56. Special Episode with James Decker Interview
Michelle Rathman: Hello one and all and welcome back to The Rural Impact. You know by now, if you didn't know before, you do know that we are the podcast that works hard to connect the dots between policy and rural everything. If we've not met yet, my name is Michelle Rathman. Thank you for joining us. As always, I'm extremely appreciative for your time and for you joining us for these dot connecting conversations.
As we say, we know they are not light subjects most of the time, but at the end of each episode, we do hope that what we've shared has enlightened you at least just a little bit. That's our job here. Okay, so, I'm just gonna tell you that today I will be kicking off with an excerpt that I read in an open letter, and it inspired me even more to invite my guest to the show today.
But before I introduced that guest, I do wanna share again with you a little bit of that open letter, and it was written to Brooke L. Rollins, the new Secretary of Agriculture at the United States Department of Agriculture. And then I'll tell you who wrote these words after I just share a little bit of that with you.
So here it goes. Just a piece of that letter about midway down, it starts, "The decline in farms has not only depopulated so much of rural America, it has also made our nation dangerously dependent on a handful of people, places and corporations for our food supply. America's food is no longer grown on a regional scale where people, communities, and regions have a level of self-sufficiency that is augmented by trade on a regional, state, national or international level.
Today, so much of our food, especially meat, grain and produce is grown in a very small number of places at very large scale controlled by only a few firms. The supply chain failures of the COVID-19 pandemic exposed this brittle system. Subsequent shocks from the fires at packing plants to disease outbreaks solidified that we have built an unconscionable risk into our food system.
A country as bountiful as our own should never be subjected to food shortages. Yet when 20% of egg production is concentrated into a single company, Kale, Maine, and two European companies control 90% of the world's egg layer hens, a bird flu outbreak causes just that.
It is not just eggs. The beef cartel comprised of just four companies, Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef controls 80 to 85% of beef processed in America. It should be further noted that 40% of that processing volume is in the hands of two Brazilian firms, JBS and national based parent company, Marfrig. Four companies control 70% of the pork processing volume and four companies control almost two thirds of chicken processing. The list goes on.
The consolidation of food companies has further contributed to the decline in farms. Buyers with disproportionate market power can make enormous demands of growers to meet their standards and scale. Or as dairy farmers have experienced time, and again, powerful buyers can simply refuse to purchase from growers deemed too small to suit them. Here's the worst part, the increase in size is not good for anybody except large corporations."
Dear listeners, that is just scratching the surface of this, what I consider to be a quite eloquent, thorough, and brilliant writing by my guest, and you're gonna meet him in just a moment, James Decker.
Now I have been spending a lot of time lately on Substack. I'm working on building our content there down the road, but I read James Decker, um, his work. He is the mayor of Stanford, Texas. Also, a lawyer and a writer, and he calls himself a rural fanatic, I would say after reading and listening to him. That is true. And you can also find his essays, as I said, on Substack, uh, under the name West of 98.
Again, we always make sure that we connect those links to our resource page, and you can also listen to him as he co-hosts a podcast called 'The Rural Church and State.' Um, been again really enjoying listening and, and reading his work, but before you do any of that, you know you're gonna hear him right here next.
So it is that time when I ask you to get yourself and your podcast frame listening of mine and hear my conversation with James Decker. I am so ready for this. I hope you are too. So, let's go.
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Michelle Rathman: Hey, James Decker. It's great to have you here with us on The Rural Impact. Thank you and welcome.
James Decker: Hey, I'm glad to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Michelle Rathman: Well, as our folks heard us talk about in the introduction, I've been following you, you were recommended to me from I think the Save Our Town folks.
James Decker: Yeah, Becky McCray.
Michelle Rathman: Becky McCray. Yeah. And so I, you know, I just saw something on LinkedIn and that's where I find so many great, I know you also have a lot of social media people that you talk to as well that's, I know because I've read your blog. So, I get that. I do want to start off by sharing with our listeners, because this is a different platform than maybe, than maybe what most are used to for the followers who you've been able to amass on your Substack and so forth. Tell us a little bit about your work, who you are, because podcasting and writing is not your "day job.”
So, give us a well-rounded picture of who James Decker is. James M. Decker, by the way.
James Decker: That's right. So I was, uh, I was raised here in Stamford, Texas, which is a town of about 3,000 on the, on the rolling plains of West Texas. Uh, you know, cotton, dry land, cotton cattle, wheat farming town. It was kind of the rail, the center where the railroad railroads met, kind of the regional trading center that was founded in 1900.
Um, went, grew up here. I went to high school, went to college, went to law school, and came back right back to Stamford and opened up my law practice where I've been, um, practicing law on the downtown square for the last, um, since 2009. So, so just over 15 years.
And one of the things in the process of that was, you know, I was raised to be involved in the community. My parents were involved in many ways. My dad was on the city council when I was a child. I went to a lot of city council meetings when I was a kid for, for fun, uh, literally. And so just being, being involved in the community as a volunteer, as a leader, et cetera, is just, you know, not just something that I think you should, you know, think would be fun to do if you have time. It's an, it's an obligation and a responsibility in my mind.
So I knew I would always be involved in the community somehow. I ran for city council a few years after I got back to town. I got elected and then served a couple of terms on the city council. And then I got elected mayor in 2018. And as part of running for mayor, I knew, I knew that it was important to put ideas out in the world to give people my thoughts to understand, you know, that, what I believed, why I believed it, and how, how it could impact our community.
And it, it started with just kind of doing some short little, you know, three or four paragraph essays on Facebook and then it kind of mushroomed from there into a Substack while also, you know, copy and pasting onto Facebook.
And now it's, now we just link it everywhere else and it goes directly to my Substack just talking about rural, um, rural issues rural revitalization, being a leader in a community, the local economy, local government, kind of all of those things. Basically the things that are all on my mind.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah. And, and I add on the minds of many as well. What I, what I like about the way that you, that you write and, and how you share it, I don't know how you time find the time sometimes to do all the writing that you do. Um, is that your, what you talk about rural revitalization and so forth. It's a different perspective than so many of the circles that I'm, I've been familiar with when we talk about really, really big, huge things that require a lot of muscle and not just the civic muscle that you're talking about locally.
But I'd like the fact that you boil it down to bite sizes that really people can do and help transform their own community. But I do wanna say, even though you write about these really great, you know, the way that you write about it these nuggets, if you will, you also took on a big, you know, a big bite, if you will, by writing a special letter to USDA, Secretary Rollins.
Uh, and the title of that was, "I Believe in the Future of Agriculture." And, and they got it right. And it was a, a really well written piece, well organized. I know it's been shared and read far and wide, but from it, I thought what we could do is, um, because then I have a lot of other places I wanna go, but you have kind of a must do list and how we enact transformative change where rural is concern.
And I wonder if you wouldn't mind just taking a stab at going through some of those with me, because the first one, and this is, you know, on so many of our minds right now. You say that we must make farming affordable again. Um, I shared with you before we went on, I am the, uh, you know, my grandparents were farmers and so forth, and that is no longer the family business as this case for so many of us, north, Southeast, where you are and so forth.
So let's start with that one.
James Decker: Well, so ultimately you cannot deal with, you cannot revitalize the rural economy without dealing with the question of agriculture. You know, there, there are very many, there are lots of things that can improve the rural economy. Uh, you know, tourism, you know, technology, remote work. There's a lot of those things, but ultimately, you're just, um those things are dependent on, um, basically the, the rural, the urban communities, uh, suburban communities and what they will, what they will give us, what works, et cetera.
You know, remote work is a great thing and it sounds great. And then the federal government decides to start, you know, closing out remote work for federal jobs and then so, so, you know, putting some sort of dependence, putting all your eggs in any basket is a dangerous, is a dangerous game.
But the rural economy is based historically on feeding and clothing our people. And, you know, our, our communities, our regions and, and ultimately our, our nation. And then, you know, the world, and we can talk about the whole farmers feed the world thing in a minute, but, um, we have a certain, we have certain resources and that's, you know, land and, um, you know, the, you know, grasslands, the ability to farm, the ability to raise livestock.
Those are our, uh, those are our resources in these rural communities. And we've gotta figure out how to deal with the loss of the loss of farmers, the decline in agriculture, because the, the decline in the rural community is entirely parallel with a decline in, um with the decline in the agricultural economy and the loss of small farms.
And over the years, I have, I've thought a lot about this. And, and the reality is, I mean, you can try to shift the rural economy to some wholesale other change, you know, economy. But what's gonna happen is people are gonna say, well, I'm gonna do that. I might as well just move to another, uh, you know, move to a big city or a suburb where I can do that you know, do a better version of that and cheaper and closer to all the amenities.
People live in rural communities, in, in rural America because they want to, because of, of the roots that they have, or the quality of life that it, that it inspires. Uh, and it, and it provides. And so we have to make that workable so that those people can, and do, stay on the land and stay and have careers that go with it.
Because, you know, not everybody in a town like Stamford is a farmer, but 100% of the people who have a job in Stamford are connected with agriculture in some way. If they're a teacher, uh, if they are, you know, work at the auto parts store, if they work at Walmart, if they, uh, you know, whatever the case may be.
Um, their, their salary depends on in, to some degree on, um, agriculture flowing through the community indirectly. So, if agriculture fails, Stamford and places like it will fail. So that's what we gotta deal with and, and we can talk about those, um, we can talk about some of those bullet points, but, you know, I'm a firm believer that if you lay out a bunch of problems and no solutions, then, then that's, that's called whining.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, I love it.
James Decker: And, and that's something that I'm, that I'm very, that I'm very cognizant of locally. When people come to me with local problems to talk about, you know, and I, I say, well, what's your solution? And they don't have a solution. I'll say, 'Hey, like, I appreciate you bringing the problems to me, but, you know, let's talk about what the ideas are.'
So, I don't, I don't bring, when I, when I took, when I took it upon myself to write a letter to the Secretary of Agriculture to say, 'Hey, here are the problems with rural America, and here are the problems with the last, you know, 70 years of agricultural policy.' I knew I had to come back, come back with a list of, of solutions and proposals that you know are, could, some of them could be enacted relatively quickly and some of them are frankly, um, transformative things that may not be fully enacted in my lifetime.
And it may be a lifetime, struggle for me to get people to listen to me, and that's okay.
Michelle Rathman: Well, I mean, I, I, it's so practical. I mean, you said. And you know, the second one is we need to reform crop insurance and safety net programs to incentivize harvesting crops rather than forcing farmers to destroy marginal crops to appease their lenders and other creditors. That's, that's pretty darn simple.
It was born out of policy. It could be taken away, as they say. And then you talk about encouraging both proven and experimental farming techniques, to increase soil health. While we're on the, you know, on the topic of healthy food, um, there are a lot of things that. That can be done there.
I wonder, have you heard any response? I mean, other than people saying, yes, this needs to be said, and hey, I didn't realize that until you actually penned it out for me?
James Decker: You know, in a lot of ways, some, you know, I'm not, I'm not a genius. I'm not coming up with these ideas on myself, um, you know, out of nowhere. I'm giving a voice to ideas that farmers are talking about and that people that run farm organizations are talking about. You know, because I hear, because this is stuff here that I, you know, the crop insurance question, it's stuff that I hear from farmers and folks.
My wife, you know, runs a cotton growers' organization within the region, and it's something that she and her guys are frustrated about because in many ways crop insurance is, it is not a path to prosperity of the farmer. It's a insurance to ensure that the bankers and the chemical and, and fertilizer and seed companies will let you keep going for another year.
And so they get faced with those tough choices of what's the best way for me to pay down my loan enough so that they will, they will let me, um, they will, that they will let me continue to operate again and finance me for another year because the system incentivizes, you know, that. They have to deal with that.
You know, I hear about the cover crops and the multi cropping systems and you know, guys that I follow on social media, um, people that I know in real life and talk about the struggle of, you know, crop insurance, uh, won't let you do certain things.
You know, suspicious landlords that, um, you know, maybe that wanna hear, wanna see some proven, you know, wanna see some proof before you go on to some wild experimental, um, um cropping system on their property. Uh, 'cause it's just so, it's very foreign to them. The backing of federal ag policy to encourage, incentivize those things would, would honestly give the farmers the confidence and just the boost financially and with the security that they need to try things that would be a net better for the environment, for their farms, for soil health.
And the bottom line to the farmer and the, and the federal government, frankly.
Michelle Rathman: It really is an, it is an investment in our, in our agriculture future. And it just feels like, um, we we're going to have some tough, more tough conversations that we have to have about this as we sit here and wait for things to, you know, finally get to a point where we can have you know, really robust, serious conversation about the Farm Bill and so forth.
I mean, all of these things are policy related, and I applaud you for, you know, taking it upon yourself to do, to write the piece. And I encourage our listeners, if you have not read it, I really encourage you to read it and become familiar with, you know, these really basic and logical premises that you've put out there.
James Decker: Well, thank you. And, and that's the, that's the thing is, you know, the, the old definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. You know, that's one of the great frustrations of farm policy to me is we've continued to do the same thing over and over again for decades and it continues to lose you know, we continue to lose farmers, uh, of all sizes. And the ones who remain, get bigger and get more efficient 'cause it's the only way they can survive and barely and barely do so. And as corporations consolidate and have more market power, it becomes even, even tougher.
And this is not a, this is not a criticism of the folks who work in policy on a day-to-day basis. You know, these folks are trying to fix the symptoms of the problem oh, in, in finding some way to tweak it and make it better and in a dysfunctional political environment. But it's the, it's the undercarriage that's, you know, in my opinion, is broken. That needs a complete rehab that we've gotta talk about.
Michelle Rathman: And James, before we take a really quick break, I will just say, as I'm watching the Department of Health and Human Services and the intersection now that, of course that they have with USDA and the Healthy Food Movement and what have you. Decimating those agencies and taking, you know, the, the on the ground folks, the people that you're talking about on the ground, working in the state, at the USDA, uh, you know, rural development, whatnot.
I mean, say what you want. Yeah, it's so entangled, but at the end of the day, there's a lot of intelligence that needs to be, be maintained, um, and work and build what we have. Um, you know, I don't know how that's possible, but I do believe that it is possible.
James Decker: Absolutely, and just, just, and just breaking things to pick up the pieces doesn't necessarily make things back better.
Michelle Rathman: not at all. Alright, before we transition to a few more places, and I've got plenty, I'd like to go, I really do need to take a quick break because we do have an important message to share from our partners at the American Heart Association talking about health. Um, this is really an important one, so stay tuned.
We'll be right back.
Okay. James, we're back. And now that we have, uh, we're halfway done with the month of April, 2025. I'd like to go back to a conversation I heard on your podcast, which is, I love the conversation, Rural Church and State. It was something that was done in October, 2024, and at the, I was waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting because you guys were talking about your predictions.
Um, you were with the pastor and he, I love the way he said, he can't even say rural. Uh, you're talking with the pastor and you're like, you're gonna give your prediction, you're gonna give your prediction, and then poof out of your mouth comes,
James Decker: It doesn't matter.
Michelle Rathman: it doesn't matter. And so, um, I wonder if you, if you, what does that mean to you then and now?
Has anything changed or-- I'm just curious.
James Decker: So, no, I and I stand by that. The, the problems, you know, one thing I have and, and I, I try to do, uh, uh, best I can of staying out of, partisan politics because I just kind of think that it's fundamentally all broken. And, um, we've got this action hero idea of the presidency that we just elect the right person that's gonna come in and the the person's gonna come in and fix everything.
And we've been doing that for, you know, multiple elections now, and none of it has ever, um, none of it has ever happened. So maybe we ought to consider the fact that, uh, the action hero presidency is not the, is not the answer. And um, and that we've gotta figure out that no matter who the president is, no matter who they appoint to these offices, the things that need to change to improve rural America, our culture or world in general are much deeper and they take all of us inspiring each other, doing our own work.
You know, once upon a time I had the vision, you know, everybody says you don't wanna change the world. And, um, the reality is, you don't, you need to change your world around you. And in doing that, that inspires other people to do the same.
And that's how we, that's how we change the world. You know, there's a, uh, there was a great Wendell Berry quote from 2016 where he was asked about how he felt about the outcome of the election, and he said, 'I'm still on the losing side.' That's where I've taken up my residence. And if Hillary Clinton had won, I'd still be on the losing side.
You know, the conditions that have led to the decline of rural America have been in place since the end of World War II. And no matter who was in the White House, it's on a, we are, we in rural America are on the losing side, and we just have to work every day to, um, to do our part and right the ship and, um, you know, there's another Wendle Berry line, um, from his, my favorite poem of his, the Mad Farmer Manifesto, Liberation Front that says, 'Plant Sequoias.' And it's a, and, and the purpose of that is to do do good work for the right reasons, no matter if you ever see the results of it. And that to me is far more important, inspiring others and do to do good work and doing good, good work myself, whether I see it in my lifetime or not, that's far more important than who who gets in the White House.
Michelle Rathman: Wow. Thank, and I, wanted to have that conversation 'because I, I kind of knew where you were, what you would say, but it was good to hear you say it out loud. This, I think it's a great segue because another one, another piece that you wrote, um, you know, as a person who does do a lot of travel around rural places all over this country.
Always left feeling many ranges of emotions. Um, I, you can really see the difference when you are and feel the difference, moreover, when you're in a place where there is a lot of civic engagement, when there is a, you know, I work with hospitals so often. They are the, you know, the gatherers and the conveners of everything around, you know, health, healthy and beautification and whatnot.
But, I want to read something really quick and then have you talk about it a little bit now that you, you actually brought this up, uh, in this piece of the poor town. In the dirty town,
James Decker: Yes.
Michelle Rathman: You wrote, "As rural communities declined in post World War II economic order, they did not just lose the population and jobs. They lost investment. They lost wealth. They lost their tax base. There were fewer dollars to be used on keeping the community maintained, much less improving it as the dollars stretched ever thinner. Hems and cuffs of the community became frayed and tattered. A small pot of money can only go so far, and a shrinking pool of volunteers only has so many hours in the day.
A town that lacks the resources to improve its situation may well be called a poor town, and yet none of these challenges, not even a reshaped global economic order, could be viewed as an acceptable excuse to be a dirty town."
And as a mayor of a town, um, that has seen its share of population, you know, uh, I guess decline. Um, talk a little bit about that piece because I think it, it speaks volumes to community having its own agency, and looking more inward.
James Decker: Absolutely. And, and we have to, we can only control what is within our control. But by golly, we've gotta control what's in our control. You know, uh, there were, this is, this has been probably, man, 15 years ago, maybe a friend that was driving through town was coming through a bigger, going back to his hometown, a bigger city.
And this, and city government was not doing a good job at that time of, you know, um, mo of, you know weed eating the sidewalks on the main thoroughfares and, and stuff like that. Just that, those little things, those little bits of pride. And he drove through and he called, um, he called my father and it got back to me and it really stuck with me.
And he said, man, does, does anybody live in Stamford? It looks like it's abandoned. And, you know, and that was, you know, that was just a guy that was just passing through. And that was his perception, just looking at the main sidewalks. And that makes a difference. It's, you gotta show a little bit of pride.
You know, there, there are certain things like, great example, playground equipment. A, a new piece of playground equipment at a park might cost you 15 or 20,000 bucks, which is a drop in the bucket for even a mid-size suburb to just, they just write a check and move on. Um, you spend that kind of money outta your park budget in a city that has a four and a half million dollars budget.
And Stanford, is relatively large in our city budget compared to cities, you know, a lot of other rural communities in this part of the world that may only have a million or 2 million. But four and a half million bucks in a budget, that piece of playground equipment that will be your entire budget for new capital improvements to the parks for the year.
You can't just write a check. You gotta make a plan to pay for that. So you can't just do that. But, the existing piece of the existing swing set that the paint is peeling because nobody has painted it in 25 years. You can fix that. The weeds that are coming up in the, in the sand underneath the, underneath the playset, you can fix that.
You know, control what's in your control, and it will make your place look prosperous. Even if even, you know, I think in, you know, on the east coast there are cities, there are houses on the east coast that have been, that have been in existence twice as long as our town has existed. And they're not new.
Not everything has to be new and gleaming and shining steel and concrete. But if it's taken care of, if the little stuff, the little maintenance is taken care of, then it'll last, it'll last. Things are things were built to last and they were built to, and they will last for the ages. And, but taking care of things, it doesn't matter how old they are, it doesn't matter how limited your, your income into your community and your tax base is, just show that you care and it makes a huge difference to your people.
Because the other thing is if your government doesn't act like it cares, it's kind hard to ask your citizens to care too. You know, back in those years ago, before city government was really taking a lot of pride in things, you know. It was really hard to, to pursue code enforcement against your citizens for high weeds or junk in their yards, or just, you know, just kind of the, just the ratty stuff that just makes, you know, junk vehicles in their yard and that sort of thing.
Because if the city's not taking care of its own details, it's really hard to ask your citizens to take care of theirs.
Michelle Rathman: You know, James, I did speak to a county official last year and we did talk, we had this conversation and he said one of the challenges is exactly what you said is that county members, what is it city, county, whatever it might be, whatever the structure is, not really super fans of going out there and enforcing, let alone having some, some of those ordinances.
But I did appreciate you talking about it because, you know, um to your point, you can control what you, you can control. You can't control whether or not your hospital closes, so to speak, but you can control and, and that is, uh, a very sad story. Okay.
I want to move on because again, you're a list maker, which I really appreciated, but we, you do talk about revitalizing rural America will not happen with mere policy changes alone. Policy changes are important, but how we live with and relate to one another is essential. And that's super, like words to live by to be sure. At the same time though, you also talk about the fact that some significant priorities that require policy, rural, broadband, economic development, healthcare is another priority for you.
Uh, and we'll go on from there, but let's talk a little bit about the juxtaposition of those two things, because without good policy, rural broadband is kind of challenging because of the way it's built.
James Decker: Absolutely. And, and this is, and, and, and I, when I write, I try to speak both to, you know, the local individual folks that are just trying to get through life and I speak to policy makers who will hopefully listen, listen to the things I say. And one of the things that we, that we see in rural communities is everybody wants, you know, more local businesses, more local recreation options, but you gotta support the people who are here.
If nobody shops local and Stamford, you know, we, we do better than some on this. You know, there's some other communities that I've talked to that just really just, people will just at the drop of a hat go to another town.
Michelle Rathman: we call bypass.
James Decker: exactly right. Then it, then it just kills their, their retail economy. But, you know, if you won't shop local, if you'll, and if you'll undercut your local business because Amazon can get it a day cheaper for half price, well then you can't expect local business to exist, much less new business to come in.
And you know, one of the reasons that I really, that I really think that that Wendell Berry's writing really speaks to me is how he bases everything around the, the two greatest commandments. You know, from a Christian perspective, love God and love your neighbor because everything goes back to that. Loving God requires everything.
Then just that's nothing's not gonna church. That's taking care of our natural resources and stewarding creation in a healthy way. Loving your neighbor isn't just saying hi to him when you see him on the street. It's helping him out, trading work with him if needed. It's going to shop at his business even if it costs you a little more.
I've got a friend of mine, uh, over, he lives in England named Hadden Turner. He's a, he's a great agrarian writer, a young guy, younger than me, much better writer than I am. And he's a, he's a, uh, he's a deep Wendell Berry inspired thinker, uh, just like I am. And he, he has written how buying well is a form of charity. That if you want, that, if you want to improve your rural community or improve your local community, donating money to the nonprofit is, is a good thing and you should do it to your local, you know, baseball organization or church or, or whatever the group may be.
But spending a couple of dollars extra to shop with the local store rather than Amazon. That is a form of charitable giving and something that all of us should think about.
Michelle Rathman: I’m going to put it out there. I profess there is no such thing in our home. We have completely gone, completely away. And it is all local, local, as local as I can possibly be. Because I really do believe in that and I walked around my own little town, downtown this weekend and, and did, you know, local, a lot more window shopping than, than shopping right now.
But at the end of the day, I, I agree with that. And, and unfortunately, you know, you can't do that in healthcare. You can't do that in education. And before we close out. There are two things you do talk about that a priority is education, and then you were interviewed, about waivers.
And we've had a lot of conversation, James, on this podcast about the importance of investing in rural schools. I mean if nothing else, you know, think about thinking about all the social drivers, but education. Um, so talk a little bit about what's going on and just, I think it's nice for people to hear a local perspective, you know, from a, a guy who's a mayor of a town and how you feel about, um, uh, about investing in local schools in a way that's accessible to the children.
James Decker: Absolutely. You know, in larger cities, a school and a community can almost, you know, operate in, you know, completely separately from each other. Um, in a rural community as the school goes, so goes the community. And I don't mean, you know, I mean from a larger perspective, when the school closes, it's, it's largely the death nail for the community.
And I can name towns in this area that their school closed and now they're just a, a shell. And you know, not much more than a ghost town. But also, if your kids are succeeding in activities, whether it's football or FFA or band or whatever, that just raises the level of enthusiasm within our community.
You know, Stamford went to state in football. Um, went to the state championship game in December and it was, you know, it was a great, it was, it's the first time in a decade, you know, we've won several state championships. Uh, but, you know, it was cool. I, it was a whole thing. I dyed my hair blue. The community loved that it was, but there were people who don't even like football, made a comment to me that they could just feel the mood was different in town because of that.
But the other thing of that is, if the community supports its kids and wants to do them, wants to see them do well and encourage them, that makes those kids think twice about the whole, I'm gonna leave and never come back attitude. You know, maybe some of them stay here, get a good job here. Maybe some of 'em go to college and then come back here to teach or do something else.
We've got several, several good young teachers in our community that went K through 12 through this school. And I'm not asking for special treatment from our legislators in our state officials. I would just like some recognition and acknowledgement that we exist because you know, to some degree at best, you know, honestly, them ignoring us is sometimes the best thing that we get out of 'em, because otherwise they're not actively making life worse.
But when it comes to education, they like to put us in a box with all public education fine. And I understand public education has things that need to be fixed. Totally agree. But just recognize that rural schools are a very different animal than any other school in America.
Michelle Rathman: Absolutely. In a previous episode, we had a conversation about the fact that in the state of Missouri, rural kids are going to school four days a week because they don't have the money to put the lights on.
Okay. My, my last question to you, James, is, you know, again, for folks who are not familiar with your writing, don't, don't sell yourself short. You, you've got a really good, you've got a good thing going on. But I would like to talk to you about the fact I see in your writing, advocacy just by the way that your present information.
Um, you don't have to be partisan mean you, you could just, I like the connecting the dots between facts and reality and the things that matter. So, I think we have that in common. What are some of the, a tip or a piece of advice that you have for those who don't want to be political and, and are looking for a way to advocate that doesn't get them, you know, in a pickle.
Getting into a political conversation?
James Decker: Well, you know, avoiding conversations with a politician is probably out the window on this. But if you truly wanna advocate, um. Talk to your, to your elected officials. You know, I know folks, you know, the, when things get hot and hot and bothered, you know, they, you know, people will get a script and they'll call that they get from some advocacy group and they'll call and, you know, leave a voicemail and a congressman's number.
Um, you know, and who knows, honestly, you got young staffers are having to listen to those and deal with them. If you're a congressman, if you're state representative, whoever it is, if they have a town hall, if they have an event, if they have a fundraiser, you know, like a meet and greet on their campaign.
Go talk to them. Say, 'Here, here's who I am. Here's what matters to me. Here's what, um, you know, here's what I care about. If I can ever help you, let me know.' For the most part, people who are elected love people who genuinely want to help. That doesn't mean they're going to take everything that you tell them and enact it into policy, but their good staffer is going to, you know, take your number down and call you if there's something that they know that was relevant that you've mentioned to them, write them periodically, send a letter, a text, call their office. Tell them, “Hey, I talked to you a while back, sent you an email. I’d love to continue giving my input. Just keep talking. You know, that's a lot, that's a lot of energy for no guarantee of return, but it matters if you're involved in some sort of organization, whether it's, you know, or you know, some group that does some sort of advocacy, whether it's in agriculture.
Otherwise, go to those meetings, speak up, give your opinions. You know, I get frustrated with some of those groups because, you know, sometimes they have their own agenda and you feel like you're perpetuating their agenda and you don't know if they're listening to you or not. But the only, the, the way you guarantee that they don't listen to you is you don't show up. show up.
and get involved and, and make an impact and volunteer to serve on a committee, volunteer to go take a trip to Austin or DC or wherever and talk to folks. You know, is this, is this easy? No, but it's important.
Michelle Rathman: Hmm. And it's ours to have or to give or, or, or ours to give away. So, um, that's, it's rewarding, you know, when you do land one, it is rewarding and so clearly you, you've got a few that have landed. Um, James M. Decker, you are welcome to come back and join us anytime. Perhaps you and I could come up with a shtick someday, and it would make sense to more people than just me in my head, and maybe you as
James Decker: Hey, I'd be, I'd be glad to come back anytime.
Michelle Rathman: Yeah, it'd be great. And so, we're going to make sure we have links to West of 98 and all your other great stuff and please do subscribe to James and uh, we'll be in touch with you soon. Thanks so much for joining us on The Rural Impact.
James Decker: Awesome. Thank you, Michelle.
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Michelle Rathman: My thanks to James Decker for joining me. Uh, again, I encourage you to follow his work on Substack and watch for new podcast episodes that he brings us. I invited him to come back. I think it'd be fun for us to do something together. Fun is something I think we could all use a little bit more of these days.
I know, I sure can, but in the end of the day. I do want to remind you if you are not yet a subscriber, we sure do appreciate when you do that. Please do that anywhere where you'd like to listen to your podcast. You can find us pretty much everywhere. And also, when you go to our website, theruralimpact.com, it takes less than two seconds.
Hit that subscribe button and we will make sure that you receive our post series and special episode, e-blast, where we also put all sorts of great resources and really invite you to become part of our community and join our conversation. To Sarah Staub and Brea Corsaro. Thank you as always for all your hard work behind the scenes and until we meet again, I say it all the time and I really mean it.
Please, in these times, especially, take good care of yourself and to the best of your ability, all those around you. We'll see you again in a new episode of The Rural Impact.
