COLUMBUS: Yesterday was Veteran’s Day. The parades and programs had more meaning than usual. I heard one fellow say, this year we’re all veterans. I wouldn’t go that far, but we certainly feel closer to those that are.

In Oklahoma, the Legislature has ruffled a few feathers. They have proposed to pay chicken farmers in eastern Oklahoma $5/ ton to haul their poultry manure to western Oklahoma. Folks in the western part of the state appear to be experiencing a severe shortage of this organic fertilizer, so they are in a receptive mood, although what they really need is more rain. And considering the low price they are receiving for breast meat and legs and eggs, the chicken ranchers in the east can always use an extra five dollars.

But the big yell is going to come from the folks living in central Oklahoma. You just wait till next summer when it’s a hundred degrees and truck caravans loaded with this compost are passing by their front porch, heading west. The fumes will cut short more afternoon picnics than the heat.

I think a better idea might be, instead of hauling the manure, to haul the chickens. Then you only have to make one trip.

If it’s manure the Legislature wants hauled, maybe they should offer the farmers $10/ton, providing they truck it the other direction, to Missouri. Of course Missouri may not want it. They may say, we’ve already got more than we can handle from Arkansas.

The election results are in. John Howard won Australia again. And in the latest recount, Bush won Florida.

Historic quote from Will Rogers (on Armistice Day, now called Veterans Day):

“This day that I am writing this is no doubt the greatest day in all the world history. Armistice Day, when you think that a half dozen men could sit down and casually sign a pact to stop millions of men from killing each other. But if they don’t stop these guys making these speeches over the radio on Armistice Day, why we are liable to have the same war over again, only worse.

If Armistice Day had stopped speeches, it would have done more good than to have stopped war, for speeches is what starts the next war. It’s not armament, it’s oratory that’s wrong with this country.” DT #1028, Nov. 11, 1929