For the last few weeks I’ve been watching the going’s on up in Washington. Like a few folks, I tend to reserve my thoughts on political matters for private company. I respect others with different views. They deserve the privilege of having those views even if I don’t agree with them. After all, this is America.

In 2016 I didn’t vote FOR either candidate. I really didn’t believe either party had put up a viable candidate. But I did vote against one. I’ll stand by that decision.

Normally when someone takes office the losing party endures the other’s tenure, like it or not. It’s evident that hasn’t occurred over the last three years and now we’ve come to what happened yesterday. It’s not been pleasant.

I can’t say that the swamp has been drained yet, but the bottom feeders have certainly muddied the waters and are flopping around on the bank. We can see who they are now.

When I was a kid we had a lot of trouble with beavers damming up a creek on our farm. Those rascals had backed up water and flooded several acres of timber. Trees were dying.

We called in an explosive expert and blew up the main dam. I wasn’t expecting it to be so loud and messy, but it was.

Sticks and mud shot way up into the air. We thought we’d be safe where we were stationed several yards away behind some trees and brush, but that wasn’t the case. A little mud and water came our direction. We got a little on us.

However, the dynamite did its job even though I didn’t care for how loud it was. The creek began to flow again. The water that was drowning timber receded as we watched. I saw a few beavers make their way out of their huts to find out what had happened to their swimming hole.

A few were dispatched. A few swam further down the channel and moved on. A few stayed hidden in their huts that lined the creek-bank. For a while the creek flowed unabated. But eventually dams were rebuilt. We had to blow them a few more times.

If there is a moral to this story, it is this; sometimes you have to call in help to drain a swamp. You may not like everything it takes to accomplish the job, and you may get dirty in the process. Sometimes the noise will be loud and obnoxious. The problem may not stay solved and you may have to keep working at it. But you have to do something if you want to make a difference.

It’s like a manager at the paper mill once told me when we were having problems. It’s always better to do something than nothing.

May God Bless America.

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Rick Algood
December 19, 2019