AlO-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, December 28, 1991 OPINION “Happy New Year To All!” We come to the rad of a year again. The “old” year, 1991, is past, and the “new” year is before us. As we reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future, we must make some personal adjustments. The key to these adjustments comes from our willingness to say good-by to some things we cannot keep. Fanning is such a roller coaster. The markets go up and down. The children get sick. The excellent cow dies. Or the bam bums. The key question: when everything else fails, what holds you up? Do we have an inner resolve that carries us through? A lot in life is not fair. Many occurrences are out of our con trol. But we must let some things go with the old year, the income you should have had or the cow that should have settled, or the children who left home-we need to say good-by to the things we cannot keep. The unkind word someone said to you or about you or the angry exchange you gave to someone else, these must go, too. If we can’t say good-by, we will not have energy to spend on new and exciting possibilites that come to us with each new page of the 1992 calendar. So, when we ring in the new year next Tuesday night, let’s forget the things of the past we cannot change and cannot keep and move on to creative ways to do better in the new year. This will insure that our wish for you will come true-our wish for a “Happy New Year To All!” Farm Forum Editor: I would like to respond to your article Congressional Inaction Leaves Dairy Farmer’s Fate to Market Forces (Lancaster Farm ing Dec. 14, 1991) on page A-23. This report seems to portray dairy farmers in sorry shape over the current milk price situation, and helpless to do much about it So far I could agree, and being in dairying myself, I can’t help sympathizing. The big question in my mind is: where will we go for help? To the USDA and our expert lawmakers? Despite their track record of untamed spending and interfer ence in agricultural marketing, these are the government planners we seem to depend on for the sur vival of our industry. Although we’ve lived off their assistance for 60 years, we are not much happier now than we were. Yet we con tinue to hire them to enforce reg ulations we ourselves cannot even 1 agree on. When new laws are proposed, we scramble to the nearest politician to have them rat ified in our favor. When milk prices dip, we plead with them to act quickly. What is this? Do we actually think these people know how to run our farms and sell our milk? I believe this industry has become lodged in a position more helpless than would be possible if it were plagued by the worst natur al disaster or marketing failure. We have allowed the honest pro cedure of producing and selling Lancaster Panning Established 1955 Published Every Saturday Ephrata Review Building 1 E. Main St. Ephrata, PA 17522 by Lancaster Farming, Inc. A SMnrmn EnlKprk* Robert G. Campbell General Manager Everett R. Newswanger Managing Editor CfylfX INI ky Uneastar Wmm»n§ milk to become a political ball game, and it certainly will remain as such so long as we believe our government’s false promises of fairness and equality. I am totally fed up with this system- this bizzare net- work of pricing mechanisms which perpe tually rob us of our freedoms and conceal the true value of our pro duct Political protections are an insult to our integrity since they shield us from the very competi tion needed to perfect our stan dards. Market orders should be abolished completely and prices permitted to stabilize at levels (Turn to Pag* A 23) Farm Calendar Wednesday, January 1 Happy New Year! Red Rose Alliance annual pork and sauerkraut dinner, Chur Three-Week Short Course in Pro- OTI9, ARE FORTP/E > WINTER ITL-00K9 GONNA a IN FOR A CD * .ED . o ID , oe O CD To Note Farm Show Changes The 76th Pennsylvania State Farm Show will begin in two weeks. This year there are several changes. These include the show opening on Saturday, January 11 and ending on Thursday, January 16. This means most entry days have been moved up by one day. Also, a social security number or employer identification number must be supplied with each entry. This number is now being required in order to send out premium checks. Special attractions include a butter sculpture, more than 5,000 animals, cooking demonstrations, educational exhibits, machinery, commercial agricultural exhibits, the famous food court, milking parlor, exhibit of 400 champion birds, sheep-to-shawl contest, and rodeo. Farm show premium lists are available from your local coopera tive extension office. Note the new days for the show and plan to attend Pennsylvania’s largest indoor agricultural event. Farmers Are Exempt From Water Monitoring Fees Farmers who use more than an average of 20,000 gallons of water fessional Turfgrass and Land scape Management, Hunterdon Co., N.J., thru Jan. 20. York Co. annual Forage Show, Franklin Co. Extension Dairy Day, Kauffman’s Community Cen ter, 9 a.m.-2;30 p.m. York Co. pesticide applicator test ing program, Pleasant Acres Complex, 8 a.m.-noon. Three-Week Short Course in Pro fessional Turfgrass and Land- (Turn to Pag* All) per day to irrigate or water poultry and livestock have been exempted from the Susquehanna River Basin Commission’s (SRBC) applica tion and compliance monitoring fees. Richard Cairo, executive secret ary of the SRBC, announced this decision after the commission con sidered testimony of many farmers ata public hearing in October. Far mers who use more than 20,000 gallons of water per day will still be required to apply for a permit By applying for a permit far mers will be registering their cur rent use of water. This will help them increase their access to water during times of future water shor tage. This action proves that far mers still can make a difference in government decisions provided they are organized, state the facts, explain the impact of the regula tions on them, reasons why the regulations should not be imple- A LITTLE LESS THAN GOD December 29, 1991 Background Scripture: Psalms 8. Devotional Reading: John 1:1-18. Both the commentaries I con sulted indicate that Psalm 8 origi nally belonged to the evening ser vice in the temple, when those standing in the court of the temple could see the night sky. I can well understand how the Psalmist felt when he said these Words for the first time: O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is thy name in all the earth! Often when I look into the night sky and see all those pin-points of light, when I realize what a small part of the solar system we are, and even more, what a tiny speck is our galaxy in the whole uni verse, those words come to me as they did to him. It is then that I realize that my denominational loyalties, withered and picketed by my uninspired human imagina tion. It takes the vastness of a night sky, the fascination, of still another universe revealed by a microscope, or the wonder mir rored in a newborn baby's face to lead me beyond my prosaic under standing of just how majestic are the finger prints of God in the world I can see, let alone those evidence in the world I cannot see or imagine. BIG THOUGHTS And then, when I have thought those big, big thoughts, and tned to see where I cannot see, some thing makes me look from the heavens to .myself and say: When I look at thy heavens, the work of thy fingers. The moon and the stars which VOUR GROCERY mented, and speak for themselves, Antifreeze And Children And Pets Watch for spills of antifreeze anytime you check your car’s radiator this winter. Do not leave spills without cleaning them up and do not leave open containers of antifreeze sitting around that child ren or pets could drink horn. Many pets may find water hard to find in the winter months or may enjoy the sweet taste of antifreeze. Ethylene glycol, the main ingre dient in antifreeze, is very toxic to humans and pets when ingested. Remember, antifreeze will not evaporate. Therefore, always clean up spills, do not leave old anti freeze sitting around in open buck ets and other containers, and always keep antifreeze in the origi nal containers with the safety caps in place. Feather Prof s Footnote: "Take time to think—it is the source of power." thou has established; What ts man that thou art mindful of him, and the son of man that thou dost care for him? Two thoughts that seem irre concilable: the majesty of God and the seeming insignificance of our human nature. The gap between God and our human nature must be greater than the length and breadth of the universe! That is when I am always brought up short with the words of the Psalmist: Yet thou hast made him little less than God, and dost crown him with glory and honor. "A little less than God"? No, even allowing for poetic license, is it not audacious to say "a little less than God"? ROYAL CROWNED Yes it is audacious, but still, according to the Psalmist, it must be said. Just so that we do not miss his point, he goes on to say that we are crowned "with honor and glory.” Only kings and queens arc thus crowned and the Psalmist is thus telling us that each and every one of us is royalty in the order of God's creation. We may not have any trouble believing in the royalty of presi dents. kings diplomats, artists, thespians, spoils superstars, enter tainers. captains of industry, but that isn't what the Psalmist is say ing. He is saying that to be a human being, a creature of God, is to occupy a place of royalty in the created order. Wonderful! Yes, but also inti midating. for if that is the way God has created us, if he has given us "dominion over the works of thy hands,” and "hast put all things under his feet," each and every one of us needs to recognize this divine potential and begin to live up to it while there is yet time to do so, '0 Lord, our Lord, how majes tic is thy name in all the earth!" And how great is the potential you have given us!
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