Author Archives: janetjacobson

The real war on Christmas
















The business of education











Planet X and the end of the world









I might try to write something profoundly wise.



© 2017 Janet Jacobson and Sustaining the Northern Plains


A little distance

More than a hundred years ago a French artist named Georges Seurat developed a technique of painting called “pointillism.” Pointillism is a style of painting in which the paint is not actually mixed on the canvas but is applied in small dots of different colors. A similar principle is used by television screens and digital photography. If you look closely at a tv screen or if you enlarge a digital photo enough you will see individual “pixels” or square of color. The picture at close scrutiny doesn’t look like much. You can’t really see the image. You see only individual dots of color.It is only when you back up and look at the whole image that the painting, television screen or digital image makes sense. From a distance the individual spots of paint can’t be distinguished and the viewer’s eye blends the colors together. Distance allows you to see what the artist or photographer intended.

One of the most impressive images of our modern age is the picture of the earth from space. Instead of the limited view of our planet visible from the spot we’re standing on, we see the whole from space. The earth has been called a big blue marble since we first got a glimpse of our home from space more than a half century ago. Some satellites have taken pictures of the earth over many years. This long term, time-lapse photography provides records of amazing changes in our planet. Satellite images can see changes in vegetation and annual snow cover. If we look at the earth from space, we see glaciers disappearing and polar ice caps shrinking. We can see the effects of nutrients running into streams and rivers. The Dead Zone in the Gulf of Mexico is quite obvious.

The discussion of global warming and climate change is a little like pointillism. If we look only at the weather in a very small area or for only one or two seasons, we really can’t see the picture. On the Northern Plains in some years we have gone from the coldest summer on record to the warmest winter. We have areas with too much rain and places a few miles away with too little. Many of us can remember colder winters and hotter summers, worse droughts and hundred year floods. It is hard to understand what is going on if we look at the picture too closely either in space or time. It is only when we back up and look at the earth as a whole, from a distance and over a longer period of time can we see what is happening.

It is not easy to see what the effects of our individual actions have on the world around us. If we throw away a single Styrofoam cup it doesn’t create too big an issue. Multiply that act by several million and it is a problem that will be around for a long time. Recycling a single aluminum can or newspaper seems like a small thing. Saving a few gallons of gasoline doesn’t keep a lot of greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere. If millions of people make the same smalls gesture, however, the effect is significant.

It is important to not look at the picture too closely. From close up one can only see the individual little dots. Step back and look at the big picture.

© 2017 Janet Jacobson and Sustaining the Northern Plains

The prophet Micah and fishing

My friends and I were discussing the book of Micah in a recent Bible study. Micah was a Judean prophet of the 8th century BC. Micah warned of the destruction of Jerusalem and accused the leaders of deceit, thievery, and neglect of the poor. The well know verse, Micah 6:8 says, “He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Our lesson included a discussion of how we advocate for the poor by seeking justice in our present time.

In 2013 a group of us went to Haiti. Haiti is on the west end of the island of Hispaniola, the landing-place of Christopher Columbus in 1492, Often the first statistic cited about the country is that it is the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. That is true.

That trip and the two I have taken since, have changed how I understand the prophet Micah and the Bible’s teachings about wealth and our responsibility to the rest of God’s creation. Those trips also changed my first response when asked about Haiti and it’s people.

Coming home from a mission trip is complex. On one hand it is wonderful to be back with my family, to be able to sleep in my own bed, to cook in my own kitchen and to turn on the faucet and know it is safe to drink the water that comes out. It is easy to say, “I am so blessed. I have seen what poverty is and I am grateful for the many blessings I have.” Those are sincere and real feelings. It’s not long, however, until the daily struggles to pay bills, to get on top of my to-do list, and my consumer lifestyle take over and my gratitude disappears.

The other emotion which overwhelms many short-term mission participants is one of guilt that we have so much and our friends in “the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere” have so little. A sense of ineffectiveness and despair often overwhelms us as we can’t see how our meager efforts can make a difference.

Our recent Bible study challenged us and asked what we are doing to seek justice for the poor in our community, our nation and our world.

Often the proverb (origin unknown) “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime,” is used to advocate against simply giving the poor a handout and instead giving the “least of these” the skills they need to help themselves. While on the surface this seems like common sense, helping the poor is not this simple.

Feeding someone who is starving is sometimes the right thing to do. As the pastor of the church we work with in Haiti has said, “An empty stomach has no ears.” Sometimes our neighbors just need food, a blanket, and clean water to drink.

The second part of the proverb is simplistic and unintentionally condescending. It assumes the poor do not know how to fish. My experience is that the poor often know how to do many things. They know how to fish, to grow things on plots of ground we wouldn’t think of planting and to survive in places I could not, even with all my “superior” knowledge. The poor are not poor because they know nothing.

The proverb’s assumption that the poor don’t fish because they don’t know how ignores the reality that they may not have access to the tools needed to fish. Do they have a boat or a fishing pole, or a net? Are there actually fish to catch or has the sea’s bounty been over-fished by huge trawlers belonging to foreign corporations exploiting the sea’s resources to supply northerners’ grocery stores? Are there regulations which require licenses and fees for fishing? Is the shore accessible to small boats? Do the poor have fuel to cook the fish once caught? Eating fish alone will not sustain anyone. Do people have access to foods containing adequate vitamins and fats? Do they have clean water?

In order to help the poor we need to learn to be humble and to listen. What do our friends need? What do they want? What tools do they have and what are they missing? How are we standing in their way? Which of our country’s trade policies are like the unfair transactions Micah accused the powerful of Jerusalem of making with the poor and needy? How does our consumerism impact the lives of others in the world? Does the manufacture of the goods we buy provide fair living wages for those who make them? Are the foods we eat grown and harvested by people who themselves have enough to eat?

Do we need that new gadget, expensive pair of shoes, latest fashion? Are our discarded goods dumped on the shores of another country, overwhelming their ability to recycle and reuse them? Is giving away what we don’t need charity or a guilt-free method of disposal?

These are hard questions. I don’t believe that there are easy or painless ways to help the world’s poor. According to the prophet Micah and to the gospel that is the basis of Christian teaching, even if it is difficult, failing to advocate for those without enough is not an option.

A revolutionary tweet

At a North Dakota Farmers Union convention in the 1970s, a group of women submitted a resolution for support of the Equal Rights Amendment to the members. A heated, emotional discussion ended in the defeat of the resolution. Arguments against the proposed amendment to the US Constitution included the demise of the traditional American family, putting housewives at a disadvantage, opening up the possibility of drafting women into the military and loss of special workplace protections for women.

The next year, we submitted the same resolution, but instead of referring to the “Equal Rights Amendment” we used the text of the actual amendment:


The resolution passed with no discussion and no dissenting votes.

Many opponents of “Obamacare” when asked if they approve of the provisions of the “Affordable Care Act” answer favorably in spite of the fact that they are the same thing. In the ongoing healthcare debate, socialized medicine and a single payer option is often demonized by senior citizens who fight any suggestion that Medicare be cut back.

Our discussion of issues is often governed by our emotions and the sound bites fed to us by one side or another. The emotional responses to the “Equal Rights Amendment” and “Obamacare” were different than the responses to the actual words and provisions.

On the Fourth of July, National Public Radio (NPR) followed its 29 year tradition of reading the Declaration of Independence aloud on Morning Edition. In addition to the reading, the staff published the entire Declaration in a series of posts to the NPR Twitter account. The response to these tweets was disturbing.

If NPR had just posted “Three cheers for the Declaration of Independence” no one would have objected. The response would have been an emotional and patriotic affirmation of all that is American. Instead, many did not recognize the words of one of our most valued documents and thought it was NPR advocating a revolution against our present government. Some thought the references to King George III were references to President Trump. Others accused NPR of tweeting liberal propaganda and having a “Hollywood elitist” agenda.

It is easy to understand how someone might have picked up in the middle of the lengthy series of tweets and missed the more familiar lines of the Declaration. It is obvious that many of those who accused NPR of posting from a “liberal bias” slept through American history class and did not recognize any part of the document. What is more disturbing is that so many people didn’t bother to do any critical thinking before responding. Why would NPR suggest that the government be overthrown? Part of their funding comes from that very government. What is the context of the tweets? Who is writing them? Is the language contemporary English?

A current trend in education strongly emphasizes the importance of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). The goal is to enable students to find good jobs in the modern world.  That is a commendable goal, but is an excessive STEM focus shortchanging other disciplines that can teach students how to think for themselves, to be creative and to make good decisions?  In many schools, funds are being cut for history, language, culture, philosophy, ethics, writing, art and music.  To be good workers and good citizens, we need more than just the technical skills for our jobs.  We need to be able to think critically, to make informed value judgments in our everyday work and in political questions.

How can we be good citizens if we don’t even recognize the words of the Declaration of Independence or the US Constitution? Are we more likely to support politicians who say the right things, but then, once elected, enact legislation that ignores their campaign promises and harms the common good? Do we know how to check the accuracy of statements made by those we agree with as well as those we disagree with?

The Declaration of Independence is a revolutionary document. Maybe reading it in tweetable segments helps us realize what a courageous and radical thing we celebrate on the Fourth of July…unless of course you mistakenly think it is “liberal propaganda” because it comes from NPR.

© 2017 Janet Jacobson and Sustaining the Northern Plains

Roundup in the middle of the night









I stopped and looked up.





Copyright © 2017 Janet Jacobson and Sustaining the Northern Plains