By Paul Wesslund

From the “From the Editor” column in the September 1999 issue of Kentucky Living

I generally think that commemorative weeks and months are examples of too much promotion. But when I hear about September 19-25 being Farm Safety Week I think about farmers without fingers.

All my career I’ve worked with people from farming communities, and the sight of a man with one dramatically shortened finger, or a couple missing, or a misshapen hand, is so common it generally goes without comment.

But it doesn’t go without a silent reaction. From me, anyway. I know those deformities resulted from accidents on the farm. I didn’t grow up on a farm, so I can only imagine the circumstances that caused the injury.

And I do.

I imagine the horrible physical pain of getting a limb caught and chopped in some machine meant to process plants. I imagine the gory, bloody, nightmare of getting from the farm to a hospital. I imagine the sick feelings in stomachs and eyes of spouses, children, and friends as they try to help the victim-if there’s anybody at all around at the time. Then afterward there’s the sense of loss, of anything from a fingertip, all the way up the arm. I imagine senses of regret and foolishness that never go away.

And that’s losing a limb. I imagine the farmers I never met at all because even more horrible farm accidents ended their lives. I feel cheated that I never would benefit from their lives. I feel sad for their families.

Finally, I think about all these things happening to children. I know they do. And while all these people are well-meaning, these accidents, almost by definition, are preventable.

Several months ago our magazine staff was putting together a photo essay of a tractor show. We couldn’t, or wouldn’t, use most of the pictures because they showed children hanging on to the sides and seats of tractors as they moved through the field.

Please be careful. Take care of your children. Take care of yourself. Use whatever tricks and techniques you can think of. Think. Try assuming that if an accident can happen, it will, and it will happen to you.

I know that the people publishing the news releases and promoting Farm Safety Month can list the grim statistics. If facts and figures and special months help prevent accidents, that’s great. I’m afraid they don’t affect me as strongly as the things I imagine that I know are true. Every week should be Farm Safety Week.