Letter to the editor

Bob Kruse was wrong on so many levels it's hard to know where to start. 

In defense of Tracy Freese, she was interviewed before I was so she didn't know, comment or laugh at my comment, 'old fart farmers.'

I didn't give a second thought to making that comment because I was married to my favorite old farmer for close to 50 years. He was never offended when I used it. He expected, when we disagreed, to hear, "There's that old fart farmer," and when he was right, "Chalk one up for the old fart farmers." 

If Kruse was offended, maybe it is because he isn't and wasn't a farmer unless you consider plowing garden plots in backyards farming. 

How he could bring me into his rant about not knowing the effect farming has on the entire country means he's forgotten that I was physically involved in farming for almost 50 years and still am as a landowner. Hauling corn and beans to town for years and learning how to run the combine certainly qualifies me as an O.F.F. too.
 
Leo and I, our son and our grandsons have worked our butts off to keep our family farm in our family. For Bob, a former town cop who knows nothing about farming, to insult me in his rabid letter is an insult my entire family will not forget. And for him to do it just weeks after Leo's death, while our grief is raw and painful, is unbelievably crass!
 
Helen Kopsa, 
Beaman