The Black Blizzards

     So for this week's documentary I chose The Dust Bowl made by Ken Burns. If you haven't seen it, this documentary is absolutely a must see. It tells the story of the people who lived in the panhandles of Oklahoma and Texas during the 1930s and is both harrowing and moving. 
    Rather than attempt to poorly summarize this amazing documentary I will simply share what I learned. There were two main ideas that I took away from seeing this film; First history seems to be repeating itself.
    In 1929, the Stock Market crashed beginning one of the greatest periods of economic hardship in modern time. Among other things, crop prices, particularly wheat fell over 60% which proved disastrous for the millions of people who had moved west to farm. As a result of the drop in prices the farmers chose to attempt to sell more by plowing up tens of millions of acres in the middle west. Then came a ten year drought and and along with it high winds that blew up dust storms. These dust storms were so extreme that they actually choked people and livestock if they were left outside. 

    We have just gone through what is now being called The Great Recession when among other things unemployment reached a high of 10% in 2009 (although this is not even half of the rate reached in 1933 at the height of the Great Depression). Many people, particularly farmers in the midwest and California are struggling financially. This problem is being further compounded by what is now a three year drought. Just this last Friday, California Governor Jerry Brown declared a a state of emergency because of the lack of rainfall saying, "perhaps the worst drought California has ever seen since records began being kept about 100 years ago". Meanwhile drought conditions in the midwest are equally troubling with almost half of the country being classified as a D2 Severe Drought. 

    The second thing I took away from this film was a thought about how tough the people of that generation (my grandparents) must have been. Imagine being born in 1920 in Boise City, Oklahoma. By the time you were 14 years old you were in the heart of the Dust Bowl and suffering through the Great Depression. There would be months at a time when the dust storms did not stop. When you could not go outside for fear of never being able to find your way back to shelter and literally choking to death on the dust.

 Not just you and your family but your entire community would be starving to death. This went on for YEARS, during which all you could do was pray for rain. In 1936, your family could not take it anymore and received a loan from the government and moved to California. In California, you and your family experienced tremendous hardships including homelessness, unemployment, and severe poverty. When everything finally settles down and your family has finally been able to make a living for themselves, World War 2 breaks out in 1941. 
    So, obviously this has been an extreme (and made up) anecdote that no doubt happened to many people. I wonder if the same things were able to happen today how our society would react. That generation went through so much more than I think I ever could. 
    Unfortunately, I do not have enough time to talk about everything that I would like to about this documentary. Please go and see it for yourself (it is on Netflix) and leave any comments or thoughts you have.