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Freeman Courier
/ May 9, 2012 / page 4
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TIM L. WALTNER, PUBLISHER
Gordon Gross. ..................................................... Driver/Mail
Erik Kaufman. ......................................... Contributing Writer
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Jeremy Waltner..................................................News Editor
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Just Curious
A Weekly Courier Q&A
Last week we asked:
Are you registered to vote?
Your answer:
Yes - 21, 88%; No - 3, 12%; No, but I will be
registering - 0, 0%.
This week we’re asking:
Have you ever been inside the Turkey
Ridge Store?
To vote, go to
Look here weekly for the previous week’s results.
______________________________________________
Just Curious is a weekly feature that seeks an online answer.
A new question will be posted every Monday at 10 p.m.
T
welve years ago, the Freeman Community
Foundation reached a milestone as it sur-
passed its initial $100,000 fundraising goal.
Established three years earlier to provide an ongo-
ing funding source for local projects, organizers set
out to solicit contributions totaling $100,000 by July
1, 2000. That campaign was successful and earned
the local foundation a $50,000 matching grant from
the South Dakota Community Foundation.
This year the Freeman Community Foundation
anticipates another milestone as it expects to sur-
pass the $100,000 mark in grants and scholarships
awarded to local projects during the past 12 years.
The latest round of recipients was announced as the
FCF held its annual spring banquet at the Prairie
Arboretum Interpretive Center May 3. The $12,200
awarded for five different projects and two scholar-
ships brings the total amount of mon-
ey awarded to support local projects
since 2000 to $85,600. Two rounds of
grants will be awarded in 2012 and
foundation officials believe that will
swell the amount of money provided
to assist local community projects
above the $100,000 mark.
The success of the foundation over these 15 years
is a tribute to the community that took on the chal-
lenge of establishing a foundation and then imple-
menting it successfully.
But in addition to the important financial impact
the foundation has had on the community, the foun-
dation also reflects the attributes that have enabled
the Freeman community to remain vital over the
decades.
Vision
The foundation, launched in the late 1990s by a
small group of committed individuals, built on the
rich community tradition of generosity and sup-
port. But this was a new idea. By having a broad,
inclusive community base and mission, it not only
established an endowment as a funding source, it
also bridged the divisions that often separate us.
The foundation wasn’t structured to reflect church,
school or business loyalties; it was structured to
focus on the larger community in a way that had
never been done before.
Generosity
The fundraising effort to establish the founda-
tion was successful because it gained the support
of the larger community. People saw the merit of
the goals and objectives
of the foundation and
responded with contri-
butions that moved it
from concept to real-
ity. And while the ini-
tial contributions were
critical to that success,
a significant gift in the
spring of 2008 from the
John R. Walz estate, to-
taling over $333,000, in-
creased the endowment
of the FCF and dramati-
cally expanded what it
can do for our commu-
nity.
Execution
The success of the foundation is reflected in
the diversity of projects that have been funded by
the foundation. Ongoing leadership has provided
wisdom, balance and focus on how the funds are
allocated. From major bricks and mortar — the
library and community center — to smaller proj-
ects — equipment for our first responders and play-
ground equipment for our youth — the foundation
has strengthened the quality of life for virtually ev-
ery resident in the community. The foundation has
gained community-wide respect and acceptance.
Obviously, it’s great to celebrate what the foun-
dation has become and done to help build and
strengthen our community. But it would be a mis-
take to stop there. The foundation can and should
grow and that will happen only if people continue
to support it with contributions. The example of
John R. Walz’s generosity is one that should be both
an inspiration and a challenge.
More information about the foundation is avail-
able on it’s website or by visiting with any of the
foundation board members.
Freeman Courier
editorials reflect the opinion of news editor
Jeremy Waltner and publisher Tim L. Waltner.
EDITORIAL
Freeman Community Foundation a good example of building community
VIEWS FROM OUR COLLEAGUES
The truth about postal reform and efforts underway in Congress
Reed Anfinson,
Swift County (Minn.) Monitor News
and president of the National Newspaper Association
EDITOR’S NOTE: Reed Anfinson,
who publishes a weekly newspaper
in Minnesota, is the president of the
National Newspaper Association. NNA,
of which the
Courier
is a member, has
been instrumental in efforts to maintain
and strengthen the United States Postal
Service. South Dakota’s senators split
their votes on S1789, which NNA strongly
supported. Sen. Tim Johnson voted yes
and Sen. John Thune voted no.
Now that US Senate has passed a bill,
S1789, to reform the ailing US Postal Service,
critics are trying to disable the bill on its way
to the House of Representatives.
Business
Week
recently catalogued unhappy stakehold-
ers, including postal unions, postal manage-
ment and some Republicans who wrongly
think the bill burdens taxpayers.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-CA, whose own bill
awaits action in the House, blasted “special
interests.” But
Business Week
says, “Consid-
ering how many people are unhappy with the
bill, it isn’t clear which special interests Issa
is referring to.”
Some see the Senate bill as the inevitable
product of the sausage machine. But it is nei-
ther a budget buster nor processed meat. It is
the expression of a better vision of the Postal
Service.
If you consider that survival of the service
means maintaining the circulatory system for
a $1.1 trillion mailing industry - or in other
words, making sure cash, greeting cards,
packages and newspapers and magazines ar-
rive on time, the Senate bill is good medicine.
Consider some of the alternative fixes.
Issa’s bill would let USPS immediately
end Saturday mail, close half the mail pro-
cessing centers and thousands of post offices,
and put a new board of political appointees in
charge. The new board would be expected to
trim workers’ benefits and maybe wages, and
direct the Postmaster General to favor profit
over service.
At the other extreme might be Sen. Bernie
Sanders, I-VT, who wanted to keep every-
thing open. Labor unions backing him say that
USPS will heal as the economy heals. Then
there is the White House’s notion: to raise
postage rates.
For Sens. Susan Collins, R-ME, and Joe
Lieberman, I-CT, neither extreme is suited to
long-term survival of USPS.
To many experts, Issa’s approach is likely
to frighten away businesses that mail. The
Lieberman-Collins bill agrees that USPS
needs a more flexible, less costly workforce.
It keeps mail flowing through today’s network
while cost-cutting is underway. For example,
they would end Saturday mail delivery in two
years, but only if USPS has taken other big
steps toward financial viability. They would
allow the closing of postal plants now, if
USPS preserves local mail delivery speed.
Is their bill the product of compromise, or
of a different vision?
Consider:
• The Postal Service’s plant-closing plan is
based on a desire to amass more mail at auto-
mated urban centers, where costly machines
sit idle much of the day. To optimize ma-
chines, USPS would haul mail much farther.
But the hauling would slow the mailstream,
particularly in small towns and rural areas
that are far from mail plants and create a set of
second-class citizens who get and send mail
more slowly than urban dwellers. It will also
hamper smaller communities’ quests for eco-
nomic development.
• Many Americans say they wouldn’t miss
Saturday mail. But USPS builds its system
around senders, not receivers. Who would
be hurt by a 5-day delivery regime? Anyone
who depends on timely mail delivery. Shut-
ting down the system two days a week —
three when Monday holidays occur — would
create delay, according to the Postal Regula-
tory Commission. Then there are those who
need prescriptions delivered when they are at
home; small-town citizens who get the news-
paper by mail and businesses needing 6-day
cash flows.
• Closing small post offices seems a no-
brainer to city dwellers who spot those one-
room POs at the roadside on the way to the
beach. Surely not all are needed. But rather
than closing them entirely, USPS could have
circuit-rider postmasters to open them a few
hours a day. That is affordable if worker ben-
efits are brought into line with the private
sector. For those communities, a circuit rider
could continue their links to the world.
• The Congressional Budget Office says
the Senate bill would cost $33.6 billion, add-
ing to the federal deficit. But postage-payers,
not taxpayers, carry that burden. Taxpayers
face a liability as the funder-of-last resort only
if postage revenues dry up — which is more
likely to happen if the mail slows to a crawl.
Finally, members of Congress may differ
on how they see USPS. Is it a corporation? Is
it a government agency responsible for bind-
ing the nation together?
Fact: it is a Government-Sponsored En-
terprise or GSE, more like Fannie Mae than
like IBM or the Defense Department. It has
to use business tools, but carry out a public
mission. And it has enormous power in the
marketplace. Consider, for example, its new
Every Door Direct Mail program, which di-
rectly competes with many private businesses.
Members of Congress who mistakenly see
postal reform as an exercise in deregulating
a company may actually unleash a powerful
federal agency, while those who look to rais-
ing postage so generous worker benefits can
continue could pull the plug on the economic
engine that keeps jobs alive.
It isn’t compromise that is needed, but a
clear-eyed vision based on a full understand-
ing of the needs of all who the Postal Service
serves. Postal management today has an im-
possible task, expected to accomplish busi-
ness goals without the cost-controlling tools
businesses have, and expected to achieve
government ends without federal support.
Congress owns this confusion. Only Congress
can fix it and it will continue to need to fine-
tune its solutions as communications cultures
change. No bill passed today will avoid the
need for legislation in the future. Neither “de-
regulating” it nor hiking rates will get USPS
to stability. Nor will abrupt and disruptive ap-
proaches to labor costs.
Senators Collins and Lieberman, along
with co-sponsors Tom Carper, D-DE, and
Scott Brown, R-MA, have devoted endless
hours to understanding the challenge and to
crafting the next steps toward fixing it. Their
approach deserves considerably more respect
than it is getting.
Freeman
Community
Foundation
Board of
Directors
Nathan Walter
President
Jill Weber Aanenson
Vice-President
Emily Hofer
Secretary
Wade Lager
Treasurer
Barry Uecker
Ruth Strasser
Stewart Hofer
Glenn Roth
KALEIDOSCOPE
MCA, the Beastie Boys and a greater influence
Jeremy Waltner,
Courier
News Editor
“Get up and groove with the rhythm in your
soul.”
– MCA, from ‘Pass the Mic’
I learned of the news
last Friday morning in
six letters that jumped off
my Facebook news feed
like an Adam Yauch lyric
busting out of the speak-
ers: “RIP MCA.”
A double take followed.
Then I scrolled down the
page and found another
post:
“MCA, RIP. Dang.”
Then another:
“Beasties forever.”
Adam Yauch, known as MCA in the pio-
neering rap trio Beastie Boys, was dead at
the age of 47, a victim presumably of parotid
salivary gland cancer, which he was diagnosed
with in 2009. Facebook told me first of MCA’s
death, and a host of Internet sites — including
cnn.com — confirmed the sad news shortly
thereafter.
To say I felt like I had lost a friend would
be overly and unnecessarily dramatic, but it’s
sort of true.
I have long considered the Beastie Boys top-
shelf entertainment and groundbreaking mu-
sic, and this from a guy who listens to hip hop
about as much as he listens to country western
— hardly at all.
But MCA and the other Beastie Boys —
Michael “Mike D” Diamond and Adam “Ad-
Rock” Horozitz — brought a different brand
of rap to the turntable, and their heavy punk
influence could be heard loud and clear on
their first major commercial release,
License to
Ill,
in 1986.
In many regards,
Ill
was the right album at
the right time for a hip hop scene that had been
dominated by a largely misunderstood black
culture. The Beastie Boys not only proved that
white boys could rap well, it contradicted the
notion that hip hop was nothing more than
drug-induced noise created by heavy-packing
thugs.
Ad-Rock, MCA and Mike D brought a play-
ful culture to the scene that would have been
laughable had it not been done so well, and
critics and listeners alike lauded the Beastie
Boys’ debut.
Licence to Ill
, the first full-length hip hop
record ever to hit No. 1 on the Billboard 200
chart, is Columbia Records’ fastest-selling al-
bum of all time and has topped 9 million in
album sales since its release 26 years ago — a
number I suspect will climb in light of MCA’s
death.
Particularly in their early years, the Beastie
Boys were undisputedly a party band, a label
they encouraged and embraced through songs
like “(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To
Party)” and “No Sleep ‘Till Brooklyn” from
License to Ill
.
But a more grounded and artistic side
emerged on their sophomore effort,
Paul’s
Boutique
released in 1988 — incidentally my
favorite of their seven-album resume. This
sampling-heavy recording further showcased
the artistic mastery of the trio and has only
gotten better with age. The same holds true of
those that came after
Paul’s Boutique
, includ-
ing Check Your Head, Ill Communication,
Hello
Nasty,
and releases of the later years —
To The 5 Boroughs, The Mix-Up
and, finally,
The Hot Sauce Committee
.
They were inducted into the Rock and Roll
Hall of Fame in Cleveland on April 14 of this
year — 3 ½ weeks prior to MCA’s death.
But it’s not the Beastie Boys’ impressive
resume that, in the wake of MCA’s death,
has me reflecting on the gift they have been
to music the past quarter-century, but rather
their growth as a band and contribution to the
larger community.
That is particularly true of Yauch.
For many who see things in black and white,
the Beastie Boys are defined by a party boy im-
age they developed early on; that is, after all,
where they started.
But it’s far from who they became. Slowly
but surely, as albums multiplied, the layers of
that image were shed and new ones emerged;
creativity, artistry and influence from genera
to genera — largely thanks to the talents given
to MCA — came to define the Beastie Boys
above anything else.
And Yauch, widely considered the soul of
the hip hop trio, became known for something
far more important: political activism.
Yauch, who adopted Buddhism after a trip
to Nepal and Kathmandu in the early 1990s,
became a champion for the Tibetan indepen-
dence movement, which seeks political sepa-
ration from the People’s Republic of China.
He co-founded the Milarepa Fund, which
raises money for and promotes awareness of
the effort for Tibetan freedom, and organized
a number of benefit concerts for the cause.
Those concerts included the Tibetan Freedom
Concert, a series of rock festivals in North
America, Europe and Asia from 1996 to 2001
featuring some of the world’s biggest acts in
music, including R.E.M., Red Hot Chili Pep-
pers, U2, Pearl Jam and Radiohead.
That set the course for MCA’s final decade
of life; his last years were spent in meditation
central to his faith, promotion central to his
cause, love central to his family, and — yes —
music central to his soul. What is presumably
the final album ever to be made by the Beastie
Boys, the
Hot Sauce Committee
, was released
last week.
Since his death Friday, a host of news or-
ganizations on television, in print and online
have devoted considerable time and space to
MCA, which says an awful lot about the kind
of impact Adam Yauch and the Beastie Boys
have had in many different circles.
Musicians around the world, and no doubt
the people of Tibet, continue to pay their re-
spects.
I spent part of my weekend paying my re-
spect by clicking through my collection of
Beastie Boys albums, and became struck by a
lyric from “Bodhisattva Vow,” a cut off
Ill Com-
munication
, released around the time MCA
latched onto the teachings of Buddhism:
“For the sake of all beings I seek/The en-
lightened mind that I know I’ll reap/I give
thanks for this world as a place to learn/And
for this human body that I’m glad to have
earned.”
Rest in peace, MCA.
And long love the Beastie Boys.
Jeremy Waltner is news editor of the
Courier
and strongly encourages readers
to check out Coldplay’s moving and classy
tribute to MCA — a rewrite of “(You Gotta)
Fight for Your Right (To Party).” You’ll have
no trouble finding it online.