NOTES FROM THE VAGABOND JOURNAL A VISIT TO WEST POINT, NEBRASKA APRIL 29, 2003 - (7)

April 29, 2003, cont'd
Harry knows the complaints about large livestock operations - some people say that the operations stink, that they degrade the environment, that beef cattle use too much water. And he admits there is a certain percentage of operators who take more from the land than they give back. But Harry is committed to stewardship, he wants to leave his land better than he found it when he started. He says it, and I believe him.

Harry does a lot of traveling to promote beef on behalf of the NCBA, the National Cattlemen's Beef Association. He was in New York City. When one of the fellows he met there told him "You know, we think of your country out there as belonging to all of us, it's a shared national resource, and we want you to take good care of it," Harry responded, "You know, the federal building right over there, with graffiti all over it, we like to think that belongs to us, and we wish you'd take better care of it." "We're working on it," the fellow replied, a little mortified, what else could he say, "we're working on it."

Two of Harry's rules: "The work gets done by those who show up; you've got to be involved in something bigger than yourself." Harry missed helping to re-roof the rectory at St. Mary's Catholic Church in West Point this past weekend, the first re-roofing job for the Catholic congregation he thinks he's missed in forty years. He has done well in his business dealings overall, so he is able to make monetary donations to various community causes. Yet giving money is not enough, he said. You have also got to roll up your sleeves and work to help projects succeed. You have got to give of your time and your energy. First, sharing work in this fashion helps to create lasting bonds of community. Second, having been involved in doing the work creates a different kind of satisfaction - "Look what we've accomplished." Third, the investment of time and energy helps to guarantee continued success because, while one might see a monetary donation come to nothing and say "Oh, well, it's only money," it's much more difficult to brush off the investment of one's time and energy, sweat and hard work. The more you sweat for the success of a community project, the more you'll want to see its continued success. In addition, Harry said, working with others on such projects is the way new residents get incorporated into the life of the community. If you come into a community and you don't get involved in projects, if you stay cacooned in your house, you will remain an outsider. Community by its definition involves shared work of the type found in community projects in towns all across the middle west.

Looking around the office of Harry's enterprise, you see the wall charts showing the performance of the commodities Harry's business buys and sells, you hear Harry take a phone call for a buy order from one of his clients, then Harry is talking about the need to preserve the history of the area. In 1979 he financed production of a film about West Point and the area; more recently he has interviewed, on video, a number of area residents to ensure their stories won't be lost. I think Harry understands that who we were is who we are, and that if we forget our past we lose our way. Yet at the same time, he is clearly an entrepreneur, he has an entrepreneur's mind and an impatience with those who fail to take responsibility for themselves. If you slide off an icy road and wreck your car, it's not the weather you should be cursing, Harry thinks - you put yourself into that situation by going out when it was icy, accept responsibility for your own success or failure.

Clearly Harry accepts responsibility for his failures, he learns from his setbacks, he learns from his successes.

He thinks I ought to talk to the Case dealer in West Point while I'm in town, so he tracks down Irv Eisenmenger to let him know I'll be calling him to arrange an interview; he tells Irv he's spent an hour, an hour and a half talking with me - that's a recommendation from Harry Knobbe, you'd say, something he didn't have to do but he did.

To be continued....