'Seeing South Dakota' column has
had a lot of stuff in it over the years
By Gordon Garnos
AT ISSUE: The
letter started, "Dear Mr. Garnos, I have been reading your column
for quite a while in my hometown newspaper and have never understood
where the title comes from. You seldom write much about actually
seeing South Dakota. I'm always expecting you to write about some
places in the state that would be interesting to visit..." It was
back in '02 when the column was started. It was right after I
retired after nearly 40 years with the Watertown Public Opinion. A
weekly newspaper publisher, a good friend, asked me to write a
column on South Dakota issues. In other words, "take a good, hard
look at our state," and, thus the title, "Seeing South Dakota." The
column is now in several weekly papers across the state. By the way,
the letter was from California.
I HAVE NEVER TAKEN
lightly the responsibility of writing this column. At times, I
admit, it may have been a little light. There might have even been a
smile or a chuckle stuck in there between the words somewhere. At
other times I felt I have hit an issue square on the nose. Other
columns may have been cornucopias of issues, things and other stuff,
lots of stuff. Today's column is one of these.
For example, we are
told Senator Johnson is due home toward the end of the month. The
entire state looks forward to his return because we have not heard a
word from our senior senator since last Dec.13 when he suffered a
brain hemorrhage. He has not spoken publicly since then. Yes, there
have been statements from his office attributed to the senator, but
many South Dakotans are wondering if they were actually his words,
or were they said by a staffer on his behalf?
There is no question
he will be welcomed by both political friends and foes alike, one
side urging his reelection and the other wondering who should take
his place if he does decide to step down. His return to South Dakota
should tell the story.
ON ANOTHER FRONT,
South Dakota ranks last in the nation on child mortality. This
shocking statistic counts the death rate among children of ages one
to 14. The mortality rate of children is one of 10 criteria to
assess the well-being of children from state to state in the annual
Kids Count survey. South Dakota only ranked 30th in this year's
report. This should be upsetting to all of us, but especially for
those parents of young children. So, what are we going to do about
it?
State Rep. Roger Hunt
may have won his case in Circuit Court regarding keeping the unnamed
source unnamed for $750,000 donation to an anti-abortion group, but
how will he fare in the court of public opinion for skirting the
spirit of the law? It's now up to our attorney general and secretary
of state to determine if this case goes to the Supreme Court.
SPEAKING OF THE
court of public opinion, how will banker, philanthropist T. Denny
Sanford, founder of First Premier Bank's credit card branch, come
through the smoking gun of the Argus Leader? These credit cards are
for sub prime borrowers, people whose credit is crap. Some feel the
company's fees and interest rates make it most difficult for a user
to get away from its clutches.
But as Sanford said
in one article, "We could not survive without it.?"
That has to be a lot
of smoke when one considers the hundreds of millions of dollars he
has given away, directly from the payment of those fees and interest
rates.
In a recent letter to
the Argus editor, William L. Heubaum of Yankton praised that
newspaper for exposing First Premier Bank "for the way it victimizes
the poor and unsophisticated with the outrageous and duplicative
fees which it charges its credit card customers... No wonder T.
Denny Sanford is giving away so much of his fortune. He must be
ashamed and embarrassed over the way he amassed it...
AT THE SAME TIME,
Sanford's philanthropy for children has to have some redemptive
values even if it is blood money, as it has been called, from those
who probably shouldn't have received a credit card in the first
place.. By the way, there are more than three million First Premier
credit card holders. So, the bottom line here is T. Denny Sanford a
saint or a sinner?
The bigger question
is does Congress and/or the South Dakota Legislature have the
intestinal fortitude to do something really significant in capping
such`loan practices?.....
Gordon Garnos was long-time editor of the Watertown Public Opinion and
recently retired after 39 years with that newspaper. Garnos, a
lifelong resident of South Dakota except for his military service in the
U.S. Air Force, was born and raised in Presho.
