My distance vision is improving, whereas my near vision is deteriorating, said my eye doctor during a recent examination.
I had broken three pair of glasses with the two most recent prescription lenses, and it was time to get a new pair. I don’t like it, but accept the inevitable progress of aging.
“Forget about those reading glasses they sell off the shelf,” he said. “Just take off your glasses and hold the book closer.”
So, I will.
This week will be spent close to home. Because of temporary changes in my warehouse schedule, I have six days off work in a row. It will be a time for catching up on household chores and setting an agenda for the rest of summer and beyond.
For the most part, this week’s writing will be on paper. I’ll begin cross posting content I write for Blog for Iowa Thursday.
Once I get my new glasses, I’m hoping for a totally new perspective, and from that, better writing.
CLINTON—Every parking spot at Gil’s Restaurant, Ballroom and Limousine Service was filled, so latecomers had to park on the grass next to the road leading to the Clinton County Democrats Hall of Fame Dinner on Friday.
A few Jim Webb ’16 signs marked the way. The one term Virginia senator, author and Vietnam combat veteran was keynote speaker. His staff had been in town for a couple of days helping Jean Pardee, county chair, and the local Democrats make final preparations. Pardee characterized turnout as “good,” and the room was filled.
Gil’s Ballroom
A satellite remote truck was parked near the building, indicating national interest in what would normally have been, except for the February 2016 Iowa caucuses, a nondescript annual political event. As I approached, I took off my name tag from the warehouse and put it in my pocket.
The Webb campaign had paid for my ticket after I introduced myself to Iowa organizer Joe Stanley via twitter. The campaign is not well known in Iowa outside political activists. That afternoon I ran into a former chair of the Johnson County Democrats, and he knew my alignment with Webb from previous conversations. He wasn’t hearing much about the campaign either.
During a brief chat with Craig Crawford, Webb 2016 communications director, near the bar, he summed up the situation, “We need people, lots of people.”
Webb surrounded himself with people he can trust for the campaign. Both Stanley and Crawford are long-time friends. In the audience were cousins from Cedar Rapids, and three former Marines, including at least one who was in his Vietnam combat unit.
Clinton County Democrats Hall of Fame Dinner
I don’t think Webb expected Iowa politics to be what it is. A day or so before the event, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn) was scheduled as a speaker. She spent half of her speech advocating for Hillary Clinton. Too, Pardee read a letter from Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) who was unable to attend. There was no O’Malley or Chafee presence at the event. Despite the friendly competition, Webb had a chance to get his message out both time-wise and by exposure in the run up to the event.
Second District Congressman Dave Loebsack spoke after Dr. Andy McGuire, Iowa Democratic Party chair. Some of us hear Loebsack speak so often the themes and tales are very familiar. What stood out about Loebsack’s speech was his underscoring how the next president would impact the judiciary. He or she may have an opportunity to appoint as many as four U.S. Supreme Court judges. That matters to Democrats according to Loebsack.
Six members of the local party were inducted into the Hall of Fame. Distinct from my home county, they were honored for their grassroots work to elect Democrats, and their acceptance speeches were very brief with some saying less than a dozen words. Perhaps Merlin Schmidt said the most, recounting how the first president he voted for was Harry Truman. Schmidt was glad Truman dropped the atomic bomb on Japan. He claimed his life could have been saved by this action, even though historians have debunked the idea that dropping the bomb saved lives.
The Cedar County Democrats made me an honorary member for the night and I sat with chair Larry Hodgden, treasurer Laura Twing, and U.S. Senate candidate Tom Fiegen. Our most animated conversation was about guns after I mentioned that Colt Manufacturing had filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. Colt made the .45 caliber revolver I carried in the military and the M-16 on which I was an expert marksman. Their AR-15 is very popular with local militia types and loss of their military contract led to Colt’s demise. While “Second Amendment Rights” doesn’t carry the same cache among Democrats, most knew people with gun collections, including assault rifles, and it is an accepted part of Iowa life.
I left without getting “a moment” with the candidate. I had to be at work in the morning and it was more than an hour drive along the Lincoln Highway. If Webb decides he is running for president, there will be plenty of chances for that.
The towns along Highway 30 have become a part of my life. Grand Mound, Wheatland, Calamus, Lowden, Clarence, Stanwood and Mechanicsville are familiar markers on the path home. I stopped in Clarence to use a rest room and grab a beverage to quench my thirst. Unlike some, my thirst for politics can be quenched by attending an occasional political event.
Despite the odds against him, I would like to see Jim Webb run. He is supposed to decide during the next few days.
Another sign summer has arrived is the release of opinions by the United States Supreme Court as they end the current session. Yesterday they ruled on King v. Burwell, and on Texas Dept. of Housing and Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., two significant cases on the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, and on housing discrimination respectively. Earlier in the week SCOTUS issued rulings in City of Los Angeles v. Patel, and Kimble v. Marvel Entertainment LLC.
The supremes are just getting started and my view is to hunker down in the bunker until all of the opinions are out there.
Most of my friends are interested in the imminent ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges, which has the potential to clear the way for marriage equality in all 50 states.
Glossip v. Gross will opine as to whether lethal injection of midazolam causes cruel and unusual punishment banned by the Constitution; Arizona State Legislature v. Arizona Independent Redistricting Commission in which Republicans want redistricting (a.k.a. gerrymandering) done by the legislature rather than by an independent commission; Utility Air Regulatory Group v. EPA et. al. in which coal companies and power plants challenge new EPA rules regarding mercury, nickel and arsenic; and Johnson v. U.S., in which white supremacist Samuel Johnson complains about his sentence being increased from 10 to 15 years in compliance with U.S. law. There are others.
Once all of these rulings have been released, there is a lot to consider.
Here’s the brief point of this post. The members of the Supreme Court will change over the next ten years. By birth year, the four oldest justices are Ginsburg (1933), Scalia (1936), Kennedy (1936) and Breyer (1938), and as many as all of them might retire or die during the next president’s term in office. Whoever is elected president will have a chance to remake the supreme court in a way that will have lasting implications.
That’s why the 2016 presidential election matters, and is reason to engage not only in first in the nation Iowa, but all over. This decision is a lot more important than what beverage to take to the beach or which sandals to buy as summer begins.
This year’s garden work reached its summer pivot point neatly on the solstice. Main crops of tomatoes, peppers, beans, kale, carrots and cucumbers have been planted. There are some kitchen herbs, garlic, celery and a bumper crop of apples and pears. More planting will be done soon, as a couple of plots have space for a second crop. Of course July 25 is by tradition planting day for second crop turnips.
Good news is my car was parked inside the garage last night after being outside for two months. It is a sign summer is really here. I am halfway through my ritual read of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, arguably the best novel of summer. Before I get too deep in iced tea, new summer projects, and leisure, let me record some tomato experiences.
I planted tomato seeds the third week in March and it was too early for the garden. It would be better to time them as I expect to plant them, with one batch ready to go into the ground mid-May, and a second mid-June.
I also planted too many tomatoes indoors. I could reduce the quantity by two thirds. After consulting with a local farmer, I restricted myself to one plant per cage. Too, I double cropped with the early peas, so the seedlings got very big in too small a container before planting the last ones yesterday. For future reference, if I plant 1.5 times the number of seeds I expect to plant as seedlings, that should be more than enough for the season.
The Brandywine tomatoes have a distinctive leaf shape and texture, so I am looking forward to seeing how those turn out. Now comes the growing and I am off to the warehouse for a shift.
There’s a reason we don’t use fertilizer, weed killer and other chemicals on our lawn and garden. This picture of the ditch in front of our house tells the story. Whatever runoff we may generate will go directly into the lake.
Over the years, I’ve applied strategies to keep the rainwater on-site to keep things green and prevent soil runoff. It took a while, and the effort produced results. Ours isn’t the most beautiful yard, but the ditches on either side of the house don’t fill with runoff very often, and haven’t for years. Because of my approach, the garden requires minimal watering, and the lawn is left to live or die on its own.
It’s raining now with a 75 percent chance of rain in a couple of hours. It’s going to be a day of waiting. Waiting to work my to-do list, which was mostly planned for outside. Waiting for my interview subjects to get back to me for a story. Waiting to get to work inside.
Extra Garden Seedlings
One thing to do is get the garage ready to return my car inside. When the gardening season begins, I use the space to work on seedlings. The only thing remaining to plant inside is another round of broccoli. All of the tomato, pepper and cucumber seedlings will be composted now that those transplanted into the plots have taken.
I’ll also spend a few hours in the kitchen—organizing, cooking and making sure perishables are moving along the right path. Did I mention we have a lot of kale?
Blog for Iowa Story Budget
Then there is ramping up for my stint as editor of Blog for Iowa beginning July 1 through Sept. 7. The 49 days of coverage amounts to at least 25,000 words and planning makes the work easier. The first three story lines are identified, and I could begin outlining their content. Or maybe I’ll wait, depending on how the day goes.
In any case, this is a rare day off all the jobs I hold, so I plan to make the most of it. No plans to leave the property today. I’ll be keeping my activity close to home—and liking it.
The story we would like to be able to tell is of a world that “works for 100 percent of humanity.”
We’re not there. In fact, L. Hunter Lovins points out, “Humanity stands at the edge of a crumbling cliff.”
Whether one believes in climate change or not, it is time to walk back from the precipice and focus on what will sustain us. The doctrine of austerity, as reflected in today’s Iowa legislature, in Washington, and around the world is bankrupt. Lovins points out such policies were not an accident.
“Abraham Lincoln once said that the best way to predict your future is to invent it,” she wrote. “Indeed, 36 men created the economic mental model that has delivered the mess we’re in. Meeting in 1947 at the Mont Pelerin hotel outside Montreux, Switzerland they built the intellectual architecture of an economy of small government and individual decision-making in an unfettered free market.”
Sometimes we just want a livable world: clean air, a safe place, a sustained life. Thing is, walking back from the cliff we’ve made for ourselves will take economic engagement and Hunter Lovins tells a new story of what is possible. Here’s the article she posted Saturday on Unreasonable.
Economy at the Edge by L. Hunter Lovins
Humanity stands at the edge of a crumbling cliff. Half of the world’s wealth is owned by one percent of the population—the 80 richest individuals having as much wealth as the poorest 3.5 billion people.
At the same time, we are losing the biological integrity of the planet. Global Biodiversity Outlook Three states that we are losing life at a rate never before seen in history, and that the earth’s ecosystems are tipping into collapse. Three of them, are at particular risk: Business as usual, there may be no living coral reefs on planet earth, perhaps as early as 2035. The Amazon, the earth’s lungs, is drying up and burning. And the oceans are acidifying. This puts the whole of the oceanic food-chain at risk.
Scientists at the Stockholm Resilience Centre demonstrate that humanity has moved beyond the planetary boundaries in at least four of the nine critical categories: Loss of biodiversity, disruption of the nitrogen cycle, climate change, and forest loss. Despite this overuse of the world’s resources, we are still failing to supply all people with the basic necessities for life and human dignity. Dr. Kate Raworth of Oxford describes the doughnut: the safe and desirable operating space below the boundaries of the planet’s carrying capacity but above a minimum standard that fairly allocates resources to meet basic human needs for food, water, energy, equity and health care.
The great cultural historian Thomas Berry observed, “We are in trouble just now because we do not have a good story. We are in between stories. The Old Story–the account of how the world came to be and how we fit into it… sustained us for a long period of time. It shaped our emotional attitudes, provided us with a life purpose, energized action, It consecrated suffering, integrated knowledge, guided education… We need a [new] story that will educate man, heal him, guide him.”
The new story must, in the words of Buckminster Fuller, be about, “a world that works for 100 percent of humanity.”
Folks who live near me need not worry about kale this year. Already, our icebox is full of leaves, and as they are picked, such picking spurs growth. It is expected to be a long, abundant kale season with a massive giveaway.
There’s a lot of work in the hopper this morning, but I couldn’t resist posting this photo of the morning kale harvest.
Buying and selling things is the heart of economic systems. Most people I know would rather be on the production side of the equation, yet someone has to do the selling, and there is a living to be made as a salesperson.
When we lived in Indiana, one of my employees’ spouse worked in sales for a precious metals company. His job was to convince large companies to sell them spent catalysts containing platinum. In a year he had to make only a couple of sales to support his lifestyle of constant engagement with purchasing managers and key executives of Fortune 500 companies. He played a lot of golf with customers.
In another corner of the economy, there are those who work retail sales in low wage jobs. Many retailers pay more than minimum wage—they have to to attract workers. Instead of wages, they offer positions such as “team leader,” “shift supervisor,” “crew chief,” and the like. None of them pay a living wage, far from it. It is all hourly work designed to stock shelves, staff cash registers and generate sales from a corporate-designed supply chain that pays the lowest wages the market can bear. Retail workers don’t play a lot of golf.
Retail workers have more than their share of problems. Health, access to health care, relationships, transportation, housing, security, disability, abuse—you name it, problems come in almost every area of life. Financial problems are rife, and the reason many take a job in retail, but low wage workers don’t always make good decisions about jobs. The financial equation is stacked against them before they even leave the house.
This is where I part ways with people who promote increasing the minimum wage as a solution to working poor.
Discussion among low wage workers is seldom about wages, but how to sustain a life. While “extra” money would be nice, and well spent, nice doesn’t make it very far in the tough lives of retail workers. Those who advocate for an increase in the minimum wage do so from a position of privilege most retail workers don’t share. Increasing wages doesn’t get to an essential problem.
With the drive to employ part time workers with less than 30 hours per week and no benefits, a retail worker’s earnings potential caps out around $15,000 per year. In today’s environment, that’s barely enough to buy health insurance, let alone pay bills. Add a 25-mile commute, an older car with high maintenance expense, expensive banking services, physically demanding work, and other complications of working poor, and retail workers enter a trap from which there is no escape. As others have written, it is expensive to be poor.
There will always be a need for workers at the low-wage end of the scale. A system that recognizes all kinds of work and rewards it with the ability to sustainably live an honorable life is lacking. Money can’t solve that problem, even if it makes some feel better about themselves.
Social justice will take more than giving alms to the working poor, including the denizens of retail.
I planted tomatoes where the peas grew, tilled the soil where the rabbits had dined on my broccoli to put in hot peppers, and spent time mulching, weeding and watering. I made a dent in the work.
Without the bartering agreement at the CSA this year, the garden must produce and so far, it has.
What’s currently growing best is green beans, kale, carrots, garlic, herbs, tomatoes, herbs and daikon radishes. A lot of crops have a way to go before producing.
Morning Harvest
The relationship between food, retailers, diet, health, wellness, exercise and tradition is complicated. Almost too complicated. Understanding it is embedded in our culture and often we trade off one value for another. There are no absolutes.
Kale
A vivid narrative about food’s role in society was written by William Kamkwambe in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind. He described the relationship of his family to food in Malawi, recounting the seasonality of the maize harvest, the relationship between the weather and land, and the role governmental organizations play in the food economy. The picture Kamkwambe paints is simplistic, and that’s why it is so vivid. It is the definition of subsistence living.
In the West we have a different approach. Everywhere around us there is an abundance of food. Grocery stores are filled with tens of thousands of items. A host of local farmers crowd each local market making diverse, seasonal produce available for reasonable prices. While there are people who are food insecure—who don’t know where their next meal is coming from—the food is available in the retail supply chain. The problem is often inadequate funds to buy it.
Marketmore Cucumbers
Adding value to raw materials is what business and industry does and this applies to food. Taking scraggly-looking produce from the garden, an experienced cook can make something from it to feed both the body and soul. If retailers derive a margin from processing raw ingredients into meals and other food items, there is still an inexpensive opportunity for people to cook themselves, even if busy schedules are an excuse to buy prepackaged, precooked meals or dine out.
In the six years since leaving my transportation career, food has been about developing a sustainable culture. It involved producing and preparing local food, but also commerce. It’s about getting along in society–and garden work days.
On April 21, 1996 our family gathered in the kitchen around a brand new Acer computer and logged in to the Internet for the first time. We didn’t understand what that meant, then or now.
It was important to our daughter’s education to have home access to information via the World Wide Web. Important enough to spend about three week’s take-home pay on a computer, and pay $25 per month for dial-up service. I had used email at the oil company in 1990, and understood the web’s ability to connect people in far away places. I wanted our daughter to have that.
I had no idea how much Internet access would change our lives, and 20 years later still don’t.
There are obvious effects: communicating with people from past lives; reducing television viewing to almost zero; providing the ability to work from home; and importantly, creating a venue for self expression and creative work.
On most days, I don’t like a lot of what I see and hear when logging in. However, I now rely on the Internet in ways I didn’t before. Particularly important is the ability to connect with different groups of people on multiple platforms like Facebook and Twitter, but also WordPress, Blogger, Feedly, Flipboard, YouTube, Skype and mail groups. I got started on email, and it has been the bread and butter of my Internet presence.
Here are some ways logging in changed my life.
Access to certain kinds of news and information is more immediate. By following corporate media, governmental bodies and key public figures, access to their formal news is available as soon as we log in. There is an inherent bias, but I can’t imagine waiting until radio, television or newspapers report the news any more now that it is on line.
I’ve become more open to sharing things about myself. Albeit I don’t tell secrets and personal stuff, I haven’t minded posting my ideas in a multitude of places on the Internet. By doing so, my personality has changed for the better, at least I think so.
Working with people on a project is easier. While longing for in-person relationships, the Internet has enabled keeping many conversation threads going at the same time. My life has been richer for that, and more productive.
It became possible to earn income using the Internet. Consulting and writing have both been facilitated. I’ve also made a bit of money by selling on eBay.
Family relationships took on a new dimension. While the touch and presence of family members can’t be replaced, the Internet bridges the distance when we are apart. Simple things like sharing calendars and social media have helped me get by when visiting in person is not possible.
Shopping changed forever. Amazon.com changed how I shop for books in a way that still has a wake. The selection grew exponentially and the price doesn’t seem too high. The same holds true with retailers like J.C. Penney where I buy the same types of socks, shirts and slacks over and over. No need to be subject to local store manager peccadilloes.
No idle time, less isolation. Access to the Internet can engage us in positive ways, especially if we keep a constructive attitude. As long as there is an Internet connection, there is little reason to feel isolated, even if one lives in the rural part of the state as we do.
Access to Weather Information. This almost goes without saying, but access to current weather conditions has made life better. The quality of hourly forecasts has improved, and one can plan the day around them.
Journey Home 
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