I walked into the House chairmen's suite Wednesday. I know "suite" sounds grand, but really it is a back corner area with cubicles where the Republican chairs of all the House Committees have their "offices."
Dressed different patterned plaid jackets and sitting in two matching floral print, high backed arm chairs, I found the two good Ladies from District 35, Lenore Barrett and JoAn Wood. Rep. Wood Chairs the house Transportation Committee and Rep. Barrett from my old home, Custer County, Chairs the Local Government Committee. They looked elegant in the chairs, talking.
The two were sharing memories from the great depression. JoAn was just a girl but remembers licking the ration stamps and sticking them on the little cards. You needed full cards and money to buy your rations. They talked about the rations of sugar, shoes and gas.
The conversation led to box stores and the little local stores in their communities going out of business now.
This is not an every day scene, but it is. JoAn is the legislature's longest serving member. What she has seen and heard would fill books. Yet I realize even she remembers only echoes of the last time the economy took such a loss. We are in unknown waters trying to decide what of state government we need to fund and what we can do without.
This could be as bad as it gets. Or it might not be. The not knowing is what makes me cautious. Those who feel confident about a quick recovery may not agonize so much. But some of us will. This legislative session is just beginning. There is lots more to be seen. Lot's more struggling over conflicting realities, conflicting images of what's possible.
Unlike in the 30's we have a social welfare system. We are built to keep our nation's people from hunger. As long as we each remain generous, as long as we grow enough food in our collective American farm lands and can get our nation down from the endless war to a place of relative peace, we can survive anything. That's what I believe.