The Human Condition
I was shocked to learn about Dr. Dunford. How did I go to school 16 years and live to be 80 something and never heard of this man or this problem?
Slavery was a problem in Jesus’ time, but the Bible doesn’t even mention it. The Bible has much to say about the oppression of the poor, at the hands of the rich. We are all familiar with the story of the rich man coming into the assembly, and they set him down front, and tell the poor man to go to the back. The idea that some are superior to other people.
Slavery has been a problem all throughout history, and is no doubt practiced today. We hear much about sex trafficking and that would certainly be a form of slavery. In the last years we have heard much about our forefathers owning slaves. We’ve seen statues torn down and our forefathers ridiculed. Despite the fact that George Washington freed all his slaves Martha didn’t free hers, but that’s another story.
Google gives a long list of black men that owned slaves but somehow we never hear about that. We hear about our European leaders owning slaves even though this was a common practice in those days. Perhaps this is not a black and white problem, but a people problem. Perhaps the fact that we are all sinners, saved only by the grace of God, has something to do with it.
On another topic, I hear in the news yesterday, that someone wants to take 1,700 acres of the best farm ground in the world, and turn it into a solar farm. I have written about the Great Black Swamp previously and the story fascinates me. I told you the farm I was raised on was hard clay, you could hardly pull a plow through the soil. My dad was the best farmer I knew, and we had 10 ft high corn, the best in the neighborhood.
This was merely 1 mile north of highway 37, border of The Great Black Swamp. Walk across the highway and you find soft black loam, some of the finest soil there is. Down the road a mile and you come to Smucker’s Produce selling the finest green beans, sweet corn, watermelon, and all kinds of garden vegetables. They are always busy nearly anytime you go there.
On the radio this morning I hear we are going to have a record corn crop. Probably because the bean crop is down, farmers have simply switched from raising beans to corn. You don’t hear much anymore about starvation in the world, but I am sure it is probably a problem in some areas. Farmers keep producing more, but if we have any kind of calamity, such as a drought, this will be over.
Figuring an average of 100 bushels per acre of corn, 67,000 people could be fed three meals a day eating cornflakes. I love corn flakes. The argument that I have heard is that the electric farm would bring in more tax revenue. They haven’t even said what they would spend the extra tax revenue on.
Perhaps part of our problem is greed. Dr. Dunford did not want to give up his huge plantation, which brought in much money, and elevated his status in society. He wished to make more money, at the sacrifice of 95 slaves. I feel a great affinity to the people from Archbold. My grandmother was a Short and was from Archbold. I always thought of it to be a Mennonite community, but l see the most beautiful Catholic Church on Main Street. From an outsider it appears they have done quite well over the years.
In what I said above, I have no dog in the fight. It is my farmer instinct, and it doesn’t seem to make sense to install solar panels in a cold climate. Today, 8/19, two large agriculture companies, one from US, and one from Germany have constructed a 300 million dollar biofuels plant making things plastic out of corn. Things used in car components, medical equipment, and yoga pants. Whoops, I forgot, there is no more corn, but we do have solar panels.
The photo it is my folks on Barr Street market probably around 1950. The market which was given to fort Wayne for perpetuity to be used as a farmers market, was torn down to make parking for Wolf & Dessauer Department Store. Can you say bad decision?
—James Neuhouser
