Punishment & the Young Farmer's Alliance

The spectacular poster for the new True Grit movie features a tagline that reads, “Punishment comes one way or another.” It’s a great movie by the way, and I couldn’t appreciate the sentiment behind the tagline more. It’s a sentiment that only has meaning in a specific time period, however. If this were the Old West I’d embrace the notion and just like Mattie Ross, set about to avenge my lost family member. It’s been four days since I’ve heard from the prison. I don’t know if my brother is in the infirmary there or has passed on. If they needed more money for his care they wouldn’t hesitate to phone, but they’re slow to inform family of the welfare of a loved one beyond that. So I wait and imagine myself on a western ride to make sure punishment comes one way or another. Farmers in Nebraska must have felt the same frustration on this day in 1891. A confused election situation in the state led the Young Farmer’s Alliance to try to prevent the governor’s clerk from taking office. The Alliance conducted a fully armed session of the legislature, which recessed when a sheriff’s posse appeared. But the plight of the farmers in Nebraska remained desperate: drought and falling crop prices have left the state’s farmers overwhelmed by debts. The Populist Party and William Jennings Bryan will be among the offspring of this crisis. Minus the drought and falling crop prices, my plight seems just as desperate on certain days – this being one of them. I’ve got press releases to write for the Elizabeth Custer book, chapters to complete for the revised version of Hearts West and Outlaw Tales of California. I better get to it – daylight is burning.