In Case You Missed It - God Made A Farmer

I spent my summers growing up in the sweet ruralness of the South.

Far from city life and surrounded by goats and pigs and cows and trucks and tractors.

And in the heat of the summer my grandmother would call us in to the air conditioned comfort of her kitchen for lunch, were Paul Harvey was served up on the AM radio right after the mid day farm report.

A cool respite from the heat of the day found in front of, not a television but a window air conditioner which only the voice of Paul Harvey could rise above all the noise.

We ate, we listened, and not a word was spoken until we heard - Paul Harvey, Good Day!

Best Super Bowl commercial by far.

 

Set to images made by some of the country's best photographers, the moving ad's true power comes from the voice of Paul Harvey, who died in 2009.

The recording of Harvey's essay on the virtues of the American farmer, which he delivered to the Future Farmers of America back was was made back in 1978.

It says in part:

"God said, 'I need somebody willing to get up before dawn, milk cows, work all day in the fields, milk cows again, eat supper, then go to town and stay past midnight at a meeting of the school board.' So God made a farmer."

Yet for all the praise there are those who can find fault with everything. Latino groups complained that the images failed to show immigrants and those who have never left the city claim that the whole thing is a sham because there are no small farms just corporate owned mega farms.

I can attest there are tens of thousands of famers and small farms all over this country. People just like those Paul Harvey spoke of back in 1978.