To the Editor:

What if Grant County was the first in our nation to turn down all government subsidies?

What if we started to resemble our ancestors, who were very hardy and self-reliant, by actually growing our own food, killing our own meat and training up our own children to do likewise?

What if we turned off all our computers, unhooked from the World Wide Web and returned to the days of learning how to count out change at the cash register?

What if we planned get-togethers every Sunday after church and enjoyed such things as homemade food, sitting on the porch and watching the youngsters playing in the yard?

What if when we grew old, we had a loving family unit that we nurtured for decades, willing and eager to care for our declining days?

What if we found our county such an oddity that tourists from around the world flocked here to see how a people of character, with only help from God, cut out a living in this vast territory called Eastern Oregon?

Why, we’d be on Fox TV. We’d go and tell other counties how we do it just like our grandparents did. That love, and not money, was the glue that holds us together.

God, grant me the grace and knowledge to rise up and become less dependent on anyone else but you. May I go above and beyond myself, and reach out to help my neighbor, my town and my nation.

Mya Ennis

Mt. Vernon