Harry’s Choice

By Kathleen Thomas Gaspar

In his 1979 novel Sophie’s Choice, author William Styron left his readers breathless from the bleak portrayals he penned of the human condition.

Stingo’s poverty, Nathan’s spiraling mental illness and, of course, Sophie herself and the eventual confession she shared with Stingo about her choice during World War II. Sorry if you’ve not read this powerful book, but it’s Sophie’s choice I draw on this week.

As the young Polish Catholic and her two children, a 10-year-old boy and a seven-year-old girl, were being herded into the horror that was Auschwitz, one of the concentration camp’s “doctors” forced Sophie to make an impossible choice: Which of her children would go immediately to the gas chamber, and which would be allowed to live in the camp’s horrific conditions.

She sacrificed her daughter. And she never saw her son again – never knew if he lived or was also killed.

That she lived in the imagination of a brilliant writer and suffered within the pages of a gripping and sometimes ghastly book made Sophie no less real to me. But I took some comfort – at least for some time – that choices like Sophie’s aren’t forced upon good people in a callous or cruel or arbitrary manner.

There are no equals to that choice, I still believe, but I’ve learned that in real life there are sometimes parallels.

And I want to share a couple of those parallels in “Harry’s Choice.”

In Colorado, agriculture is the second-largest industry. The Colorado Farm Bureau has this to say: “Colorado’s farm and ranch families produce $7 billion in cash receipts every year and account for $20 billion in overall economic activity. We are the country’s second largest exporter of beef. This trade brings in $500 million of outside money into Colorado’s economy every year.

“Additionally, the ag industry employs more than 110,000 people representing a full 4 percent of Colorado’s jobs.”

All well and good, and it makes me proud. Colorado Proud, in fact – that’s the official slogan given to the Colorado Department of Agriculture’s “Buy Local” campaign, and August is Colorado Proud Month.

Yep. All well and good. Except for Harry and many other farmers whose very existence is tied to the crops they raise and the fact that this year some were sacrificed to save others.

In June a group of farmers and Weld County officials presented Gov. John Hickenlooper with a plea to issue an emergency drought disaster declaration. That, they were praying, would allow them to pump from wells that were shut off by the state several years ago when it was determined use of those wells violated Colorado water laws.

It’s convoluted, but the bottom line was the farmers needed the water to keep their crops going. And their region, they argued, had ample groundwater. In fact, some of the same farmers who weren’t able to water drought-stricken crops were actually pumping water from their basements.

Almost sounds like a novel, doesn’t it? Like a crazy, mixed-up set of circumstances that someone could easily remedy with the stroke of a pen.

But in mid-June the request for the drought disaster declaration and the emergency 30-day access to the wells was denied, with the governor again citing water laws in this state.

That month one farmer let hundreds of acres of corn wither in the brutal sun and wind so he could instead water onions and potatoes.

In June and July Weld County officials also sent a flurry of letters to senior water right holders asking for temporary permission to turn on the wells. No dice, they were told. But then, also in July, the drought disaster declaration came from the governor and U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, and some farmers will qualify for low-interest loans from the Small Business Administration. No water from those wells, however. And the hits just keep on comin’.

Now, we are faced with a choice. You and I. Maybe not this year, but it’s sure to come.

The choice is this: Do we support those farmers whose lives depend on our buying what they grow, or do we buy imported produce that could well be cheaper? What do you say, Sophie?

Deuteronomy 30:19 says this: “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

Thank you, Lord, for Your Word. I choose life, and I choose Harry’s produce. Amen. Hallelujah.