Get 'Er Done Cooperation

There’s a massive storm raging outside that reflects my insides.

I’m stormily frustrated right now with organizations and their seeming inability to cooperate.

A couple of weeks ago, a young, passionate, left-leaning community organizer called.

She asked if I would reach out to my state legislator to ask him to sponsor a bill that would declare a Soil Health Week throughout Montana.

Of course, I would.

Soil Health is an apolitical issue.

Who could criticize the benefit of more microbes growing more plants that feed more people and protect more soil from blowing away?

Who could criticize storing more carbon deep underground to mitigate the warming atmosphere?

The community organizer said she planned to cooperate with other ag producer organizations to highlight soil education and the value of soil in general. They would pay for everything.

A declared Soil Health Week won’t cost taxpayers a dime and my legislator, a cattle producer, too, understands the value.

I had a quick chat with him. He asked me to have the community organizer catch him in the hallway of one of the multiple ag producer meetings that were scheduled for the next 10 days.

I shared the plan with the community organizer.

She sounded doubtful.

It soon became clear that nobody from her small organization planned to attend any of those large producer meetings.

I was shocked. The real work gets done in the hallways of those annual conferences, not at the speaker’s microphone.

I pointed that out.

She hesitated to commit to attending, which meant that she would not implement a successful strategy to reach her goal.

As Jed Clampett from the Beverly Hillbillies used to say, “I need to have a long talk with that organization.”

A few days later, my brother in Oregon called to explain new gun laws in that fine state.

Oregon residents cannot buy a firearm without a completed background check and safety training. Only, the wait time for background checks is almost endless and nobody in the state is qualified to offer safety training.

The law is in the courts right now, with rulings back and forth.

I own a gun, maybe three.

Two days ago, a coyote came all the way into my lamb corral and killed two lambs. It was snowing and blowing so my guard dogs sleeping in the barn didn’t hear the commotion.

The next night, another lamb in the corral was shredded.

Evidence indicated the coyote ate the lamb alive.

Small canine tracks showed that a visitor had jumped the woven and barbed wire, going in and out.

I better go hunting. Right now.

I need a rifle that can reach a long distance because this coyote is wily.

If I lived in Oregon, my ability to buy such a rifle would change day to day, depending on the prevailing court order.

Oregon’s law is an attempt to reduce violence by firearms.

I strongly believe that we need to reduce gun violence.

Reducing gun violence is an apolitical issue.

Yet, the most powerful lobby in our nation, the National Rifle Association, will not cooperate with other organizations to solve this issue.

Just like the soil health community organizer, NRA organizers avoid the hallways of annual conferences where the real work gets done.

With some creative brainstorming and cooperation, my right to protect my vulnerable livestock from predators would not be threatened by the desperate need to stop people from killing one another.

Both issues are critically important.

Yet the NRA refuses to commit to cooperation, which means employees refuse to implement a strategy that will reach the organization’s goal.

To paraphrase Jed Clampett again, “I need to have a long talk with that organization.”