Jeff stood leaning against the door jamb, looking out the storm door. He blew the steam from his coffee cup and sipped from it. He looked out across the barnyard, over the pastures, and to the mountain range beyond. The sun was behind a cluster of storm clouds. Rays of light escaped through the purple and white canopy, and lit areas on the ground; like so many flashlights cutting paths through the darkness. The fresh puddles on the ground reflected the sun rays, and quivered at the touch of the wind. The horses in the pasture chased each other in an equestrian dance; invigorated by the cool air that the passing storm had provided. Jeff looked down at his hands wrapped around his cup, and sighed.
“Wow, that was a mighty heavy sigh.” His wife Mary Ellen looked sideways at him, and smiled as she was putting dinner on the table. “ What’s on your mind, Jeff?” He looked at his wife of nearly forty years and smiled. He shook his head a little, then looked back outside. “ Might as well spill it, I won’t let up till you tell me.” She came over and put her arm through his, and placed her chin on his shoulder. “ You have been awful quiet the last couple of days, Jeff. I know you’re troubled about something.”
Jeff switched his coffee cup to his right hand and placed his left arm around his wife’s small waist. He kissed her on the forehead. “ I don’t know, honey,… it’s just that this whole country is a mess.”
“What do you mean?” “You remember that bumper sticker when we were kids that read ‘ I love my country but I fear my government'?” “ I do,” she said, as her thoughts went back to their first days together. It seemed like yesterday and a hundred years ago at the same time.
They had met at a county rodeo not far from where they now lived. She had come from her home in Kansas City, Missouri, to visit her aunt and cousins. Her Aunt Tilly had offered to take her to her first rodeo, and, being a big city girl, she had thought it sounded fun. Jeff was there riding broncos. The bucking horse had unceremoniously dumped him right at her and her cousins feet, in front of the fence where they were watching the event. Jeff had groaned a little as he got up, and then looked up into her eyes. He dusted off his chaps with his hat and grinned, “ I reckon I owe that horse a favor. He sat me down right in front of the prettiest girl in Montana.” She was hooked then and there. Three years later they married, and she became a Montana ranchers wife. After Jeff’s dad died, he took full reigns of the ranch, and they had built the house where they were now living.
“I remember that bumper sticker. I remember you didn’t care for it much back then,” she grinned.
"No I didn’t", Jeff said as he drained his coffee cup. He set the cup on the counter and smiled. "I thought that was just hippie talk, posted on a blue Volkswagen with flowers all over it." " My bug was green", said Mary Ellen. "Oh yeah, that’s right. Well, I’m thinkin’ a man could sell a truck load of those stickers now if he had 'em." Mary Ellen looked at her husband and saw the seriousness in his eyes, then just nodded in agreement. They sat down at the old oak table to eat.
They pulled their chairs up to the table and Jeff said "Go ahead, Mary", and they bowed their heads.
"Dear Lord, we thank you for this food, for our health and life. We thank you for the many blessings bestowed on this ranch by you. Help us to prove our gratitude by being good people who serve you…" Jeff started to raise his head in anticipation of an "Amen", but Mary Ellen went on "…and Lord please look down on this nation of ours, and raise up leaders who will consider you in all they do. And help them restore our country once again, to ‘one nation under God’. Amen." Jeff said a heartier than usual "Amen". He grabbed a bowl and dipped from it, then passed it to Mary Ellen. "That was an elegant addition to your prayer." She smiled, "Just part of my nighttime prayers added to it." She poured them iced tea from a glass pitcher, and looked over at her husband, "You’re kinda worried about this country aren’t you?" "I am... pass the salt, please." He looked across the table.
"Mary, I love this country, this land," he pointed out toward the kitchen window, "but we have the most corrupt congress in our history. We have taken God out of our schools, and replaced Him with a curriculum of acceptance. Our school kids are being taught to accept things contrary to what the Bible teaches, and made to feel guilty if they don’t want to go against their beliefs. We’re not out there Bible thumpin’, but we’re persecuted for even thinkin’ the Good Book should offer guiding principles for our rule of government; even though our government was founded on religious principle, and nearly every court house has the Ten Commandments or some bible verse on the walls. We have things backwards anymore." Mary Ellen listened politely while she ate.
"We reward people for not working, and tax the ones who do. Look, Honey, when you have social workers encouraging minimum wage working single moms to quit their jobs, because they’d be financially better off by getting government money, then something is wrong, bad wrong." Mary Ellen placed her chin in her hand, and looked up at him, "You’re not suggesting that we do away with Welfare?"
"Not at all, Mary. There are folks we know that I am very glad there is government assistance for. But there are way too many that sit at home, and live off middle class America’s sweat. You yourself saw a tattooed woman buy hamburger for her dog with food stamps and then paid cash for cigarettes and beer." Mary Ellen, who wasn’t quite the conservative her husband was, had to nod her head in agreement.
She had witnessed a woman in the grocery store line trying to purchase dog food with her government assistance. When the store clerk explained to the woman that she could not do that, the woman left the line and came back with a package of hamburger. She had turned to Mary Ellen and smiled, "My dog will eat hamburger too," she said.While in the next aisle over Mary Ellen had just seen a ranch hand’s wife carefully counting out change, in order to buy a package of Baloney and a can of Baby Formula. Mary Ellen had come home after that, disturbed and a little angry.
Mary Ellen stopped eating and looked at Jeff. "I agree that we should monitor things more. Maybe require drug tests for all recipients from time to time, just like any Federal employee is subject to. Maybe require some able bodied folks on Public Aid to look for jobs, like folks collecting unemployment have to?" She sighed, "I don't know.Welfare was never intended to be the sole income for generations of families, just like Social Security was never meant to be the only income for Senior Citizens. These programs were originally designed to be supporting incomes, not complete incomes. They are two good ideas that have gone wrong, ...and congress is bleeding Social Security dry anyway."
Jeff took a drink from his glass, then said, "We have always been a generous nation. Help out your neighbor in times of trouble; send troops overseas to liberate oppressed peoples. But we have become an entitlement nation, ‘You owe me a living, you owe me citizenship’, whatever happened to working for what you get, if you're able? We have dumbed this country down to a land of snivelers and whiners that expect everyone else to feel responsible for providing for them. There's too much blame placing and not enough working going on.
We are irrefutably in a steady decline, generation after generation. I happily pay taxes, lots of them, but I hate seeing the blood and sweat of hard workin’ Americans being wasted by the most inept Congress in our nations long history. I'm gettin' tired of supportin' a bunch of slackers who wear their pajamas to the grocery store."
Mary refilled Jeff’s tea and chuckled, "Here… you better cool off, cowboy." Jeff ducked his head and grinned. "I know." "What got you all stirred up again? Gun control?" "Yeah, I guess,... maybe." He got up and forked another pork chop from the skillet. "On the radio, in the truck, I heard a spokesman for the New York State Police hem and haw and finally admit that, yes, if you have guns or magazines in your home already, that are outlawed, they could ,in reality, be confiscated. NOT that they wanted to do that. There would be warnings first etc..., but, yes, legally they could be confiscated." He turned around, placed his arms across his chest, and leaned back on the counter top. "Mary Ellen, in one fell swoop, law abiding citizens in New York have become outlaws; when every real study done, will tell you that making more laws will not stop killers and maniacs from breaking them. Making new laws is fluff, not stuff."
Mary Ellen got up and held out the cookie jar to him." I know something has to be done, but I don't think I want America to go back to the days of the Wild West with everybody wearing a gun." Jeff took a cookie from the jar and said as he took a bite, " I agree, although, in the real old west, not everyone wore guns like they do in the movies, that's for sure. Look, hundreds of millions of drivers everyday have only a thin yellow line separating them from the other cars. You know what keeps drivers from turning the wheel and deliberately hitting another car head on?" Mary Ellen nodded, "The fact that they may get killed too." "That's right, restraint and responsibility, with a dash of common sense, goes a long way."
He sighed "OK, I’m done..I'm just sayin'", he smiled. "Nothing I can do but complain, other than start a campaign to vote every incumbent out of office in protest. Who cares who you get in there, can they be worse? If you don’t like what the new congress does, vote them out when the time comes. I think the problem with conservatives is... that we’re conservative. We don’t take to the streets in protests near often enough. We don’t vote near often enough. We just complain and get on back to work." He picked up his plate and moved to the sink, "And that’s would I need to do now", he smiled, "shut up, and get back to work. I’m sorry for blatherin’ on. Got cattle to move into the valley before dark. You know we’re gonna have to reduce the herd again to keep expenses down this year?" Jeff got a tooth pick from the holder. He put on his hat, stuffed his gloves in his back pocket and reached for the door knob.
Mary Ellen walked over to him and put her arms around his waist. "I know you feel helpless, and afraid of the way this country is headed. Anger is often just fear looking for an outlet. But your eyes are wide open, and whatever happens… we won’t be taken by surprise. Some things are out of our hands. Believe it or not Jeff Miller, there are things even you can’t fix." She kissed him and smiled, "The main thing is that we keep putting into our kids and grand kids the principles of a strong work ethic, a love for honesty, and a love for God. And then maybe we need to give God a chance, and trust Him more". She laid her head on his chest, "You keep right on sayin', and I’ll keep right on prayin". She looked up into his eyes, "Okay?"
He looked down at her and smiled. "I go on and on for thirty minutes, and you take 30 seconds to set me straight." He put his hands on her shoulders, "Wanna saddle up for a ride along the creek later?" Mary Ellen gave her husband that look that wives do sometimes. "Should I bring an extra blanket, cowboy?" Jeff took a deep breath and smiled, "Oh, yes Ma’am."
