Posted 9/19/01
ëTwenty-two hours on a bus is a long time, but Iím so thankful to be homeí
By MaryHelen Swanson
ìIíve never been afraid of being hurt, this was just so different,î said Stanchfield farmer Harold Eklund as we chatted at the kitchen table Monday morning.
Eklund was in Washington D.C. last Tuesday, at a National Farmers Union grassroots gathering ñ one of a number of ìfly-insî farmers across the nation make from time to time. This time the goal was to shift policymakersí focus from the budget crunch to issues important to the nationís food supply.
Eklund was among 17 from Minnesota, although there were about 260 NFU members expected for the gathering.
In a prepared press release that came out before Tuesday in the farmersí packets, NFU President Leland Swenson had said, ìThere could not have been a better time for our farmers and ranchers to be in Washington, D.C.î
Eklund might think otherwise.
He flew out Saturday, saving airfare by taking a weekend flight. Saturday he and others toured the aerospace museum of the Smithsonian Institute.
Then Sunday he spent four hours at the Holocaust museum. His voice grows solemn.
ìAbout four hours in there and I was just - you know you canít fathom something like this happening to human beings.î
The sights in that museum weighed heavy on his mind that night. ìYou wake up at night thinking - youíre not in a good frame of mind.î
And thatís how Monday started for Harold Eklund.
All day Monday they went to meetings and Tuesday morning they had appointments with members of Congress.
The large group of farmers was broken down into 26 different teams, each with 16-18 senators and representatives to visit in order to hit every member of Congress.
Eklund was in group 39 and their first scheduled visit was 10 a.m. Tuesday. ìAfter breakfast we saw in the hotel lobby this terrible thing that happened in New York. Everybody was kind of nervous but didnít think more about it.
ìGot to be about, oh I suppose, 20 after nine and we decided to get down there a little early. We took a cab down to the Capitol . . . could have walked it.
ìGot down to the capitol and were standing on the steps visiting and all of a sudden there was a sickening sound like thunder and thick black smoke started coming up by the Pentagon, and it was just, you know, scary. We stood there about another 10 minutes talking and then I saw this well-dressed person, I suppose he was a senator or representative, run by us on the road and he hopped into a waiting car and they sped off. ìWell, right after that all these policeman and security around the Capitol rushed out from the Capitol and told us to ëget the hell out of here, run for your life, get away from the Capitol.íî
He figured they thought one of those planes would hit the capitol. Then this big air plane, it was high up, come around the capitol, it went up and headed west, it just scared the tar out of me, we didnít even look back we just ran going about four blocks, then we stopped to catch out breath.
ìThen we just worked our way back the side streets to our hotel, (Holiday Inn Capitol). When we got back there they notified everybody they were locking the doors of the hotel, nobody was to go out, everybody off the streets, just stay put.
ìOutside it was just all chaos, sirens, police cars, you didnít know what was going to happen.
ìSo then the first thing we could think of was to get out of there. Well the airports and everything were closed, even the phones, I suppose everybody was on the phones, they were jammed so you couldnít get through.î
Eventually, some got through on cell phones.
ìThen we thought lets get together and see if we could rent a car or a van. Well, they were all gone anyway.
ìSo we thought weíll try a bus company. The bus company, it was someone out of D.C., I suppose, wanted $8,000 to go out to South Dakota.
ìWe figured 40 of us at $200 apiece, hey, I was game, but some of them thought it was way too much.
Eklund went on to say the president of the South Dakota Farmers Union happened to think that one of their tour buses should be back in South Dakota so he called back to South Dakota and the bus was in and he asked him, ìhow quick can you get out here to Washington to pick us up.î He put two drivers on, they left in about 20 minutes and drove straight through.
ìTwenty-two hours later they were by our hotel, and thatís the quickest Iíve ever seen 55 people crawl on a bus, load their baggage. By 2:15 we were heading home. They drove straight through so I was home here the next afternoon at 3:30. (The bus took them to Albert Lee, MN and continued on to S.D., Minnesota NFU president Dave Fredrickson had called ahead and had two vans waiting for them.)
The only stops they made were to change drivers, eat fast food and visit the restrooms.
It was a quiet ride home, Eklund said, but he was thankful to be on the bus. One of the other farmers, understanding it was going to be a long ride, bought two books to read - he never opened them. Eklund noted that coming through Chicago was eerie with the airport closed. ìYou usually see planes all over,î he said, ìit was absolutely dead.î
ìTwenty-two hours on a bus is a long time, but Iím so thankful to be home.
ìWho would think, you know, why did this have to happen when I was out there?î
Eklund has been going to D.C. since mid-1960s and heís participated in 7-8 similar fly-ins. Initially, he said, he wasnít going to go this time. Sometimes heís sent his brother Roger in his place. He likes to go. But Roger and his wife Marion were vacationing in Sweden and flying in Sunday.
ìAlways before itís been such a fun thing, Iíve always enjoyed it,î he said, ìvisiting with all our congressman and representatives. Theyíre really good about listening.î This time there were no visits with Congressmen, the whole event was called off.
ìItís something . . . I canít get it through my mind yet, itís just like weíre in a dream.
Many people have said it was like watching a movie and Eklund had something to day about the kinds of movies kids are seeing today.
ìWhy do we drill all this stuff into our kids, itís nothing but shoot ëem up or knock somebody down, itís hard to understand - when they do grow up, the first thing that comes to their mind is blow ëem apart.
ìWeíre all human beings and nobody, I donít care who you are, could determine who you were born to. Thatís not a choice, but weíre here, make the best of it, my God, thereís nobody better than the other one, but thereís sure a lot that think they are.î
ìWhat a change a small group of men can make over our whole country.î
Eklund did get through to his wife, Mary, by cell phone a couple hours after the incident Tuesday, but it was still difficult for her waiting at home.
On Monday, when Eklund talked about a gathering next year in Africa, ìor somewhere over there,î Mary quickly turned in her chair and pointed to him and said sharply, ìYouíre not going.î
After our visit, Eklund walked outside to resume his chores on his peaceful dairy farm near Rush Point.