Just before Christmas, I ripped off a column about the “Occupy” protesters. I gave my opinion, and apparently it wasn’t too popular. 

I’ve never been one to be hung up on popular opinion, so the fact that I received mail that wasn’t too generous in the name-calling department only fueled the fire. At the ripe old age of 46, I don’t cower in the corner anymore and cry, “I’ll never write again, these people are mean and just don’t understand me!” when I get mail from folks to vehemently disagree with me.

But I have decided to write a response to this particular column because “these people are mean, and they don’t understand me!” (That was a joke.)

I wrote that I thought the Occupy protesters needed to get on with life. I demeaned their existence. I belittled their act. I made broad assumptions, all in the name of my opinion. While I sincerely felt everything I wrote, in all fairness, I was uninformed and all the sincerity in the world won’t make my subjective opinion an objective fact.

When I wrote the column, they had just announced they were going to try to block ships from entering West Coast ports, and that spurred me to write. The protester movement had gone under the radar in my world until I saw a news piece on the immorality that was running rampant in the tent cities; that’s when I lost all respect for the protesters and their cause.

Oh, their purpose was all quite noble, and when someone is fired up enough to make a sidewalk their home for an indefinite period of time, then their passion is palpable. And let’s get down to the basics: Protesting is a right and has been a vehicle to much progress around the world. I would never want to take that right away, so please don’t assume I think protesting is anything but powerful and purposeful.

But when protesting turns into meeting with the gang on the street corner to pass the time and have some sex with strangers, the purpose somehow gets lost.

Sit down, stand up, carry a sign, shout your mantra – but be sold on your protest. Keep your focus clearly on the goal, and don’t stop until your goal has been met. And, you might want to keep the riff-raff to a minimum, or at least give them talking points when they find themselves being interviewed by the media.

And watch out for the undercover reporters in the tents getting propositioned; there’s no way to spin that in a positive direction.

On to something pretty and positive – the Miss America Contest! I usually don’t find myself glued to the TV during a beauty pageant like I did when I was little, but this year was different. The dairy industry had a stake in the contest, and her name was Betty Thompson – Miss Oklahoma.

Betty grew up on a dairy farm with the typical 4-H experiences, showing Jerseys and participating in queen contests. Although she didn’t win the Oklahoma Dairy Princess contest (according to my sources, the contest was fixed – another joke!), she did go on to win the American Jersey Queen Pageant.

Not knowing Betty personally, we still felt a connection to our Jersey girl, and sat and watched her get all the way to the final two contestants. We were so disappointed when she was named first runner-up, with Miss Wisconsin winning.

It was a good reminder that farm kids are an amazing bunch, with the potential to do anything to which they put their minds!

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Melissa Hart may write to her in care of this publication.