We’re in This Together
By Sen. John Thune
The Great Plains were homesteaded by men and women with a strong yearning for freedom and liberty – seeking an opportunity for their hard work and resourcefulness to cultivate enough prosperity to provide for their families, build some savings, and see the next generation do a little better than themselves. Many who followed in their footsteps and made South Dakota home, like my grandparents, were immigrants who sought the same freedom and opportunity. Enriched by the indigenous heritage of the state, these timeless ideals remain woven in the fabric of our communities to this day and continue to make our state a special place to live, work, raise families, and worship.
Within our deeply rooted sense of self-reliance and determination also lives an ingrained sense of community and civic duty. Our nation recently reflected on the military service of generations of men and women on Veterans Day. From the airmen at Ellsworth Air Force Base, to the strong participation in the South Dakota Army and Air National Guard from across the state, and through decades of service across the armed forces, patriotic South Dakotans have always demonstrated their sense of service.
This sense of civic duty is also evident from our larger cities to our smallest of towns. It’s the thread that so tightly holds the fabric of our communities sewn together. We see it in our schools and churches, assisting an elderly neighbor, and sending over a meal to help a family stay nourished through tough times. We see it in helping to pull a tractor out of a muddy field, sandbagging homes and businesses during a flood, and rebuilding after a storm. We see it in police officers keeping our neighborhoods safe and in volunteer firefighters responding to an alarm. We see it in supporting a family while a spouse is deployed, or pitching in during the harvest when a tragedy has struck a family.
This is the best of South Dakotans, and it happens every day in every town.
We now face a collective hardship, and there has never been a more important time to act on our sense of community. The coronavirus pandemic has upended the world and thrown our nation and state a multitude of health and economic challenges. Scientists and doctors are making great strides in understanding the virus and are seeing promising breakthroughs toward vaccines and therapeutics. There is great reason to be hopeful—but it is incumbent on us to do our part to keep ourselves, our loved ones, and our neighbors safe until these treatments are authorized and can be widely distributed. There’s plenty to be optimistic about, but we’re not out of the woods yet.
There are no cure-alls, but there are simple, straightforward, and common-sense ways to limit the spread of COVID-19: Practice good hygiene by washing hands and covering coughs and sneezes. Stay socially distant and avoid crowds, especially indoors. When social distancing is not possible, please wear a mask. These are steps all of us can take out of the strong sense of civic duty that binds South Dakotans together. Remember, we’re in this together.
Winters in South Dakota are notoriously tough, and I know I am not alone in recognizing that this winter may be tougher yet. Navigating this holiday season – a time of family, gratitude, and celebration – during a pandemic may challenge our traditions and test our resolve. And for those who have lost loved ones or are separated from those who are in recovery or are isolated by their risk category, you will especially be in my thoughts.
South Dakotans are resilient, and we have overcome many challenges together. And it is together that we may get one step ahead of the coronavirus and buy additional time until vaccines can be delivered and our way of life begins to return to normal. This holiday season, I remain blessed to call South Dakota home, and know I am fortunate to live in a state that can unify behind this common challenge with a common set of tools to fight it.
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At some point, Senator Thune must confront the facts. This “hardship” was manufactured on purpose as a power grab by a cabal of bureaucrats who have lost sight of what made this countryside great; its people. The pandemic was to justify mail-in ballots, which opened the freeway of fraud to bamboozle the electorate.
My Great Grandparents on one side of my family were immigrants to Western South Dakota from Norway. They endured many of the same hardships described by Mr. Thune (and then some). They confronted difficult truths, and John Thune can, too.
My grandma used to say, “the farmers in this state were forced into socialism”. Indeed – they were taught socialism through constant incentive not to produce on behalf of largely unseen globalist interests. They were hustled into selling the family farms and/or developing them into housing, while Judas-goat federal politicians cuddled-up with their kingly treasures. South Dakota’s elite survivalists were placated and subdued by the snake-oil of big pharma (big pharma is not all bad, but we’re in the midst of a great big pharma driven lie, and the stain of corruption will eventually cover even the front-line workers if we/they let it).
If Thune is driving our federal representation bus, he must see the road. He must understand the language on the signs. He must slow, look, lean and roll through the corners.
It is a distasteful manner in which Senator Thune is enriching himself while turning a wild eye to the crisp and dangerous realities of the present danger; 5G, “Pandemic” (plandemic), mass surveillance, and self-inflicted wounds from globalization.
Perhaps the most offensive thing I have witnessed during Thune’s tenure was his ignoring election theft and not having a stiff spine to fight back like the dickens. President Trump ensured that Thune and his constituents have a proverbial clear shot at these terrible people. In something reminiscent of a Warner Brothers cartoon, instead of taking-out the target, he is shooting his horse in the back of the head.
My family and I will never forget where we were and what we were doing when “they” stopped counting. I personally will also never forget the deafening silence from Rounds, and the nails-on-a-chalkboard parroting of a deep state election theft defense from Thune and Johnson.
While Thune’s abs are in great shape to be sure, perhaps he should do some more reverse roman sit-ups to bolster the strength of his spine.
good lord
AMEN!
Wow this site’s comment section is about as bad as Twitter these days.
As a lifelong Republican, I have no trouble saying that Biden won the election fair and square. I support Thune, Rounds, and Johnson and I’m hopeful they can be part of the respectful, loyal opposition that works with Biden when appropriate and fights him tooth and nail when needed. I am confident in all of their ability to do that.
You should have listened to the state senate hearing in Pennsylvania’s today regarding voting irregularities and outright breaking of state law. If you think Biden won this election fairly, you are deaf and blind. If heaven forbid, Biden is named president for the short time Harris allows him to stay, he will never be my president. And i wont forget that our elected officials didnt protest this travesty of an election.
Do you not have faith in the legal process to ferret this out if it is indeed true, Springer?
there’s nothing you can do about an election after the fact if it followed the rules set for it. whatever is wrong should have been preemptively caught by congress and in oversight of the election laws leading to this vote, they have for decades now lifted not a finger. RELAXING rules they let pass, tightening rules they drop the ball. the above screed about the evils of john thune are not helpful to the extreme.