Laying Low

It is a weird, in-between time in Big Grove Township. Since the beginning of the pandemic it’s been quiet. As people turn inward to family and friends for the end of year holidays it is quieter still.

Quiet is good. We need it to have a belief the world remains malleable. That it is possible to step into society anew. That reason will prevail. I need to have hope. Quiet helps yet it is not enough.

I hiked on the state park trail to the sound of weapons discharge. The season is ducks, geese and other waterfowl. I couldn’t tell the distance yet the shots sounded like they were coming from the reservoir or the Iowa River. I have not been a hunter, although I understand the interest in getting together with friends and doing things outdoors. Being in the military was the closest I had to what hunters experience. Live and let live, I say. That is, except for the geese and other wildlife.

I went to the orchard to get Gold Rush apples. The owner was there and we chatted about the new Iowa house district. We’re not sure how things will shake out, what with the eclipsing of reason by something akin to emotional ranting. In addition to being a long way from most towns in Iowa County, there are only 2,490 Democrats out of 10,783 registered voters there. If we are to win the district, the votes will have to come from Johnson County. I’m laying low on politics until I get the lay of the land in the new district. In addition to Gold Rush, I bought Honeycrisp and Golden Russet. The orchard had an overall great year, the best ever he said.

Jennifer Rubin wrote an article for the Washington Post titled, “It’s not ‘polarization.’ We suffer from Republican radicalization.” In it she writes,

While it’s true that the country is more deeply divided along partisan lines than it has been in the past, it is wrong to suggest a symmetrical devolution into irrational hatred. The polarization argument too often treats both sides as equally worthy of blame, characterizing the problem as a sort of free-floating affliction (e.g., “lack of trust”). This blurs the distinction between a Democratic Party that is marginally more progressive in policy positions than it was a decade ago, and a Republican Party that routinely lies, courts violence and seeks to define America as a White Christian nation.

Washington Post, Nov. 18, 2021, Jennifer Rubin.

I don’t know if this will blow over. I don’t think it will. Yet I’m going to lay low until we figure out an approach to resolving the problems. I believe reason will prevail, although reason is on the ropes at present and needs our help. There is no roadmap of which I’m aware. There was a bumper crop of apples, though.