Abby Elsbernd from the Quad Cities was glad to learn that the revered and recently retired football coach at Northern Iowa, Mark Farley, is known as the “walk-on from Waukon.”
The Grinnell College sophomore is no football fanatic but she would have to mention it to her mother, a native Waukoner, to see if she knew Farley. We also talked Ossian and Davenport, which prompted our non-native professor supper host to remark on the fraternity of Iowans.
There’s something to that.
We are tuned into the weather. Too wet to plant, too hot to pollinate, too windy to breathe without getting dirt in your teeth. And then a blizzard. You stick together under conditions like these.
Dan Gable is the GOAT. Bigger even than Frank Gotch of Humboldt, the World Wrestling Champion of 1908 by virtue of beating the Russian Lion in Comiskey Park before 33,000 fans. Cael who? Most of us know that Denise Long came before Caitlin Clark.
These are certain truths we share.
That the Good Lord isn’t making more farmland so we should take care.
They can never take away a good education from you.
We are immigrants all. We know that history but forget. Prussian draft dodgers. Irish lead miners. Dutch farmers. Mexican meat cutters and milking parlor labor.
Nobody should go hungry here. Would you like a ham sandwich?
A hard day’s work deserves a day’s fair wage.
About these things nearly all Iowans should be able to agree. We take these things for granted, but they help to define us in place.
Iowa. Common sense. Look out for your neighbor. Live and let live. Keep the government out of my business.
We should start there as we look at ways to build a place for everyone. What do we share in common?
A worry about our high cancer rates.
A sense of stewardship for the land and water.
An aversion to property taxes. Iowans are tight but are willing to pay for quality. People are skeptical about what we are getting.
A sense of loss in community when you lose the school and everything all falls down.
A frustration that young people cannot make a living here, or do not want to.
Much divides us. More unites us. We should start there.
We expect world-class education. We have to pay for it. The legislature has been putting the screws to the system. When the Moms for Liberty ran for school board on an agenda written in Florida, Iowa voters rejected them wholesale at the polls.
Polls consistently show strong support for cleaning up our water. The legislature is not interested insofar as it might impinge on the chemical cabal. Nobody signed up to be a toadie for the fertilizer industry. People want clean water if politicians would allow it.
Property taxes are out of control. Nobody asked for a tax increase when they cut the income tax, but that is what we got. Property taxes are a taking of property rights. What do we get in return? Potholes and storm sewers that back up in downtown Storm Lake. We live in Iowa assuming that government will work. It isn’t. Government is not open and transparent, and you darn well better not be late paying for your increasing water bill.
Better schools, cleaner water, property tax restraint.
These are things that Democrats and Republicans can agree on if we tell the outside dark money groups to bugger off. We know how to solve surface water pollution while improving farm net income, but it might not be good for corporate types. We know that avian flu can be throttled with vaccines developed in Ames, if we allow it. Do we really want to drive gays out of the state? Do we want religious authorities determining what books students read in public schools? Do we want to threaten the Iowa Tuition Grant to make Grinnell College more conservative, or Buena Vista University more liberal? Do we want to consign low-income high school students to mediocre schools when the rich kids go to Dowling?
Democrat Rob Sand’s entire governor’s campaign is built on the premise that people are sick of serving as gladiators for the political parties. Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn says he wants to take on the big chemical companies. Iowans agree, mostly. We are set up by outside money to fight each other until we are so bloody we can’t see them stealing the farm.
Folks in Decorah are not invested in that fight. They just want to see Luther College thrive.
Abby has those Iowa roots in her system. She is a square deal straight shooter at a young age. When you fear that the Iowa we favor drifted away, she lets you know where Ossian is. Therein lies our hope. We can come together speaking our peculiar version of Iowegian if we can just keep our wits about us and remember where we come from.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here