ITVS: Talkback


			DELAFIELD

Tell us what you think about DELAFIELD.

Selected submissions will be posted here, so check back regularly and join the discussion.

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04/11/2004
Tim Stromer
thesevenstromers@juno.com
Good Thunder MN

I appreciated a true life look at what's going on, the things so close, sometimes we don't even see them happening. This film really opened my eyes to the reality of losing something you've loved for a hundred years. Not just you, but the generations before you, and the ones after. Thank you, thank you very much. God bless. Tim S.

01/16/2004
Carrie
carrie.learned@anoka.k12.mn.us
Minneapolis

Mark, Congrats on your film, and congrats on your EMMY! I have yet to see the video, but have heard so much about it through our Alumnews from Moorhead State! I don't know if you'll remember me, but I knew you from your Nero's days. :) (I can't believe that was already 12 years ago!) Much continued success! Carrie (nee Jerome)

Jeffrey Missling
jeffm@ndfb.org
Fargo, North Dakota

I have worked within the agriculture industry my entire life, and am excited and intrigued by what the future holds. It is absolutely counter-productive to whine and cry about change. Change is natural and inevitable. When my father and I quit farming, we realized we weren't positioned to compete in agriculture in the future, so rather than whining, we chose to find jobs within this industry that we love and respect so much. Government was not formed to "bail" people out of situations. And while I recognize and appreciate the distinguished past of this industry, I also realize that no amount of government intervention will be able to breathe life into rural communities which are predominantly comprised of rapidly aging populations. Your "demise of small farms" comments are misleading. 99% of U.S. farms are owned by individuals, family partnerships or family corporations with fewer than 10 stockholders. (source - Census of Ag, 1997) Response from filmmaker: Greetings Jeff, Thanks for your e-mail on the DELAFIELD website. I don't think your response is to the documentary, since DELAFIELD hasn't aired in your area yet. It will be broadcast on KFME- Fargo, ND. May 29th at 7 p.m. To be fair, watch the show and then write back. I'll be glad to respond after we have a common point of reference to talk about. Thanks Mark Brodin Producer of DELAFIELD.

C.A.
Iowa

Watching this program, I thought about the tallgrass prairie that once covered much of the upper Midwest, which often held more than 200 plant species in a single acre, in which wildflowers bloomed from spring through fall. The prairie continuously built rich topsoil, kept water clean, and maintained stable hydrology, while supporting a huge array of wildlife. Now tallgrass prairie is globally endangered. The rowcropping that replaced it has caused massive soil erosion, water pollution, flooding, and wildlife loss. If we Americans had been willing to support more sustainable kinds of agriculture, and had saved some of the prairie itself, instead of turning it into giant rowcrop monocultures, maybe our rural human communities could have diversified more and survived better. At least our landscape would be more beautiful, our water would be cleaner, more topsoil would be left, and taxpayers wouldn't have to pay farmers to create Conservation Reserve Program "prairie" plantings that are very inferior versions of what was destroyed.

Ian Evison
ievison@alban.org
Bethesda, MD

Great issue to highlight. We at the Alban Institute have been talking about how to help these congregations. We have just published the first book-length resource on closing a congregation: ENDING WITH HOPE: A RESOURCE FOR CLOSING CONGREGATIONS, edited by Beth Ann Gaede.

I am a city boy, retired, now 80 yrs. old, living in this rural community where my wife landed with her parents and siblings (emigrated from Denmark) in 1929. A lot of water has gone over the dam since then. General farming has disappeared, crop farming (beans & corn) is in, hog production is for the most part very large, only a few small cattle raising farms remain, families are not as large, schools are struggling to survive, and yet--with price supports farmers seem to be economically more secure than ever....so I am told, but my wife misses the rural life she knew as a child and wonders what the future holds for those who are to come after us. Will small family farms be able to continue? Our conern is that they'll end up working for Cargill or similar size corporations. It's hard for us to believe this is good for America. Will keep watching public TV for your TV film about Delafield. P. Thomsen, Tyler, MN P.S. Where is Delafield? Filmmaker Response: Greetings P. Thomsen, Thank you for your comments. I appreciated your thoughtfulness and share some of your concerns. As to the location of Delafield, it's a little less obvious than a town. Delafield is the name of a township in Jackson County in southwest MN. If you're up in Tyler, MN your about half way between Pipestone and Marshall. Go east to Hwy 71 and take Hwy 71 south to Windom, then West on Hwy 60. In 5 miles you'll come across Wilder, MN. Delafield Evanglical Lutheran Church was located about a mile and a half south of Wilder (on County Hwy 86), out in the country. There is now a marker on the roadside and park maintained by Glenn Myrvold, a former member of the congregation. It's nearest towns are Wilder, Windom, Heron Lake and Lakfield. Hope that helps and do watch for the show. I think you'll like it. Thanks Mark Brodin Producer of DELAFIELD

Mike

I wish that everyone could see this documentary. This same thing is happening all across the nation in rural areas. Government subsidies are not the answer, but I am standing in line to get them along with most every other farmer I know. Until agribusiness monopolies are broken up it will only get worse. I feel terrible for the people directly involved in this church closure. I can't help but think of all the weddings, baptisms, confirmations and funerals that have taken place in that wonderful building. So many families have lost untold amounts of family history. Church buildings represent more than just architecture. Thank you for bringing such an improtant subject to light.

Becky Castello
beckyca@yahoo.com
Arcanum, Ohio

When my father told me that a documentary had been made about the closing of the Delafield church, a flood of faded childhood memories came back to me. My father was the minister of the Delafield church for three years in the 1980's. I was seven years old when we moved back to Ohio and left Delafield, but I can still smell the old country church smell with a feeling of comfort. I can vaguley picture the sanctuary, and a smile creeps over my face. Now in my twenties, I am still attending a small, country church, and I hope I always will. There is a bond of love in these small rural parishes that the "mega-churches" will never duplicate. I can not say I have seen the movie yet, but that you anyway, the makers of this film, for showing the beauty and the plight of the small, rural church. (Now see what you can do about getting it aired in Ohio!)

Mark Ver Burg
enoch524@hotmail.com
Doland, SD

I strongly agree with almost everything said on your show. I was especially dismayed when you used the illustration of the bushel of corn, for which we recieve 1.30, and when its ending value to Kellogs is $150!!!. That is terrible. I feel as you do that something huge has to be done if we are to save the average farmer, keep the young people, and maintain the values of rural life. I am interested in finding out how Cargill uses the corn, and why they can buy it so cheap and sell it for so much. I am asking that you send me information or tell me where I can get it so I can become more knowledgeable on this topic. There has got to be something that can be done regain our share of the profit!!! Thank you again for your great show and you consideration in this matter. One last thought that has run through my mind is this. What kind of world are we living in if the coops that were founded to PROTECT and ENFORCE the well being of the farmers that made them up, when today the coops are making off with the fortune that should be the farmer's. A Disgruntled Farmer, Mark Ver Burg

Chris
Laingen
Sioux Falls, SD

Greetings! I am originally from Odin, MN (in Watonwan County, MN about 15 miles east of Delafield Township) and I too have witnessed this change in rural population first hand. I am currently a graduate student majoring in geography at South Dakota State University and I have done a bit of research looking at the change in the number of rural farmsteads since 1950 in 4 townships in my home county and trying to come up with the reasons for these changes. Your documentary did a great job of letting everyone know what some of those reasons are. It's an aging countryside where fewer young people are sticking around. Jobs in agriculture are "iffy" unless you own thousands of acres and the jobs that can support a family outside of agriculture are few and far between. My family has been on the same farm since they settled here and it will be a sad day when my parents finally leave the farm. I cannot see myself ever living there simply because of the reasons I listed above. There's nothing for me there. It's very, very sad... Thanks for doing such a spendid job in portraying what life is like in rural, southwest Minnesota. Chris Laingen 1300 W Bailey St., Apt. 312 Sioux Falls, SD 57104 email: laingen@sio.midco.net

Jerral C. Jones
jerralc@juno.com
Fargo. ND

Just watched the story on Prairie Public Television, Fargo, and enjoyed it very much. So inspiring to see how our country was established and built, and the imiportance of the churches. To think that today we have forces trying to destroy all this. It is very sad. My wife is of Norwegian heritage and we have been to Norway two times and met relatives. What a wonderful experience!

Brian Fitzpatrick
aceltictoo@aol.com
Washington, DC

Oh thank you Delafield for the grace you are---The heartland. In you is trapped our earliest American selves---the seeds of sensibility of strength and faith. Your families, your land, your church and your stories are part memoir, part meditation. I watched with humility and attention as your life's seasons worked the earth of my heart. In each person's brief story one could easily hear a deep connection to the voices of your ancestors making their well-lived lives worthy of savoring. You have taught me there is a deep holiness in the expression of your rural occupations. In an almost ordinary way you have sought a simple basis of well-being where contact with the earth became a prayer. Through this your families toiled and sacrificed while you fed the world. You presenced me with a sense of privilege in the sharing of your farm community's way of life. It was no surprise that in the end, as I sadly watched your church being trucked away, I was left feeling the gift of your strength. Delafield, I can't help but wonder how your story will unfold. Nonetheless, know that I will carry you and your church's charisms with me as food for the journey.

Karen Kraker

Burke, Virginia

I caught the last half of your documentary last evening and it took me less than a minute of viewing to wish that I had seen it from the beginning. I grew up in Pennsylvania around churches and congregations similar to those portrayed in your documentary, and took things like integrity, honesty and goodness in people for granted. I am older now, and live outside of Washington, DC. I no longer take these things for granted. Over twenty years ago I watched, and grieved, as a way of life died when the steel mills that had built this country shut down and a generation of hardworking men was left middleaged and jobless, while the rest of the country ignored this demise. History does repeat itself --I saw it in the heartbreak of the people of Delafield as they try to understand why the country they have fed for generations looks the other way as farmers now struggle to survive. Thank you for telling a story that needs to be told, especially to the people who have never lived in the heartland and truly have no idea what is being lost.

Curt Stofferahn
curtis_stofferahn@und.nodak.edu
Grand Forks ND

I was saddened by the moving documentary about Delafield. As a rural sociologist and a farmer's son, I've made my career studying the decline of agricultural communities and areas. As family farm agriculture is replaced by industrial, large-scale and corporate agriculture, we will be losing a system of agriculture that is more sustainable in terms of the resource base, the people who farm the land, and their rural institutions and communities. There is nothing inevitable about this, however. It is the result of a misguided agriculture policy that does not discrimiante in terms of which kind and size of farm gets agricultural subsidies. Consequently, the majority of the subsidies are captured by the largest farmers. This hastens the demise of family farms. It is also the consequence of attempting to industrialize agriculture such that the the environmental, social, health, and cultural costs are excluded in prices. Family farm agriculture is multifunctional; it performs many functions other than just food production. The rural sociological literature is redundant with the deleterious effects of industrial, large scale, corporate agriculture. How much more do we need to know before we act? Before it is too late?

Dan Ratzloff
ratzdj@mchsi.com
Pipestone, MN 56164

Loved the program. Spent many years in and around the township. Are there copies of the tape available. My grandfather was in one of the pictures and my ancestors are buried in Delafield Cemetery.

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