It shouldn’t require tragedy to bring us into focus. I don’t know why we can’t live our lives with passion and integrity, treating others with respect and dignity while cherishing each moment with our family and friends as though it could be our last. I guess its human nature to become accustom to the daily grind and begin taking things for granted. I’ve challenged myself to appreciate more the things in life which are truly important and worry less about the “other stuff”.

The NSR has trusted it’s breeders to be honest and to operate with integrity, and that trust was largely misplaced. They are trying now to take steps to correct that and they are meeting resistance.

Last weekend my youngest children were introduced to the Disney animated movie “The Hunchback of Notre Dame”. It had been many years since I had seen it myself and I had forgotten most of it, even though my oldest children grew up watching it repeatedly. If you’ve never seen the movie, it’s the story of a disfigured young man born of gypsy heritage in Paris, raised in the sanctuary of Notre Dame cathedral. He becomes enamored with a young gypsy woman who saves him from a severe mob hazing in his first venture outside the cathedral walls. A pinnacle moment in the movie is when he swings down from the top of the cathedral to rescue the young woman who is being burned at the stake. He sets her free and carries her to the top of the cathedral, raising her unconscious, limp body over his head as he shouts repeatedly to the masses below, “Sanctuary!! Sanctuary!! Sanctuary!!!!”

As I watched the movie with my children and the story began to come back to me, I couldn’t help thinking about current issues within the swine industry in my home state of Wisconsin.