Author: Paul Deaton

Categories
Writing

Independence Day 2022

Blog for Iowa publisher Alta Price (right) in a Quad Cities parade entry. Photo provenance unknown.

Happy Independence Day from Blog for Iowa.

Where I live Independence Day is often about the weather. Today, the weather was exceptional: scattered clouds set against the azure sky, moderate temperatures and low humidity. It was a great day to be outdoors, and that is where many of us spent much of the day, celebrating the anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

While tradition and family are part of holiday celebrations, the enactment of tribal culture, and each perceived instance of it are most significant. As we stood in the Ely parade lineup area, people walked past us in what seemed like an endless procession: to town, with folding chairs, in small groups, to watch the parade. It is this walking and the beliefs and artifacts around it that are at the core of shared values. It is less about the parade entries, even though they may be what people saw and talked about. It is more about the social behavior enacted by the larger group.

At the Ely Firemen’s Breakfast, compliance with cultural expectations was visible everywhere. The fire station was arranged for efficiency in handling the large number of people, there are public health considerations with food preparation. Extra activities, like the raffle, were organized to occur outside the fire station and after people had eaten breakfast. During breakfast, people gathered around the tables in family groups. There was not a lot of mingling. The expectation was that people would be friendly, but not intrusive. In this setting, it would be hard for an outsider to penetrate a specific social group without a means of introduction. Participation in the Firemen’s Breakfast becomes a cultural marker for such an introduction, which is unlikely to occur at the event and more likely to occur in other circles at other times. I enjoyed this event immensely and it looked like a lot of money would be raised for the fire station.

As a walker in several parades, I found joy in the interaction between participants and observers. Along the route, those closest to the parade were the youngest. Interaction with very young children, mostly through giving them a gift, made the day. I would present a sucker to the child, say “happy Fourth of July,” and wait for them to take it. Only one child did not take the candy, and most said thank you. At Fourth of July parades, the children are on display as much as the parade entries.

There were reactions to each entry in which I participated. The favorable reactions, cheering, clapping or thumbs up hand signs provided validity to the work we had been doing to get our message out. I am not sure we convinced anyone about any politician or cause we were supporting that day. Like all messaging, penetration can occur only with repetition. What I do believe is that in this aggregation of tribal groups, we were tolerated, and there were some supporters for our causes. These things make us Americans as we celebrate Independence Day.

~ This post is recycled from July 4, 2008, my first Independence Day blog post.

Categories
Living in Society

Summer Holiday

Police boot on a car violating street parking rules in Skokie, Illinois, June 25, 2022.

Thank you readers for sticking with me as I work through how to write in public in 2022. To write more meaningfully, I’m taking summer holiday to recharge my batteries and find inspiration for the next chapter of this blog.

I am working on some projects, which I will post here, notably, my upcoming interview with progressive talker Thom Hartmann scheduled this week. I’m also reviewing his upcoming book. I’m filling in a few days at Blog for Iowa this summer and anything I post there, I’ll cross post here. If I write any letters to the editors of newspapers, I’ll also cross post here. Mainly, I’ve gone on break, though.

As Robert Johnson wrote, “And I’m standing at the crossroads, believe I’m sinking down.”

I hope you will rejoin me in the fall.

Categories
Living in Society

Second Amendment Not Good Enough for Republicans

Iowa Capitol

Republican lawmakers twice passed an amendment to the Iowa Constitution which will appear on the Nov. 8 ballot. I urge readers to vote no.

According to House Majority Leader Matt Windschitl, “The Freedom Amendment is the proposal to enshrine in our state constitution protections for our Second Amendment rights.”

Most Americans appreciate the Bill of Rights. So do I. Here’s the Second Amendment:

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

What Republicans propose isn’t the same:

“The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed. The sovereign state of Iowa affirms and recognizes this right to be a fundamental individual right. Any and all restrictions of this right shall be subject to strict scrutiny.”

Whoa buddy! This isn’t the language written by the founders in 1789. It is lawyered up with terms like “sovereign state” and “strict scrutiny.”

Republicans are tampering with our Second Amendment rights. They would infringe on rights that stood since the founders wrote them and the states ratified the Bill of Rights. 

Readers should pay attention on Nov. 8 and vote no on this bogus constitutional amendment that reduces our rights, protecting nothing.

~ A version of this letter appeared at the Des Moines Register on June 23, 2022.

Categories
Writing

Mustard Greens Pesto

A young rabbit got into the greens patch. At first it ate the carrot tops. I sprinkled some dried hot peppers around them and it looks like they will recover. Now the cute little beast moved on to kale, collards and other cruciferous vegetables. I must do something about it. I grew enough to share but the rabbit doesn’t know any better and will take bites from multiple plants without finishing a particular leaf.

I must remove all the weeds that are providing cover, in the garlic patch and the greens patch. Then, I’ll replace the 2 x 4 welded wire protecting the greens patch with chicken wire. (Why do they call this mesh “chicken wire?”). There is enough season remaining to make the effort worth the time. In fact, kale I planted in February won’t finish until well after the first frost in October. I MUST do these things…

Winterbor kale is as good as kale gets and the rabbit appears to prefer the Blue Dazzling kale and collards. I picked the biggest leaves from our six Winterbor plants, washed, and froze them for winter. No, I don’t blanch them. Just because I grew something doesn’t mean I should preserve everything beyond the season. Winterbor is the best kale, though. I’ll freeze everything I don’t use fresh.

That brings me to mustard greens. I plant them because there are seeds left from previous seasons. There is not much use for them in our kitchen because it is so spicy. One of my recent traditions is to make pesto with them to spread on toast. This year’s batch included a generous amount of mustard greens, Pecorino Romano cheese, pine nuts, garlic scapes, salt and extra virgin olive oil. There are now two small jars ready for use. It is a tasty if somewhat expensive addition to the pantry.

Today, the auto auction company arrives to pick up our used Subaru. With the repairs needed they will likely sell it for parts. I donated it to Iowa Public Radio as I did our last one. I don’t understand how their financial settlement works, although I’m glad they have it. The dealer wouldn’t give us much in trade against the new purchase. We feel we are helping a good cause.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Summer Begins

Vidalia onions, garlic scapes and fresh basil.

White butterflies flit around cruciferous vegetable plants laying eggs. It is a sure sign summer is here. I spend more time in the garden and noticed increased insect life. In addition to the green worm-producing butterflies, there are plenty of pollinators. Insect life is a blessing and a curse, something with which gardeners learn to live. There should be a big harvest this year.

Using a scissors, I clipped the top parts of chervil plants and held the herb in my hands. The mild anise fragrance was intoxicating. It made about two cups of loosely packed leaves which are washed, dried, and in a tub in the refrigerator waiting for me to figure out how to use the herb.

I plan to make my first batch of pesto today of mustard greens, garlic scapes, pine nuts, extra virgin olive oil, and salt. Mustard is strongly flavored and will dominate the pesto. There is little benefit to adding herbs as they would be overpowered. Will see how it tastes when I get into the project. I have plenty of basil yet I may reserve that for a more traditional pesto.

Today is the first day of summer and we ended spring with spaghetti and peas for dinner. The sauce was made of last year’s tomatoes, vidalia onions, garlic scapes and fresh basil. Tomato sauce so good I had to stop and consider how lucky we are to have a garden. It was a fine way to welcome summer.

Categories
Living in Society

No Summer Vacation in Politics

Iowa Democratic Party Chair Ross Wilburn at the state convention, June 18, 2022.

My dance card is rapidly filling and there is no relenting until the end of the year. With the primary elections in the rear view mirror, it’s hammer down until the Nov. 8 election.

I attended what I hope is my last state Democratic convention in Des Moines on Saturday. I participated in the Senior and Retiree Constituency Caucus where we briefly heard from Admiral Mike Franken. The agenda for the caucus was unclear since officers had previously been elected and there was no new business. Some attendees complained about the types of benefits currently received from Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and other retirement programs. They wanted more benefits, which is understandable. What Democrats need to do in the midterm election is elect majorities in the U.S. Senate and House so we can at least retain what we have. If Republicans win majorities, they have stated publicly they intend to sunset Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid every five years unless the Congress extends them. While Biden will veto such legislation, I’m not sure voters understand this is at stake.

Parade season, a mainstay of political campaigns, is upon us. At the convention I overheard someone who lives in a rural area say, “People are hesitant to walk in parades because they don’t want to get yelled at for being a Democrat.” There has always been some support and hate from crowds at parades. Part of being a Democrat is standing up to both the good and bad by walking in community parades along with any member of the community that wants to join. While voter concerns about harassment in heavily Republican areas are understandable, it doesn’t have to be that way. Republicans could choose decency and respect for people with whom they don’t agree. We Democrats can’t give up before we get started.

The political speeches at the convention were fine. The messaging was consistent: set aside our differences and focus on winning in November. Much is at stake. Continued Republican rule could be disastrous for everything we have come to rely upon in our government. It has already been a disaster.

I’m having to decline invitations to political events because there are so many of them. I don’t know what we can win this cycle, yet we are about to find out. Tally ho!

Categories
Living in Society

Personal Transportation

2019 Chevrolet Spark LT

Our 2002 Subaru reached the end of its life. The frame is dangerously rusted and other repairs are needed. We can’t get parts for it. If we could find used parts there is no assurance of their quality. If repairing it was possible, what else might break that we couldn’t find parts to repair? We decided to replace the vehicle as quickly as is practicable.

The fact we need motorized personal transportation is a result of our 1993 decision to live in a rural area. Back then, living within commuting distance of Cedar Rapids, Iowa City, Coralville, North Liberty and the Quad-Cities sounded good. I wanted the flexibility for work. Over time, I worked in all of these places. When in February 1999 I took a job in the Quad-Cities, gasoline was $1.029 per gallon. We inherited a 1989 Cadillac in excellent condition and I continued to commute rather than relocate there. Things have changed since then. We retired and turned our lives inward.

Our need for transportation is real. We have the same existential errands as other septuagenarian retirees: getting groceries and other household items, medical appointments, and occasional trips to the county administration building to take care of business. With the coronavirus pandemic, our trips for socialization have diminished, yet that may change going forward. It all takes transportation.

We spent time researching what kind of vehicle we wanted to purchase and first decided on a new plug-in electric hybrid like the Toyota Prius Prime. A number of friends drive a Prius and they recommended it. The future of personal transportation is electric and we were ready to make the transition.

After family discussions I called the dealer to discuss ordering a plug-in electric and secured a loan to pay for it. It turns out dealerships are subject to allocations from the manufacturer, all Prius products are made in Japan, and the waiting time for a Prius Prime to be delivered is well over six months. In fact, the dealer said he couldn’t accurately predict how long we would have to wait after specifying and ordering a car. For other Prius models, the wait time is less, three to six months according to the dealership. We couldn’t wait that long with the issues affecting our auto.

Our go-to dealership for used cars is the Ford-Chevy dealer in a nearby small town. I arrived around 1:30 p.m. on Thursday and they had my contact information in their computer database from the last purchase. We discussed new vehicles and they have the same problem Toyota does: allocation of vehicles from the manufacturer is less than demand and there is a long waiting time. We looked at used vehicles.

Their website had 147 used vehicles in inventory, but the in-person inspection revealed only a couple of them were suitable for us. The sales representatives at this dealership are paid on salary vs. commission and made a conscious effort to be honest and straightforward about the cars without exerting any kind of sales pressure. I identified two options and went back home to discuss. We returned to the dealership later that evening to buy a 2019 Chevrolet Spark LT. Used cars are currently expensive and selling quickly. We didn’t want to miss the opportunity on this particular vehicle. It took longer than anticipated to finish the paperwork so we returned the following day to meet with the business office and finalize the deal. The vehicle was delivered to our home less than 24 hours after I first arrived at the dealership.

On Saturday we went on a day trip to Des Moines in the Spark and it meets our expectations. As a subcompact hatchback, the cargo space is less than we would have liked, yet it will serve until we are ready to go electric. It drives well and there are a number of electronic gizmos to figure out, including how to display Google maps on the touch screen using my Android mobile device. When I bought my first auto in the 1960s, accessories like that didn’t exist. The fuel economy is better than our 2002 Subaru. We were able to make it to Des Moines and back without refueling. Importantly, we can start planning trips again.

I don’t want to contemplate the day when I have to give up driving. I have octogenarian friends who continue to drive and hope to be able to go at least that long. I don’t relish the thought of moving into a city to be closer to amenities. We navigated this crisis in personal transportation and reached a point of stability for now. That may be all we can ask in June 2022.

Categories
Living in Society

Bits and Pieces of a Life

Newly installed bench on the state park trail, Spring 2022.

Mid-June, the garden is in full production and expected to remain so until September. With everything going on in society — politics, transportation, and malarkey from Republicans — it has been difficult to focus on writing. Maybe at some point I can walk to this bench and take a rest. Not now, though. There is too much else to do.

Categories
Living in Society

Dissolving Society

Rural Polling Place

If Iowa Republicans had their way, society as we know it would be dissolved, leaving scattered family units headed by white, male patriarchs. We would enter a life that was a combination of a Darwinian struggle for existence, non-denominational religion, and rugged individualism. Such families would have many children. Women would be allowed to continue to vote… for now. If one listens to Republican rants from the state capitol, some already believe their chosen tribal relationships are in place.

When Republicans declare war on trans people, or others who don’t lead what they consider to be a traditional life, they will fight until every one of them has been run out of the state or marginalized. The same applies to what’s taught in schools. It’s a crusade. The culture wars are more sinister if we don’t recognize their inherent neoliberalism.

Without saying what they were doing, Governor Kim Reynolds and the Republican crew embraced a conservative form of neoliberalism that includes private school vouchers, reducing taxes, gutting government spending, reducing licensing requirements, and tactics such as under funding the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to minimize the impact of regulations on business. Their unspoken goal is to enable the invisible hand of a global free market to work its magic. It’s as if they were students of Adam Smith at Milton Friedman’s Chicago school. There was even a Grover Norquist opinion in the June 7 edition of the Cedar Rapids Gazette.

Understanding the commonalities between Iowa Republicans and neoliberalism doesn’t make us feel better. It helps us understand what is at stake during the coming elections.

Thom Hartmann says the end of the neoliberalism era that began with the election of Ronald Reagan is at hand. What’s next? Voters gave Obama a chance to make changes. When he didn’t or couldn’t make needed changes in our politics, they gave Trump a try.

The surge in Trump support in the 2020 Iowa election is due largely to a lie he perpetrated that he was a populist candidate. His policies did little other than support the flow of money to the richest Americans while impoverishing the rest of us. He was hardly populist despite the fandom. Governor Kim Reynolds and Senator Chuck Grassley enjoy the support of the grifting ex-president. Reynolds posted she was honored to have it.

Where do we go from here?

People don’t like neoliberalism when they know how it impacts their lives. I would argue Iowa under Kim Reynolds is a textbook example of it. We must point out the neoliberalism inherent in current Republican rule every chance we get. We must do so for as long as it takes to get voters to recognize it. Before that, we ourselves must understand and be able to articulate the meaning of neoliberalism in 2022 Iowa.

It is not helpful that voter turnout in the 2022 Democratic primary election was lower in our county compared to 2018. We hear about doing things different and rural outreach, yet 82 percent of Iowa’s Democratic primary votes cast were in the 26 most populous counties. It is hard to see how any rural outreach would benefit Democrats given that scenario.

Iowa Democrats have no one who stands out as a populist candidate at present. While President Joe Biden is doing good work, the slim majorities Democrats hold in the House and Senate prevent him from doing more. Given the partisan divide of the legislature, Biden has actually accomplished a lot in his brief tenure. Biden’s age is apparent in his mannerisms and speech, yet his policies reflect a righteous attempt to reverse the ravages of neoliberalism. He believe society as we knew it is something that should endure, as should we all.

Where do we go from here? It is an open question.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

Greens Day

New cherry tomato support system.

When I left the house, I planned to weed the onion patch. I didn’t make it there. Instead, I harvested four tubs of greens, replanted under the row cover, and set up the new tomato support system for cherry tomatoes.

I grow indeterminate cherry tomatoes, which means the vines grow and grow until they get much higher than the four foot cages and begin to snake around the garden. I ran out of cages this year so I tried something different, a post and lattice method of supporting tomatoes. I like it because there is less hardware. It should make it easier to manage the vines. Time will tell if the new method is successful. If it works, I may use it for all the tomatoes and phase out the cages.

Spring greens, before insects arrive in large numbers, are the best. Saturday I started a batch of vegetable broth to which I added kohlrabi greens, collards, four kinds of kale, wilted spinach, Fordhook chard, and mustard. It produced a flavorful broth which I’ll water bath can in quart jars this morning. In addition, I made vegetable soup, using the best of the greens.

I harvested cilantro, dill, chives and basil. Each of these herbs has a specific use in the kitchen. One of my experiments was to grow chervil, which is classic French cooking as part of the fines herbes that includes tarragon, chives and parsley in addition to chervil. Next year I must grow tarragon. I’m developing applications for chervil and would appreciate comments about how readers use it.

I grow cilantro for a couple of main purposes, mostly to use fresh on tacos. If I have it, it will go into any Mexican-style dish. It’s the tacos.

I don’t know if the weeds are too far gone in the onion patch. When the sun rises, I plan to give it another go. Here’s hoping I don’t get distracted again.