The Bridge Builder

BY WILL ALLEN DROMGOOLE

An old man going a lone highway,
Came, at the evening cold and gray,
To a chasm vast and deep and wide.
Through which was flowing a sullen tide
The old man crossed in the twilight dim,
The sullen stream had no fear for him;
But he turned when safe on the other side
And built a bridge to span the tide.

“Old man,” said a fellow pilgrim near,
“You are wasting your strength with building here;
Your journey will end with the ending day,
You never again will pass this way;
You’ve crossed the chasm, deep and wide,
Why build this bridge at evening tide?”

The builder lifted his old gray head;
“Good friend, in the path I have come,” he said,
“There followed after me to-day
A youth whose feet must pass this way.
This chasm that has been as naught to me
To that fair-haired youth may a pitfall be;
He, too, must cross in the twilight dim;
Good friend, I am building this bridge for him!”

I read this poem when I started my term on a school board in 1986. This poem has guided me through my career with three family companies while in marketing and management. In my family and professional experience you need to be there working together, always working together or the family and the business suffers. I believe this is true for our Local, State, and Federal governments. I intend to be in the middle pulling and pushing upward to improve all of our lives.

There is no secret to success; it takes work and time. I have experienced it professionally and personally during my life and I will carry that perseverance with me to the State Capitol. If you agree, please support me and vote for me on November 9 in our local Minnesota House of Representative 20A – your only independent candidate.