![\"BillJanklow\"](\"http:\/\/blog.keloland.com\/lund\/files\/2012\/01\/BillJanklow.jpg\" "\\"BillJanklow\\"")
Are you suffering from Bill Janklow overload yet?<\/p>\nAre you suffering from Bill Janklow overload yet?<\/p>\n
It\u2019s going to take a lot of air time and column space trying to summarize and analyze the life and career of Janklow who died Thursday only a few weeks after announcing that his quick demise was immanent. I just have a few comments from my personal encounters with the man.\u00a0 Few South Dakotans have ever been so robust..so polarizing..so complicated…so dedicated..so brilliant..so popular and so reviled as our longtime governor, short time congressman and tragic soul who served 100 days jail time for manslaughter.<\/p>\n
The word I most associate with Janklow is \u201cfear.\u201d I think he really enjoyed putting the fear of god into people. At least that was the case during my years in TV news and his as governor. His calls to reporters, anchors or station managers and owners complaining or wishing to \u201cenlighten\u201d them, about a story he had issues with, were legendary. He\u2019d beat you down with statistics and ask you questions you couldn\u2019t answer then scold you for being uninformed and under qualified while insisting you take down the number of the legislative research council and get your blankety blank facts straight. I received a few of those intimidating tongue lashings and have heard him say more than once he was never talking to KELO again but after a while he\u2019d simmer down and we\u2019d all be back on speaking terms.<\/p>\n
As the eulogies continue in the days ahead, you\u2019ll be hearing a lot about Janklow\u2019s quieter compassionate side. That was never more evident to me than when he helped organize the huge World War II Veterans celebration on the grounds of the State Capitol in 2001. Janklow epitomized the slogan \u201cOnce a Marine always a Marine\u201d crediting the Corps with turning him from a wild juvenile delinquent into a disciplined responsible man.\u00a0 His\u00a0 appreciation for the men and women in uniform and his patriotism in general was on fire that day as he spoke so passionately\u00a0to the thousands of South Dakota\u2019s war vets gathered on that cloudy rainy September afternoon. It was one of the most eloquent speeches of his public life made even more poignant by the fact that it came just hours after the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington DC.\u00a0 I interviewed Janklow shortly after that address and asked if, in light of 9-11, he\u2019d considered postponing the event. Never, Doug..he said. Never. The people that we are honoring here today stood up and answered the call to fight and perhaps die for this country. What would they think if we caved-in to those thugs who\u00a0despise the very freedom these World War II veterans so bravely\u00a0sacrificed to preserve? No sir.<\/p>\n
I told him I liked his speech and he told me thanks.<\/p>\n
Finally a conversation without fear.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Are you suffering from Bill Janklow overload yet? It\u2019s going to take a lot of air time and column space trying to summarize and analyze the life and career of Janklow who died Thursday only a few weeks after announcing that his quick demise was immanent. I just have a few comments from my personal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lund-at-large","category-60","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1775"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11741,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1775\/revisions\/11741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jodystaples.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}