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After yet another incredible year, South Dakota is entering 2021 in one of the strongest financial positions in the country. This is largely due to our strong economy, our approach to COVID, and our respect for freedom and personal responsibility.
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A few weeks ago a recently widowed lady and avid column reader called. She wanted to know if I would look over her late husband’s guns and place an approximate value on them. Though I’m certainly not in the appraisal business, I told her I’d help her out. The guns ranged from a Colt AR-15 semiautomatic rifle to an antique Ithica double barrel shotgun with Damascus barrels and side hammers. Most of the appraisal was easy enough, but I had no idea as to the value of the old Ithica double barrel.
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Today, December 4th, marks the 101st anniversary of the day South Dakota ratified the Nineteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which recognized that women have the right to vote. Though the date may not serve as a formal holiday, this particular Governor thinks it’s worth remembering in a special way. South Dakota would be a very different state, and the country a very different place, without it.
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For the last thirty years of his long life, my father had a son who took him hunting or fishing whenever he wished. Now that I’ve reached those golden years, I wish that I had such a son as Betsy worries that I’ll fall and perish before I’m found every time I go hunting by myself. But sometimes I’m lucky enough to have that son, especially when there’s guys like Chuck Zacharias who takes his old high school principal deer hunting.
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I’ve always thought that neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night could keep a Norwegian from a plate of lutefisk, but this year has challenged that belief. COVID-19 forced the cancellation of family holiday get-togethers and community celebrations across the state, including the venerable Summit Lutefisk Supper. This would have been the 82nd annual feast and tribute to the finicky fish that both unites a culture and serves as punch line to countless jokes like this one: Did you know that the first person to fly an airplane solo across the Atlantic Ocean was not Charles Lindbergh but a Norwegian pilot from Minnesota? Unfortunately, his plane carried a cargo of lutefisk, so no one met him at the airport.
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The Great Plains were homesteaded by men and women with a strong yearning for freedom and liberty – seeking an opportunity for their hard work and resourcefulness to cultivate enough prosperity to provide for their families, build some savings, and see the next generation do a little better than themselves. Many who followed in their footsteps and made South Dakota home, like my grandparents, were immigrants who sought the same freedom and opportunity. Enriched by the indigenous heritage of the state, these timeless ideals remain woven in the fabric of our communities to this day and continue to make our state a special place to live, work, raise families, and worship.
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