National Grange Survey

How Does Chronic Pain Affect You?

Rural and small-town residents experience more persistent and progressive pain than their urban neighbors. Injuries, illness and complications tend to occur more often, professional medical treatments are sought less often, and medical care for diagnosis and treatment is much less available in these areas.

Chronic pain is defined as the discomfort of pain that persists or progresses over a long period of time that limits life or work activities and is often resistant to medical treatments. The percentage of adults who experience chronic pain tends to be higher in rural areas (28.1%) than in urban areas (16.4%). Chronic pain is also higher among rural adults aged 65 and older (30.8%).

The following chronic pain management resolution was adopted at the 2020 National Grange Convention:   

CHRONIC PAIN MANAGEMENT

WHEREAS: The health and wellness of rural citizens is important in terms of human suffering and economic loss; and
WHEREAS: The Centers for Disease Control found that 24 percent of rural adults suffer from chronic pain; and
WHEREAS: There are less than 40 primary care physicians per 100,000 rural dwellers according to the National Rural Health Association; and
WHEREAS: Many rural medical facilities have closed in recent years making proper care for pain even more difficult; and WHEREAS: Chronic pain has contributed to the tragic opioid crisis in rural America; therefore be it
RESOLVED: The National Grange will support

  • Research into identifying the causes of chronic pain especially in rural life
  • National and state initiatives that encourage research and development of new pain relief therapies that avoid opioids and other addictive drugs
  • Research into possible chronic pain mitigation strategies through education, technology and other mechanisms
  • Robust policy discussions and education about pain management among Grange members and their rural communities.

Please help your National Grange to learn more about the impact chronic pain has on you, your family, and your community by taking this short survey. We will report the results in a future newsletter. Your response will help the Grange advocate for more effective and less addictive pain remedies.

Take the Survey!

Exploring Traditions — January 2021

Meandering Around the Grange Way of Life

by Walter Boomsma

glasses-1099129_640

When we celebrate the degrees, there’s a natural tendency for us to get tired if they’re all done on the same day Of course, it wouldn’t make sense but I’ve occasionally wondered if once in a while we should do them in reverse! Whenever I decide to review them, I sometimes do just that—I start with the Fourth!

So let’s do that because there’s one particular section of the Fourth Degree that offers some amazing wisdom and ties some things together. It starts with the candidates receiving this advice from Ceres.

Brothers and Sisters, my tribute is the seed corn. Have FAITH. Faith in the spring of the year and the springtime of life. Even as little children have faith in their parents, so should we have faith in the great provider. We prepare our fields and plant the seed having faith in its resurrection.

And then Pomona admits she probably doesn’t need to say this.

I need not prompt you to nurture HOPE. Hope is the heavenly light that gilds our labors. Were we deprived of that source of consolation, life would indeed be dreary. When you see the blossoms open in the early summer hope is there for the luscious fruit. The labors of the husbandman and matron encourage hope at every turn. Let the fruit blossoms be to you an emblem of hope.

Then Flora teaches.

Let flowers be to you an emblem of CHARITY. In kind words and deeds dispense charity, as freely as Flowers do their perfume, and as generously as they cover all God’s footstool. Beautify and adorn your homes with Flowers. The home that is thus made fragrant and cheerful is prepared to be the abode of sweeter affections and more radiant virtues.

You may find yourself humming the tune “Faith, Hope, and Charity… that’s the way to live successfully…” But we’re not quite finished. The master is going to add a capstone.

Let the agate it be to you an emblem of FIDELITY. May your principles of manhood and womanhood be as firmly impressed as the lasting colors in the stone , and may our friendship be as firm as the stone itself.

There’s of course more but the Master quickly teaches the salutation of the Fourth Degree.

“A good Patron places faith in good, nurtures hope, dispenses charity and is note for fidelity.”

Do you see the pattern here? One of the often unnoted beauties of Grange Ritual is the way so many things tie together. So let me suggest an idea for you. I plan to ask the Master to allow me to do this as part of our next meeting or you can do it right now all by yourself. Start by standing up. Begin the salutation, “A good patron has faith in God…” Now stop, read and consider Ceres’ advice. Force yourself to pause and think about Hope. Do the same with Hope, Charity, and Fidelity.

And allow yourself a smile of satisfaction when you realize the power and beauty of the Grange teachings and Grange Way of Life.

Any degree or ritual quotations are from the forty-sixth edition of the 2013 Subordinate Grange Manual or the most recent edition of the Pomona Grange Manual. The views and opinions expressed in “Exploring Traditions” are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official doctrine and policy of the Grange. Information about the book “Exploring Traditions—Celebrating the Grange Way of Life” can be found at http://abbotvillagepress.com, on Amazon, or by contacting the author.

National Grange Hosts Event

REGISTER & SUBMIT QUESTIONS: Go here to register for the FREE event, provide a question you would wish to be posed to the Chairman. You will receive the link to the event after you register.

Join the National Grange and the Multicultural Media, Telecom and Internet Council (MMTC) for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s virtual final address on the digital divide on January 12, 2021, at 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. FCC Chairman Pai will discuss his contributions to bridging the digital divide for all Americans during his tenure at the FCC.

Pai, who was a 2019 recipient of the National Grange’s Champion of Rural America Award said, “Since my first day as Chairman of the FCC, my number one priority has been closing the digital divide and bringing the benefits of the Internet age to all Americans.”

A question-and-answer session will follow Chairman Pai’s virtual address. Registrants are encouraged to submit questions, which will be vetted by the sponsoring organizations prior to the event.

Click Here to Register

New Paths to Blaze

Webmaster’s Note: Larry Bailey, Master of Ocean View Grange in Martinsville, said it would be okay to share his recent message to the Ocean View members. He could have written this to Grangers everywhere! When he replied to my request, he added, “…The examples of what other Granges are doing is very helpful, instructive, and energizes me. I know we can do more and I know that doing so improves our community and ourselves. It is, perhaps, selfish but, I get great self-satisfaction from cleaning up a local road, giving an award to deserving citizens, providing free meals to veterans, paying heat bills for those who need it, placing flags on the graves of our servicemen, and the other things we do at Ocean View.” Congratulations to Larry and Ocean View Grange for exploring tradition and new directions!

The words from the Exploring Traditions Column are for you to think about. I believe we need a new round of Grange fever. Most of us have been Grangers for several years and have seen our energy and enthusiasm slow down. It is not rare that this pattern takes over after a period of time.  I think new ideas and new directions are what we need. Those of us who joined and worked so hard to save the Grange still have that feeling that the Grange needs us and all our members. I can’t tell you what new ideas and directions we need to follow but our members are creative enough to come up with some ideas. I think we will be back in full action after the end of the year and hope we can start anew with excitement, energy, and determination. I am going to give it my best effort and hope each of you will too.  When thinking about what new paths we can blaze, I hope you still realize that we are not in the Grange to make money from our activities. We are an organization dedicated to helping our community, friends, and neighbors in any way we can. Yes, it takes money to do a lot of what we do but more importantly, much can be done with neighborly effort alone.

Oh, and by the way… Larry and I both ordered some cheese from Goot Essa!
WB

National Grange Seeks Exciting Granges

Webmasters note: MSG Community Service Director Chris Corliss requested we post this letter she received from Peter Pompper, National Grange Community Service Director. For additional information and the form mentioned, contact Chris or Peter!

Greetings State Grange Directors,

As the National Grange Community Service Director I am proud of the work so many Grangers have done in their communities during the COVID 19 crisis. Granges and Grangers have stepped up to the plate and have done some amazing things. Grangers throughout the country have made thousands of facemasks which have been and still are being distributed in their communities. Granges have started or supplied food giveaways or supplied meals for those on the front lines. These are only a few of the community service projects that have been done.

On the National Grange level, we would like to gather information on what you or your Grange has done during this crisis Our National President, Legislative Director and Communications Director can use this information when they meet with other leaders of National Organizations, Legislators or for press releases. I realize Grangers do not like to brag about what we do but now is the time. I have prepared a form that you can use to report what your Grange has done. I strongly encourage Grange members to let me know what you/they have done to help in their communities. If you as a State Director know of individual Grangers who have gone above and beyond please share this with them or fill it out and send it to me. I ask that if possible you distribute this with your respective Pomona and Subordinate counterparts.

The form is on the NG website, will be distributed to the Granges or you can contact me directly and I will make sure you get one. The form can be completed and returned to me as soon as possible. They can also be completed as you finish a project that is planned for the future.

Mail to: 1608 Culbertson Ave Myrtle Beach, SC 29577 phone « 609 820 6239
Email: communityservice@nationalgrange.org

Fraternally,

Pete Pompper
National Grange Community Service Director

National Grange Statement on Racism and Inequity

The National Grange unequivocally opposes racism. The voices of Grange members across our country join those who cry out in sorrow for the lives lost to racist actions, for the divisions racism has cleaved between us and for the inequality that racism has spawned across our beloved nation.

Since our founding in 1867, we have lived by our motto, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” We have always welcomed and invited people of all races, creeds, religions and nationalities into our membership. We have asked none to join us who cannot see good in their fellow beings, who are willing to put to work their generous hearts and open hands to raise all their neighbors and communities.

Our Grange founders provided us a Declaration of Purposes for our organization that addressed a need for unity and civil discourse: “We shall constantly strive to secure harmony, good will, and brotherhood… We shall earnestly endeavor to suppress personal, local, sectional, and national prejudices… We desire a proper equality, and fairness; protection for the weak; restraint upon the strong; in short, justly distributed power.” These words still guide us today.

One does not merely join the Grange, but lives by the principles of faith, hope, charity and fidelity and loving their neighbor as themselves.

We have a deep commitment to the freedoms of speech, expression and peaceful protest enshrined in our Constitution for all people. The Grange’s Declaration of Purposes also teaches us that “…difference of opinion is no crime. Progress toward truth is made by differences of opinion, while the fault lies in the bitterness of the controversy.” Therefore we urge everyone to exercise their individual rights of expression in a civil and respectful manner. Each day, law enforcement officers must uphold the law equally while exercising good judgment and compassion.

Just as we do in each of our meetings, we must meet the peaceful expressions of various opinions with open ears and open hearts.

In this time of social unrest and anxiety, Grange members renew our pledge to combat prejudice and racism and will continue to strive to do better. We continue our 153-year-old tradition of welcoming all to our membership, building an inclusive family fraternity and providing our communities with a place for civil discussion and proactive, positive change.

2020 National Grange Convention Changes

The National Grange Executive Committee is very sorry to announce that the 2020 National Grange Convention will have many changes because of the Covid-19 pandemic and therefore will be open for National delegates and officers only. No visitors or Grangers will be invited to attend in person this year.

The convention will be cut to two days and the only business will be voting on resolutions and electing two executive committee officers. Extra activities, such as the Evening of Excellence, Youth and Junior Public Speaking and Sign a Song, will take place virtually. The Seventh Degree will not be exemplified this year.

Other recognitions such as Community Service awards, Distinguished Grange, Grange Legacy Family, and the Quilt Block Contest, will be held and awards given, but there will be no ceremony. National Grange Department Directors will be sending out information regarding their programs and how they will be handled this year, so stay tuned!

The Valley Forge Casino Resort, site of the convention, has been closed since March 14 to this date (June 6). We don’t know when it will be permitted to open, because the counties around Philadelphia are a hot spot for the virus. The hotel is willing to allow us to downsize our convention to two days, 80 people, hopefully without penalty, so we are exercising that option at this time.

Also we do not want to endanger any of our members by asking them to travel and to spend days in a large crowd. The health and safety of our Grange family comes first. We feel it may not be safe to gather, even by November. Many of your State Sessions will see major changes this year also. We hope you will understand this decision, and keep on working at the local level as much as you can to help your communities.

National Conferences Canceled

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all regional conferences have been canceled for the health and safety of our members.

National Grange Youth and Junior Grange Directors have established a contingency plan for members to still be able to participate in regional public speaking and Sign-a-Song contests which are required in order to take part in the national competitions. Contestants must sign up by June 15, 2020 in order to participate in the July contests. Contests will be held via Zoom on July 18-19. All Grangers of any age are welcome to participate. Only Junior and Youth/Young Adult participants will qualify for Best of Show.

Sign up to take part in public speaking and sign-a-song competitions in place of regional conference in-person competitions.
CLICK HERE

Read the contingency plans for these conferences
CLICK HERE