The Meaning of Grange Heritage
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By Molly Thompson, Program Assistant

As Grangers, most of us know that the Grange is an organization filled with history and tradition. We are proud to be Grangers and proud of the ideals that the Grange represents. It is well known that the Grange is the Nation’s oldest farming and rural advocacy group and that our founding father’s created this organization as a way for farmers across the country to band together with a unified voice. However, being a part of the Grange is much more than just simply belonging to an organization. Being a member of the Grange offers a rewarding heritage unique to the Grange. Heritage is defined as “Something that is passed down from preceding generations; a tradition.” And the Grange certainly does have a multitude of traditions ranging from potluck suppers to community fairs.

Recently, the question was posed to me “what does ‘Grange Heritage’ mean to you?” This question got me to start thinking about how each Grange member across the country would respond to this. I was sure that each person I spoke to would have a completely separate idea. I was surprised to learn however, that most have a similar thought on what “Grange Heritage” represents to them. Overwhelmingly the response to my question, “what does “Grange Heritage” mean to you” was in regards to the people, friendships, family ties, and fellowship that comes along with being a Grange member. I spoke with Marge Sassman, a Grange member from Colorado and her response was “Grange heritage to me means people that grew up in the Grange, which I did not. But to me personally Grange heritage means a family organization. I have found it over the years to be a very strong support system to members with either joys or sorrows in their lives.” Woodrow Tucker, past High Priest of Demeter offers up a similar take, “In today’s world everything is controlled by the checkbook and not by human interaction. Grange heritage to me is giving the gift of a human life. To me there is nothing more important than offering up the gift of service and through that service bettering a life.” Similarly, Jim Tetreault, New Hampshire State Legislative Director states, “when I hear Grange heritage, I think of the traditions of the Grange and the number of Grange families and the multi-generational Grange families there are. For instance, in my own Grange heritage I am a 4th generation Granger.” Although each response is varied, they all boil down to one thought: that the people who make up the Grange represent ‘Grange Heritage’.

Although the people in the Grange are definitely a major part of Grange Heritage, the ways in which we as Grangers represent ourselves is also an important aspect of the ‘Grange Heritage’. The beliefs and ideals that we conduct ourselves with is one of the reasons the Grange has such a long history. Pete Pompper, New Jersey State Master reiterates this by stating “Grange heritage to me just means our beliefs and principles that we were founded on and making those work and using those in today’s world. Trying to live our original values and principles in today’s society.” Without the original founding beliefs, it would have been impossible to establish the Grange families and fellowship that so many members speak of when referring to “Grange Heritage”. Woodrow Tucker best sums it up with “what people don’t realize is just how much we can accomplish through the tenants of the Grange and how important the fellowship is that being a part of the Grange offers.” The values and principals the Grange was founded on truly goes hand in hand with the people who make the Grange what it was and what it continues to be today: America’s Family Fraternity. By instilling the values and principles in each and every Grange member, the communities of these Granges reap the benefits. “The other thing I think of when I hear Grange Heritage is the tremendous training opportunities, public speaking, and leadership skills that the Grange offers. Because of this training, many Grangers have gone on to do things in their communities and states,” says Jim Tetreault.

Grange Heritage is an idea that encompasses many things, but for many members, it is the lifelong fellowship, values, and service that truly represent the Grange. I encourage each and every one of you to ponder what ‘Grange Heritage’ means to you and to instill the Grange beliefs into your life and the lives of those in your community.

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National President Ed Luttrell working on one of his many goals.

The reason I didn’t work on the 61 Chevy or the 61 Dodge was that in building the foundation for our Grange efforts, time was short. It didn’t help that when I was home, weather and other “more important” chores took my time. Both projects have sat patiently waiting for me to get back to them.

The reason this topic is relevant to the Grange is that if you set goals and make plans your odds of doing something go up. The key elements to success are simply set some goals, make some plans and then start doing!

If you don’t set goals, you don’t know where you are going. We do know where we are going as a National organization and we know what we want to achieve. Do you know what you are going to try to do or accomplish this year in your Community Grange? My Grange is in the process of reviewing our priorities and setting our goals for 2009. .

In my personal life, my son and I have set the goal of repainting his 61 Chevy pickup before our August car show. Celia and I have the goal of having our 61 Dodge at the National WPC meet in Sacramento in late July. Goals can have deadlines or not, but they must be measurable. Will you know when you achieve your goals? Every member and every Grange should have a goal for 2009. I would encourage you to set measurable goals toward the growth of your Grange.

Making plans is the second step. Having a timeline allows you to decide how are you going to get there. In my son’s case, he finally chose “Neptune Green” as the color he wants his truck to be painted. For Celia and I the National meet sets our timeline. In both of these cases, we don’t know all the details yet. We don’t know how much time it will really take or what challenges we will face. But we are starting to build a plan that will get us to our goal.

Your Grange needs to be making plans to accomplish your goals. Each meeting is the time to review those plans and modify them if circumstances require it. We should be celebrating the little steps as we achieve them and then moving forward to the next step with renewed enthusiasm.

At this point you are DOING! Implementing your plans requires action. The more you do, the more people will want to be a part of your Grange. The more you do, the closer you get to achieving your goals. The more National President Ed Luttrell working on one of his many goals (inset) that you do, the more chance that new opportunities will present themselves to you. Action will bring many positives to you and your Grange, especially when it is directed to meeting a goal that has a plan.

The great thing about having a goal and plan is that I know that even if I don’t fully achieve my goals on the cars, they will be much closer to being finished than if I don’t set goals and make plans. Both will be finished at some point; maybe before the goals I’ve set, maybe after, but I will accomplish these goals. Setting goals, making plans, and then doing it are essential. If we are willing to do this for our hobbies and interests, imagine the possibilities of doing it for our organization, our passion for helping others, and for our fellow members. It is never too late to set a new goal or to build a new plan, and it never too late to start “doing” for our Grange.

This is going to be a great year for our Grange!

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On February 17, President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), a $787 billion piece of legislation that proponents believe will help our nation’s economy recover from the worst economic downturn in more than 25 years. AARA is also known in the short hand of media and Washington terminology as the “stimulus package”. Many agriculture observers have lamented the fact that a greater portion of the stimulus package did not directly benefit family farmers and ranchers.

However one of the most important victories of the stimulus package may actually be that agriculture was generally left out. That omission should not be regarded as a sign of indifference to the economic plight of family farmers. The stimulus package made no significant changes to the existing provisions of the 2008 Farm Bill that provide “counter-cyclical” financial assistance to hundreds of thousands of U.S. farmers. As the Farm Bill’s commodity programs kick in this year in response to projections of lower commodity prices and reduced global export demand, the federal farm programs will probably perform as intended to provide “stimulus” for hundreds of thousands of family farmers. And unlike the stimulus package to address economic problems facing the general economy that was written in less than six weeks and which was unavailable for public review in its final form up until 24 hours prior to the final Congressional vote, the 2008 Farm Bill was crafted as a model of legislative transparency and open debate over more than 18 months.

In fact one of the lessons we may take away from the regular and predictable process of full Congressional review and reauthorization of federal farm programs is that it forces farmers, policy makers, federal program managers and other stakeholders to anticipate and discuss “what (like weather) create uncertainty that can drive apprehension and even financial hardship among family farmers. However, for a full-fledged economic panic, you really just need to throw government uncertainty and indecision into the mix. We have recently seen two successive Administrations, from two political parties, expend their political reputations on massive increases in federal spending to rectify the economic challenges facing our nation on little more than promises to “Trust us, we are from the government and we know what to do.” Every ad hoc announcement of a new government response to the crisis seems to result in a drop in the stock market and announcements of more layoffs. These responses are not exactly ringing votes of confidence.

Trusting our government should never be uniformly treated as a cynical exercise in a democracy. But neither should our trust in our government be based entirely on faith, hope or expediency. The legitimacy of democratic government comes from its accountability to the people it serves and that legitimacy is best earned in the open, transparent, and deliberative process of crafting legislation. The most critical resource in an economic emergency may not actually be money or regulation, but time; time to think, plan, and anticipate what might go wrong; time to think through what the proper government response should be; and time to put a plan in place to execute when and if unforeseen contingencies come to pass. Unfortunately, most economic emergencies are not anticipated and adequate time to deliberate a thoughtful government response is the first resource sacrificed to public expectations of expediency of action.

While not all of the widespread economic problems facing our nation and the world economy could have been anticipated, certainly portions of the current “perfect storm” could be anticipated independent of other factors. It is not so difficult for legislators and policy makers to postulate what the appropriate response should be if general unemployment goes from less than 5% to more than 8%; nor is it difficult to anticipate and discuss what the appropriate public policy response should be if the number of mortgage defaults double or triple over the amounts seen in historical norms; and so on, and so forth. However, uniquely among government programs and responses to unforeseen circumstances, U.S. farm policy seeks to address many of these issues and questions when cooler heads can prevail and before a crisis gets out of control. U.S. farm policy is designed to respond to economic challenges even if we don’t exactly know what the major factor or factors that bring on those challenges might be such drought, market collapse, trade disputes, or natural disasters that disrupt transportation of farm products to market. The economic challenge of $1.60 corn to a family farmer is pretty much the same regardless of the if” contingencies for both good times and bad that can affect the agriculture sector and to incorporate creative policy responses to those potential situations into law, before, and not after, a crisis hits. What the lessons of agricultural economics and federal agriculture policy have taught us over the past 75 years is that market and/or unanticipated problems circumstances that brings that price on. So when the government response to that situation is also pretty much predictable for individual farmers, it goes a long way toward stabilizing the expectations of family farmers and alleviating the final ingredient of widespread economic panic, government indecision.

Farm Bills and U.S. farm policy are obviously not perfect. For one thing Grange policy clearly articulates that far too many U.S. family farmers and ranchers who do not produce “program crops” (and the rural communities that rely on their spending to keep their local economy moving) are not directly covered by the counter cyclical, stimulus benefits of U.S. farm programs. But farmers, almost uniquely among other major economic segments of U.S. society, have consistently held their elected officials accountable for legislative programs that make at least some attempt to anticipate what might go wrong with their industry and to put in place contingency plans through new pieces of legislation that are openly and publicly debated and discussed at regular intervals, so that while the circumstances that lead to economic hardship in farm country may not always be fully anticipated, the government’s response can be anticipated and the public’s trust in their government is maintained. It might not be such a bad idea if this kind of open, transparent, and deliberative legislative public policy process was regularly utilized to address the economic challenges facing other major segments of our nation’s economy.

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Jessica Cope, Executive Asst./Meeting Planner

I currently live in Maryland, but my travels brought me through 3 other states before settling here. I was born in Brooklyn, New York and went to college in New Jersey. I earned a Bachelors degree in Communications from Trenton State College (now The College of New Jersey) and a Masters degree in Counseling and Personnel Services from the same institution. After graduate school I moved to Farmville, Virginia where I worked at Longwood College with the student union and student activities program. My most recent position was as the Director of Special Events for the Chancellor and Board of Regents of the University System of Maryland.

When I’m not at work, I keep busy with all kinds of activities. At any given moment I have at least a half dozen ambitious projects simmering. I like to say I can handle everything from power tools to powder puffs! I’m active in my community, with tasks like planning the pig roast for the neighborhood pool, and serving as a chief election judge in my district. When I have a little down time, my true hobbies include bargain hunting, organizing social outings, and making the perfect cup of coffee.

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