Stranded in Arkansas

Up a creek, or a lake, without a paddle.

My husband and I bought a boat 9 years ago…it was an old boat then. It turned 30 this year.

Our five kids have spent their summers on the little lake in Nodaway County, Table Rock in Southern Missouri, and Beaver Lake in NW Arkansas. It’s been a fun purchase, but, just like every old timer will tell you, “You know what BOAT stands for? Bust out another thousand.”

They aren’t lying. Something always goes wrong with a boat. Always.

We were on Table Rock one day a few years back and cruised into Arkansas — you don’t have to drive far before you cross into Arkansas. There is a sign up on a bluff that has MO-AR written in huge letters as you pass into the next state. We love that part of the lake and always drive to a place we like to tie off for a while…it’s called Bobberville.

Table Rock Lake, Branson, Missouri. Photo credit: Better Branson.com

It’s not a real place, but someone put up a hand-painted wooden sign with “Bobberville” written on it. The sign sits on an old tree jutting up out of the water on a bend in the lake. It’s the perfect place to stop, grab a drink, and let the kids swim. It is shaded in the late afternoon with a bluff on one side and a sandy jetty on the other. We love this spot, but this particular day, we decided to keep cruising down the lake, farther than we normally go.

The lake traffic was nearly non-existent when we pulled into a finger on the lake. The Arkansas side of Table Rock is gorgeous. You can see down several feet as the bottom of the lake is rock instead of silt. It is a clear blue.

That day, it was just us and the water. We only had one kiddo with us…our youngest daughter who was about six. We sat in the finger and drifted for about 30 minutes before my husband decided to pull us back into the channel — we were getting into shallow water and it was getting late. He turned the key…nothing. Shit.

It was late afternoon and we had never had trouble with the boat starting, but that didn’t matter at that moment. It was dead. I immediately tried to call for a tow. Hahaha…did I mention I was in the middle of the lake in the middle of nowhere Arkansas? There was not a bit of cell service.

Oh, well, the battery charger? In the truck. In Missouri.

So, my husband did what any man would do…he jumped out and started swimming, pulling the boat out of the finger and into the main channel with a rope. That’s no easy feat when you’re pulling a 21 ft ski boat behind you. Thank the gods that man is a strong and steady swimmer (or an “athlete” in his words :)

We hadn’t seen anyone for a long time, but surely someone would come down the main channel. Surely. There we sat. And sat. My husband kept treading water and trying to keep the boat in the main channel. And, sure enough, within 10 minutes, we heard Motley Crue blaring, and saw a boat flying down the main channel toward us.

I was just glad I didn’t hear banjos.

We waved them down. The boat was huge…something that cost more than my house, with the nicest people who stopped and said they would tow us in. But, they soon found out how far our dock was. We tried to tell them to stop at a closer dock and we would just tie off and call a friend to drive us back to our truck. They wouldn’t hear of it. They pulled us for over an hour back, likely ruining their own night, to make sure we were safe and sound. They refused to let us repay them…not even for their gas.

And then, they were gone and I was left with “Shout. Shout. Shout. Shout at the devil” playing in my head all night long.

This memory came back yesterday, as it was our first day back on the lake this summer, and wouldn’t you know it, we had a fit getting the boat to start. Luckily, it did start and after a few hours out, I looked at my phone to see the time. I got the time, and then I saw a notification that the vote to codify contraception had fallen short in the Senate after so many Republicans voted against it.

What?

How can that be? I live in a state that has banned abortion and my Senators voted against making sure women have a federal right to contraception? That could only mean that my Senators think women and girls should be forced to bear pregnancies and deliver them to the state. I felt like screaming.

Shout. Shout. Shout. Shout at the devil.

Do you know what I noticed when I went through the votes? The dissenting Republicans were mostly from reliably red states.

Do you know why I incessantly speak on red state policies? Because they are bleeding into every state in the union. Republican Senators from sparsely populated states are able to hold up our right to contraception. Republican Senators, who are in the minority, can ruin our lives and they do it with ease.

Remember: the oligarchs didn’t have to take over this country by coup…they are taking it over by collaboration. Collaborating with the GOP.

I am convinced that the path to democracy is through red states. We take our country back when we focus not only on “flippable” seats or targeted districts, but when we extend our resources to districts that are in it for the long haul. When we support candidates and nominees who we know absolutely cannot flip a seat. At least not in one or two cycles.

Why would anyone support a nominee who can’t win? It’s bench building. It’s infrastructure. It’s telling folks running in the reddest districts that we have their back. It’s doing the right thing. Uncontested seats are undemocratic…we stand with those doing the hard work in their communities.

We can spend our time shouting at devils, or we can work. I know a lot of folks, mostly the consultant class, who don’t like to hear what it will take to come back when we are so far behind. They don’t want to think about being up a creek without a paddle, but we need to talk about it. And, we should be honest about it.

We are up a creek in states like Missouri, and we may not have a paddle, but we can jump in head first and pull ourselves out of the mess. It’s going to take strong and steady folks with grit, but it can be done.

And, in the process, we can wave down good neighbors to help us get out of this mess.

I hope my blue-state neighbors are listening. We are in the channel, but we can only tread water for so long…help tow us to safety.

~Jess