economics, and the role of the government in trying to help its farmers survive when mother nature is doing her damnedest to tie them to the train tracks.
(Continue reading below the fold.)
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