South Dakota lost a friend and leader, Roger McKellips on August 18, 2017. A simple remembrance of his South Dakota and Alcester leadership is given on August 25, 2017 at the Sioux Falls Democratic Forum.
We will also have video of Jeff Barth who spoke at Forum on Friday.
Roger McKellips lost to Bill Janklow for governor in 1978. Then, Janklow the lawyer, after eight years of Democratic rule from the governor’s office, brought Citibank to South Dakota within his first term as governor.
Now, Citibank was, in time and place, good for Sioux Falls and South Dakota, but the reasons for why Citibank came to South Dakota, I don’t think were ever good for America, however. The changing of our usury laws in this state ushered in a new era in banking not only for South Dakota, but for our entire country, I believe. It was that changing of the usury laws, which put in motion a change in our nation’s banking industry, where it went from being one of a paternalistic nature to one of a predatory nature, and thus aided in the eventual threatening collapse of our national and world economy just a few years ago, in my estimation – and even Janklow, himself, admitted in a past PBS documentary about South Dakota, usury laws, and the credit card industry, that the changing of those usury laws may have been a mistake.
So as we all express in our own ways, condolences over the lost of a great South Dakotan by the name of Roger McKellips, we also say good-bye to a banker, whose unmatched integrity probably would have never allowed the usury laws to have been changed. And although, that potential outcome might have been at a loss for Sioux Falls and or South Dakota, in time and place. It would, I believe, have been a win for our entire country, however.
So as we say good-bye to Senator McKellips, the banker from Alcester, we acknowledge not only a loss today, but cannot help but wonder, what if, what if a banker of great integrity would have once led this state instead of his once political opponent?…..