Categories
Living in Society

Stymied on Immigration

Grain Silos

Like clockwork, the American Civil Liberties Union, along with other groups and individuals, sued in federal court over Senate File 2340, one of the worst, most far-reaching immigration laws ever passed in the state of Iowa. They said the law is unconstitutional. It is common sense the state has no primary role in policing immigration. I expect the ACLU will prevail and the governor has to know it.

Maybe if the Iowa delegation to The U.S. Congress had done their job on immigration this year, things would be different. Instead we have this crappy law and civil rights groups are not going to let it stand.

While states can pass legislation to deal with federal immigration concerns, if the U.S. Supreme Court has a shred of honesty in jurisprudence left, they will reject these state laws when they trickle up to the high court.

I made the post below, called “Rain and Immigration Reform,” on Jan. 29, 2013. It shows in eleven years the country has gotten exactly nowhere on immigration reform.

LAKE MACBRIDE— The sound of rain tapping against the bedroom window woke me this morning. At 4:30 a.m. it was 55 degrees. This broke the record high temperature of 53 degrees set in 1919. According to weather.com, today’s forecast is to hit a high of 60 degrees around 11 a.m. this morning, then temperatures start to fall to below freezing in the next 24 hours. Today is more temperate than the heat last summer, however, it is a variation on a theme of being freaked out because of our changing climate and dealing with adaptation.

Equally freaky was yesterday’s public statement by a bipartisan group of eight U.S. senators in an effort to find common ground on how the country should move forward on immigration reform.  They said in a written statement,

We recognize that our immigration system is broken. And while border security has improved significantly over the last two Administrations, we still don’t have a functioning immigration system. This has created a situation where up to 11 million undocumented immigrants are living in the shadows. Our legislation acknowledges these realities by finally committing the resources needed to secure the border, modernize and streamline our current legal immigration system, while creating a tough but fair legalization program for individuals who are currently here. We will ensure that this is a successful permanent reform to our immigration system that will not need to be revisited.

I have written a lot about immigration reform. Dealing with the 11 million undocumented people who live in the United States, many of whom have been here for decades, is a long standing problem and political lightning rod. That the senate’s bipartisan framework calls for a path to citizenship for these long-term residents, and an effective employment verification system, gets to core problems. Particularly, recent history has shown that if there is available employment in the U.S., undocumented people will come to fill those jobs. If the path to getting a job is restricted by better verification of applicant status, the number of people crossing our borders will be reduced.

Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have attempted to reform immigration, but met resistance. What has changed?

The demographics of the 2012 electorate are now known and President Obama won 70 percent of the so-called Hispanic vote. Hispanics accounted for 10 percent of the votes cast for president. It is a political reality that Republicans cannot walk away from this large and growing segment of the population if they want to remain relevant. Immigration reform is a key issue for Hispanic voters.

Senator John McCain was featured in corporate media sound-bites, reading these three sentences from a press statement yesterday,

What is going on now is not acceptable. In reality, what has been created is a defacto amnesty. We, the American people, have been too content for too long to allow individuals to mow our lawn, serve us food, clean our homes and even watch our children while not affording them any of the benefits that make our country so great.

If the political component of immigration reform was the focus yesterday, there is another issue, related to agriculture. Undocumented immigrants and legal guest workers provide low-cost agricultural labor that natives seem reluctant to offer. In his Jan. 5, 1967 inaugural address as governor of California, Ronald Reagan set the theme on immigration that would follow him through to his presidency, “restrictive labor policies should never again be the cause of crops rotting in the fields for lack of harvesters.” Reagan advocated for and signed into law the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, which was intended to permanently address immigration reform.

Any immigration reform faces an uphill battle in the Congress. That’s why nothing has been done since 1986. That states like Iowa are taking matters into their own hands is laughable. It is also am injustice to immigrants who have been here for years. It is cynical political posturing by which Republicans hope to cement their power in government. Will the problem continue unaddressed for ten more years? Something has to give and the states cannot be the driving force in immigration reform.

Categories
Living in Society

On Migrant Workers

Cornfield

Editor’s Note: This was posted on May 22, 2008 while the author served on the county board of health. Working with migrant communities was part of our public health outreach.

Each year 2,500 or more migrant workers come to Iowa to detassel seed corn, walk the beans, prune plants and trees and pick melons, apples and strawberries. This has been going on for as long as I can remember. Today, I saw the public health aspect of this cultural phenomenon.

In places like Conesville, Williamsburg, and Laurel, migrant families come to work in the fields, living in dormitories, motels and converted buildings. The hourly wages are about $9.00, often paid in cash. If anyone is impoverished, these people are. It turns out about 60% of them also seek medical treatment while they are here.

The list of health issues sounds like those of many Americans. 50 percent of patients are treated for obesity. In descending order of frequency, hypertension, diabetes, acute upper respiratory ailments and foot fungus are also treated. Women have a higher frequency of dehydration than men. The medical treatment is part of the culture as there are many patients who seek treatment year after year.

It is clear that many of these workers are not documented, and from a public health perspective, that doesn’t matter much. Would the Immigration and Naturalization Service come in and raid the quarters of these folks? Probably not.

Yet, who should be responsible for the health care of these 2,500 workers? On $9.00 per hour, they could not afford it. The employers would say they could not afford it either. Some would argue that the small budget of the agency should not go to undocumented migrant workers at all. It is a key issue in public health.

The life of migrant workers seems much like the life of birds living in the wetlands. Following the receding water line, they eke out a living that comes naturally, but is in delicate balance between shore and water…it hardly seems permanent. Social change around the immigration issue, a slight change in law enforcement or a change in funding for the agency could change migrant workers’ lives dramatically. At the same time, my sense is that they can adapt to change and do what it takes to create a society that lives along the recurring procession of the agricultural season.

In this way, migrant workers are like us: living each day in its delicate balance.¨

Categories
Home Life

Is the Drought Over?

Trail walking between rain showers on May 9, 2024.

While walking past the boat docks between rain showers, a neighbor hailed me and asked, “Is the drought over?” I replied, “With the rain we’ve had in the last ten days, I hope so.” Because I was on the association board for so long, many know me by name, although I have to ask them theirs. I don’t mind asking.

I took this photograph during my Thursday trail walk. I’ve been trying to take a decent photo of this barn for 30 years. This one isn’t it. I’ll try again.

I turned on my bird identification app and in 30 seconds, it identified eight different birds. Halfway into spring that seems about right. Fish continue to spawn near the foot bridge. Joggers, dog-walkers, bicyclists, and walkers were out on the trail in the couple hour period between morning rain and afternoon showers. I’m glad to have made it outdoors when I could.

While my vegan spouse has been away I’m fixing dinners she can’t eat. Tonight it is lasagna with home grown spring onions and ricotta cheese. I’ve been thinking about this dish for a week. It is baking while I write.

I counted seedlings in the portable greenhouse. There are 750. It seems like a lot, and if I had to buy them at the store it would be a substantial investment. I check on them multiple times a day.

My idea of a garden is to grow as much as I can for the kitchen and give the rest away. The food bank always needs donations. Neighbors welcome fresh vegetables in season. If the rain would let up, I could start transplanting more to the garden. Thursday was a bust day for gardening. Friday is looking better.

We should know when my spouse is returning home today. I hope it is soon.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Plot Three Develops

Bee in the collards.

On May 8th I’m way behind in getting the garden in. The first plot is mostly garlic planted in October. I’ll finish that plot off with herbs, lettuce, bok choy, and spinach under row cover. The second is onions and potatoes which will soon need weeding. I don’t know what will go in plot three but I have to get cabbage and kale in the ground before they get root bound. So I guess that will be part of it. I also need to get peas in, so maybe I’ll plant those next to the fencing so they have a support system. This is more hodge-podge than I care to be.

Wednesday was taking down last year’s fencing and pulling up the ground fabric. I was on my knees most of the time while working. There are two large collard plants in full bloom with abundant pollinators. The buzzing didn’t bother me while I worked around them, and took photos. Just being in the garden is affirming.

I asked the neighbor about cutting back the overhanging branches from their wild wooded area adjacent to our property. I did that, and left the branches to dry before piling them up for burning on Thursday. It was getting so thick, I couldn’t get the mower through without knocking my cap off my head.

The last of the volunteer garlic was ready to pick as spring garlic. It looked like a head developed and I missed picking it last year.I trimmed it and brought it to wash in the kitchen. While the spring garlic dried on the counter, the aroma filled the space. It was wonderful.

On Tuesday afternoon I drove the 6 or 7 miles to the Ely creamery. They have a retail store with products they make, including cheese, fluid milk, ice cream, and more. I like the cheese curds particularly. When I was riding my bicycle during the pandemic, I would ride the trail to Ely and stop there as a turn-around point. Their prices are a bit high, yet it is good to support a local business.

I don’t work in the garden as long as I did. I have to stop after an hour or so and take a short break. If I keep at it, I can likely get everything in the ground by Memorial Day. At least that’s what I’m hoping.

Categories
Sustainability

Adding Value

Trail walking on May 7, 2024.

If HRH the Prince of Wales can’t make a go of organic farming, I don’t know who might. In his 1993 book Highgrove: An Experiment in Organic Gardening and Farming, he and co-author Charles Clover lay out the expenditure of resources, including consulting from prominent Brits with expertise in gardening, animal husbandry, and farming, to convert his estate in Gloucestershire to organic production. While there were successes, the end result was they couldn’t completely and satisfactorily convert it.

Highgrove had three rules: convert from conventional to organic production cheaply, deal with the public direct when possible to keep prices down, and add value.

How does a farmer add value to their crops? One of the approaches Highgrove made was using organic grains to bake bread for retail markets. It was more expensive, but with the prince’s imprimatur they found entree and some sales.

Highgrove could not solve some problems with using all-organic bread ingredients grown on site. They had to blend Highgrove wheat with high protein, organically-grown Canadian wheat to produce the soft crumb British bread-eaters crave. There were also no known producers of organic palm oil needed to “give good loaf volume.” Prince Charles decided to go to market with some compromises, sufficing to say the bread was made using organic flour grown on the property and branded as the “Highgrove loaf.”

While we don’t need to be the future king of England to know it, adding value to common commodities is a ubiquitous practice. It is the foundation of capitalism. Have a few hundred tons of wheat? It will be worth more if it is turned into bread, biscuits and the like. Such added value and the revenue derived from it is used to offset higher input costs for organic vegetables and grains.

The book was a solid read, recommended for those in the contemporary discussion about alternatives to food production based largely on chemical inputs. While the Highgrove story is interesting in itself, it is a long setup for my main topic. What are we made of?

…in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

Genesis 3:19, King James Version

While our lives are nourished by bread and everything around it, we are not the bread we eat.

Most of the elements of our bodies were formed in stars over the course of billions of years and multiple star lifetimes. However, it’s also possible that some of our hydrogen (which makes up roughly 9.5% of our bodies) and lithium, which our body contains in very tiny trace amounts, originated from the Big Bang.

The Natural History Museum, London.

We are stardust, literally.

We are stardust
We are golden
And we’ve got to get ourselves
Back to the garden

Woodstock, Joni Mitchell

We are such stuff as dreams are made on…”

The Tempest, William Shakespeare.

I need to sleep more, think less, and get in the garden. Now that rain let up, maybe I can.

Categories
Living in Society

Agency to Eliminate Nuclear Weapons

Hiroshima, Japan after U.S. Nuclear Attack. Photo Credit: The Telegraph

George Will’s May 6, “Voters, think about the menace of nuclear annihilation,” makes me wonder what Gazette editors are up to when they select outside articles for re-publication. Will wrote, “Talk of ‘banning the bomb’ is pointless. These weapons are here forever.” Good grief! Hath a citizen no agency to effect change? The editors must just want to stir things up.

The optimist in me would say “nuts” to Will and engage in the effort to step back from the brink of nuclear annihilation. 83 nations are already on board with such an effort, which calls on the US to acknowledge that the continued existence of nuclear weapons is the greatest security threat we face and to actively pursue their elimination. In addition, nuclear weapons-armed states already agreed to eliminate nuclear weapons in Article 6 of the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty. A simple, missed truth is most of the world’s nuclear weapons have already been dismantled. All that remains is to finish the job.

Is seeing George Will in the Gazette a blessing or a curse? I had not heard of Annie Jacobsen’s book before reading about it here. However, Will represents a Cold War mentality when he wrote, “Humanity’s survival depends on statesmanship and luck–as much the latter as the former.” When we adopt that view, our luck will run out sooner than we think. We can and will do better.

~ Published on May 7, 2024 as a letter to the editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Categories
Writing

Weekly Journal 2024-05-05

Lilacs planted shortly after moving to Big Grove Township in 1993.

The week began with delays getting into the garden. Life’s exigencies required attention and garden work was pushed back. There was also rain. There is time before last frost, but not much of it.

Dental Care

Tuesday began with a dental appointment. My dentist sold his practice to a large dentistry operation in 2017. I don’t like outlasting medical practitioners yet as a septuagenarian it happens more than I want. The new group, a large company based in Waterloo, seldom treats me with the same practitioner whether it be hygienist or dentist. Each appointment offers a different vibe and I don’t like it. I mean, I’m used to dentists practicing on their own or with a partner or two and not a constantly revolving carousel of practitioners. I don’t know their business model, yet I suspect the pay is low and the assembly line style of operations yields a lower cost for the owners. It is not patient-centered care.

Trip to Des Moines

It rained on Thursday, making it a good day to take my spouse to see her sister. The rain let up west of Williamsburg and water was standing in Iowa’s neatly rectangular planting areas. Looks like farmers had been in the fields and maybe planted some corn. As we progressed into Des Moines, the state capitol construction scaffolding had been removed from the smaller domes. It was an uneventful trip. The longer I drive, the more I like that.

District Convention

The First District Democratic candidate for Congress was not present at Saturday’s district convention in North Liberty. Iowa political districts are designed around the congressional seat and I have an old-school expectation of hearing from the candidate in person, and getting a chance for a brief side-conversation. I have become a dinosaur. It was not to be.

Absent the candidate, I’m not sure what, besides necessary elections to the state and national conventions, we accomplished. The morning was consumed by a presentation from a third party grassroots group, and an explanation about why we would be using ranked choice voting for the elections. We would likely have saved time if we had skipped these presentations and gone directly to voting.

The third party person gave a presentation that divided campaign work into three buckets: Grassroots groups who would do much of the work around getting voters to the polls, county parties responsible for centralized communication, fund raising, and party organization, and candidate campaigns, which work mostly on their own to secure votes needed to be elected. This division is both useful and problematic.

Do people need something to do in a political campaign? Beyond making sure one is registered to vote and casting a ballot, one can get involved with campaign work, if interested. When Iowa lost first in the nation status after the computer application debacle in reporting results to national media in 2020, we also lost funding from the candidates who spent heavily in the early states to garner attention for their campaigns. Likewise, because Iowa Democrats are in a significant minority, expenditures from the president’s national campaign are not expected. There is work to be done, yet it isn’t clear how such work should be described and assigned to mostly volunteers.

Endemic to the current party structure is a misdiagnosis of key issues to a campaign. More than anything else, politics has gotten local. In Big Grove Precinct, the electorate is divided. During the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump won over Joe Biden 671 votes to 637. In 2016, Trump beat Hillary Clinton 575 votes to 529. Barack Obama won here in both 2008 and 2012. My precinct has a divided electorate and has recently been won by both Democrats and Republicans. While new people moving to our area lean Republican, the key issue is how does an organizer build a Democrat majority at the polls, recruiting votes regardless of party?

A speaker at the convention looked around the room and suggested the dominance of white-skinned, grey-haired delegates is the problem with the party. Whatever. Had rain not been forecast during the convention hours, I would rather have been working in our yard. The trouble, as I experienced recruiting a replacement for my position on the county central committee, is literally no one is willing to do the work to provide steady volunteer work for local Democrats. That’s a much different problem than skin tone and hair color among people willing to show up on a spring Saturday.

My problem at the end of this week was it was May 5 and so much work remained to get the garden planted. We may have had the last frost and I simply don’t realize it. I am determined not to be distracted during the upcoming week.

Categories
Living in Society

Middle East Protests

Photo by Hurrah suhail on Pexels.com

War has always been devastating yet the devastation of the Israel-Hamas war is unprecedented. What makes this war different is it is occurring in the ever-present media-influenced eyes of a populace unfamiliar with the long relationship between Israel and Palestine. People young and old are being activated by this public war: donating money to relief funds, protesting, and more. There are a lot of moving parts.

That said, I don’t know what else to say, other than there should be an immediate, permanent ceasefire; humanitarian aid should have unfettered access to the Palestinians; and both sides should release any hostages or unlawful detainees. At yesterday’s Democratic district convention, we passed a resolution saying those things.

Some friends with family ties in Palestine were present at the convention. One spoke during debate over the resolution. He pointed out the plight of children in the war zone. What heartless fool could not be affected by this?

I read about the use of artificial intelligence in generating military targets. Computers find targets, which may or may not be reviewed by a human before striking. What algorithms often find is the best place to target someone is in the evening when they are at home. Often the whole family is present when the bombs hit.

On-campus protests have drawn an undue amount of attention. The varying responses by school administrations and law enforcement has been both appalling and comforting. The temptation is to compare it with my own campus protests over the Vietnam War in 1970-1973. That is the wrong impulse. Things have changed on campus in more than 50 years.

Another temptation is to blame the U.S. administration for the war. President Joe Biden is an easy scapegoat. While exerting public pressure for him to change tactics is acceptable in a democracy, it is of itself, no solution. When it comes to the Mideast, there will unlikely be consensus in an approach to peace-making.

It feels hopeless some days. I contribute to relief funds as I can, write my congressional representatives, and pray for resolution. There is no assurance there will be a resolution in the Mideast, and that’s part of the problem.

Categories
Environment

Al Gore Receives Presidential Medal of Freedom

With Al Gore and Company in Chicago 2013.

On Friday, May 3, Al Gore was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden. Al Gore is deserving of this recognition.

Here is the announcement. Al Gore was one of 19 people to receive the medal yesterday:

Al Gore is a former Vice President, United States Senator, and member of the House of Representatives. After winning the popular vote, he accepted the outcome of a disputed presidential election for the sake of our unity. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize jointly with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change for his bold action on climate change.

My decision to associate with Gore through the Climate Reality Project was a game changer, introducing me to climate activists all over the planet. Joining Climate Reality upgraded my understanding of the climate crisis and everything around it.

What is next for the Climate Reality Project? I don’t know yet presume succession plans are already in place for Gore’s retirement.

Categories
Living in Society

Politics Beyond the Expected

Apple blossoms.

Absent live performances during the coronavirus pandemic, the comedy troupe The Capitol Steps, whose periodic radio shows were called “politics takes a holiday,” turned off the lights and folded. It turned out they could not survive without live performances, and as many believed, no one wanted to attend a live performance if one of the side effects was infection with the coronavirus. We learned politics never takes a holiday during a pandemic as Republicans dominated the elections in Iowa.

On Wednesday, I participated in a video conference with about 35 others with former Congressman Dave Loebsack asking First Congressional District Democratic candidate Christina Bohannan a series of softball questions. It was an okay hour, yet we’ve heard almost everything Bohannan said before. Democrats need new ideas, new approaches. Considering the alternative, I’ll support Bohannan with my time and financial resources.

Like with the now defunct Capitol Steps, live performance is everything in politics. A candidate cannot win elections without in person live events. What does that mean?

A county supervisor candidate sent an email this week, asking for help. Specifically, they asked for help doing things related to voters: door knocking, making phone calls, and placing yard signs. They also asked for a financial contribution. The primary election is four weeks away, so their needs are pressing. I’m supporting other candidates for supervisor, so the request fell on deaf ears.

Just before Bohannan’s event I received a text message from the Democratic National Committee asking me to participate in video conference training on how to be more active in the national campaign. If all politics is local, why would I work under direction from the national party? I wouldn’t.

Another contact that day was a telephone call from a local county party organizer. They have a short regimen of door knocking work to reach out to voters and see where they are. To me, door knocking is about one thing: identifying which voters will support a given candidate, then getting them to cast a ballot. I declined the opportunity to take a shift.

All of this is expected, and as you can see I rejected it out of hand. In the meanwhile, incumbent Republicans shape how the general election will proceed. Since they are in power, they have a strong platform to frame the debate. They are framing it. It will be difficult to avoid becoming enmeshed in their verbal construct.

I accepted an invitation to help our state house candidate organize for the election. About a dozen of us were invited. He has no primary competition so we can focus on the general election. He’s new to politics so we can begin with a fresh slate and build upon our core competencies. I’m looking forward to the possibilities of such a campaign.

Our state senate candidate is also new to politics. He is the chief financial officer of the Mount Pleasant school district, and hasn’t run a campaign before. As he organizes, there will be possibilities to get involved with what I hope is a unique and vibrant campaign full of new energy.

Saturday is the district convention, precursor to the state and national conventions. I’m a delegate and will use the time to explore possibilities for organizing with other attendees. Since there is only one statewide candidate this cycle, 2024 will be a cycle of local politics, focused on my state house representation. Hopefully those campaigns will roll out in an unexpected way.