State Fair time brings back beautiful memories. I have been fortunate to attend the state fair in South Dakota, Minnesota, North Dakota, Indiana, Iowa, Montana, and Nebraska. I don’t recall a bad memory.
Memories, one of my psychology instructors told us, are the building blocks that make us individuals.
“Collective Memories are a community's shared renderings of the past that help shape its collective identity,” she said, quoting from a textbook.
The Nebraska State Fair this year touched a memory of that Group Psychology class. How can we have the USDA APHIS division handing out souvenirs from their booth without affecting society? My mind is filled with yardsticks, posters, pens, deep-fried pumpkin pie, or funnel-cake can take me back to just about every county and state fair I have attended.
A chicken-shaped pencil is unique. Unique or not, when it comes from the US Government I get another feeling. Not the warm fuzzy feeling of taking home the yardstick Mom always asked me to pick up. No, the feeling I get is the swamp just reached Central Nebraska.
To bring my memory of sitting in the Psychology of Groups up to date, I checked out some current theory. This quote was just in the news:
“Our identity is formed by our memories. Traditions and rituals are very important in identifying who we are,” said Bridget Robinson-Riegler, a psychology professor at Augsburg College in Minneapolis who specializes in the study of memory. “Families are based on shared experiences, and this is one of those shared experiences we have as a state. The State Fair becomes a collective experience. It gives us a sense of belonging, of togetherness.
“This is what we do as a state. It confirms our identity. It becomes who we are.”
There is a place for government. I’m not sure it belongs in my fond memories. Here is the memory that the chicken pencil will bring.
Almost everyone knows that our federal government is on a dangerous course. The unsustainable debt combined with crushing regulations on states and business is a recipe for disaster.
What is less known is that the Founders gave state legislatures the power to act as a final check on abuses of power by Washington, DC. Article V of the US Constitution authorizes the state legislatures to call a convention for proposing needed amendments to the Constitution.
The Citizens for Self-Governance website is what I would prefer society to learn.
