Against All Odds

July 15th, 2009
Against All Odds
You know, last week most people in this area got six to eight inches of rain on their place. There is standing water in all the fields. What do you think would have happened if we got this much rain and the refinery was here? Well for one thing, there would have been mass flooding. You can’t tell me that 6 inches falling on 3000 acres of asphalt and concrete is not going to flood the Brule. Everyone downstream from the refinery would be flooded out if not wiped out.
The question now is would you help your neighbor? Would your neighbor help you? Why absolutely you would. What a silly question. We don’t want the refinery, but we don’t want it so bad that we wouldn’t help our neighbor in time of toil and strife. We aren’t that kind of people. The proponents of Hyperion are the same people, they just have different ideologies. I would like to think that everyone was good hardy Norwegian stock, but that’s not the case. We do have a good mix of nationalities, but we still are a caring people regardless. I think a good term for that is that we are a civilized society. We would be fighting a common enemy; the water. We would be fighting a common cause even though when things settle down it is back to us versus them. That is the kind of people we are. We weren’t raised that way and your conscious wouldn’t let you do it either.
Think of all the hardships our forefathers went through to settle this land. I know, I’m from Nebraska, but times were just as tough there. My mother was born in a sod house in the middle of the prairie in Boone County. They fought the elements just to struggle to live but they did it. Why did they do it? Against all odds they should have been done under, defeated and kicked out. But they stayed. That’s the big secret, they stayed and they battled and they won. They could have just as easily cut and run back to Wisconsin, but they didn’t. They stayed because it was their LAND! The land was their most prized possession and they were willing to die for it. Many of them did, but their sons and daughters fought on. It was a sense of pride that you owned a piece of land. The same holds true today. We are fighting for our lives here against all odds, but we are staying. We are staying because we love our land.
I was talking to a lady at the “Farmers Market” last Saturday in Spink and she said the most valuable possession she has is her land and her home and she isn’t giving up without a fight. I think we should use that as a rallying cry when we confront Hyperion. THIS IS THE MOST VALUABLE POSSESION WE HAVE; OUR HOME AND OUR LAND. I told her that in my prior life I moved 23 times in 25 years in the military. I had no attachments, no roots, and no reason to stand and fight so it really didn’t make a hill of beans to me if I stayed or not. I would have moved. No big deal. NOT NOW. This is my home, this is my land and I’ll be damned if Hyperion is going to take it from me. My forefathers didn’t fight for this land so that I could put my tail between my legs and run at the first sign of trouble. No sir he did not!
Our legal team is out in Pierre again today and tomorrow giving it one last shot, and I hope it is straight at Hyperion’s heart. That board has to understand who they are dealing with. We presented irrefutable facts. These were not figures pulled out of the air they were facts based on accurate observation and great attention to detail. Unlike the other side that just slipped something together and slopped it onto the table. We refuted practically every fact they presented as wrong. We presented these facts in such a manner that Hyperion could not reject them. If the board is fair this will never pass. I seem to be flip-flopping from week to week. First I say it’s a slam dunk, and then I say we’ve just begun the fight, they I say they are going to vote 9-0 against us. They might just surprise us and tell Governor Marion Michael Rounds to stuff it.
Ya gotta have hope. I don’t think Jenner & Block would be doing this work for us if they thought they were going to lose. And we have a long way to go. The water permit is next and more permits are after that, it is just that with this air permit they can start the process. It is often said that when your reputation and name is on the line, somehow you tend to rise above the fray and your skills really start to shine. Let’s hope that is true with Mr. Graham. I wish him Godspeed and take your hammer along to keep them awake.
“Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream.” “Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily life is but a dream”