Category: Living in Society

Politics mostly social commentary.

Categories
Work Life Writing

Meeting at the Cemetery

Rural Cemetery
Rural Cemetery

BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP— There was trouble last night at the cemetery, the first such trouble since I was elected township trustee.

It had to do with who could be buried in whose plot, and the trustee who coordinates plot sales and burials wanted to discuss the issue. The funeral is Friday, so no time for dalliance. We are meeting at 8:30 a.m.

Two years into my term, being a township trustee has provided a steady stream of learning about our community. There has been time to consider things, and almost no controversy—just repeated expression of wills about what should get done and how. Any conflicts that surfaced were quickly resolved.

I’m confident we will figure this one out.

Yesterday it was shown that Mary Landrieu did have 59 votes to proceed on Keystone XL, and that’s all she had. The bill overriding the executive process on evaluation and approval of the project now goes into the dustbin of the 113th Congress. It likely will be back next congress.

I spent part of the last two days transcribing testimony to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, carbon dioxide particularly.

“I began my career as a summer intern at EPA 42 years ago under what has euphemistically become known as Russell House One,” Dianne Dillon Ridgely said. “I was a 19-year old kid. And what is most dramatic is much of what we addressed that summer—in terms of air pollution, in terms of the public’s engagement on power production—are exactly the same things, particularly in terms of coal, that we are still addressing and fighting 42 years later, and to me that is really a sad commentary.”

Ridgley is a 42-year veteran of governmental action (or inaction) on clean air and clean water, having been appointed by Presidents Clinton, Bush 41 and Bush 43 to international delegations to address environmental issues. We’re still addressing them. There is hope the EPA’s actions won’t be blocked by the 114th Congress, something the presumed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell indicated is high on his to-do list. Time will tell, but I believe we are on the right side of history regardless of what the Congress does.

My last workday at the local paper was Sunday. It will feel a little weird to be able to focus on my writing on the weekends instead of proof reading the paper. The bucket of part time paid jobs is down to three, and one of those is finished the second week in December. When the number surged to eight last summer, it was too much to juggle. Having found a bottom, the goal for next year is to keep what remains, and use it as a base. In addition, I will seek paid writing jobs and temporary positions and opportunities that can add a few C-notes to the treasury each month. What remains is that I work to support my ability to write.

Hope against hope, I want to get out in the yard and mulch the leaves, and shorten the grass. For that to happen, the snow needs to melt, the yard dry out, and half a day of warmer temperatures roll in. In these days of crazy weather, that is possible, however improbable. That’s where this Wednesday finds me.

Categories
Work Life

Friday in Big Grove

Garden in Late Autumn
Garden in Late Autumn

This week mine has been the life of a writer.

Every possible moment was spent producing copy. It is what I hoped for for so many years. A side-effect was the displacement of blog writing as I scurried to make deadlines and accommodate demands for my time. It’s good work if you can get it, and life-changing.

Whether paid work will persist is uncertain, but I felt confident enough to part ways with our local newspaper where I proofread stories and wrote articles about the school board, city council, and a couple of other topics. 39,100 words were filed in 44 stories since January with compensation of $2,125, or less than the amount of our property tax for the period. I’ll finish my last work there this weekend.

What’s next is freelancing for the Iowa City Press Citizen and a slate of business development activities to identify additional paid writing opportunities. I’d get that organized if it weren’t so busy writing.

There is the slate of work that is not writing also begging for my time. For now, that work pays the bills and flows into the well of experience from which I draw for writing. For now, it is enough.

What it has meant is less time to write here. I hope to return to regular blog writing soon. It is uncertain when that will be.

Categories
Living in Society

Big Grove News – Midterms Close to Home

After the Midterms
After the Midterms

BIG GROVE TOWNSHIP— Completing this year’s election ballot took more time than usual, partly because I was torn in a couple of the races when I arrived at the auditor’s office to cast my vote.

I began by flipping it over to write in DeWayne Klouda as township trustee.

Klouda had been discussing his re-election for a couple of board meetings, so I called him after the sample ballot was released without his name. His paperwork had not arrived in the auditor’s office by the filing deadline.

Running a write-in campaign where there is no candidate is straightforward. I wrote and issued a press release saying he was running, and once that was in the paper, and through word of mouth, we got enough people to write him in to be elected. Sigh of relief, because he possesses the institutional knowledge of our board. Our clerk was on the ballot uncontested, so he won re-election as well.

The last item I voted was the state house race between incumbent Republican Bobby Kaufmann and Democrat David Johnson.

Early this cycle, the Cedar County Democrats chair called and asked me to stay out of the race. He wanted the effort to be directed from Cedar County. Since our effort failed in 2012, I had had my chance, and felt obligated to step aside, and did. When there was a competitive Democratic primary, I answered questions for both candidates, and interviewed them for the Solon Economist, but campaigned for neither one over the other. Our 2012 campaign had defeated Johnson in the primary, and if he wanted to run again, I wasn’t going to stand in the way this time.

After the election, Iowa City blogger John Deeth commented about the race on his Facebook page, and I responded:

The most positive aspect of this state-house election was that it defined the Democratic base as 32 percent (for the entire district), which, not surprisingly, equals the active Democratic registrations at 31.9 percent. I know there were defections back and forth among party-registered voters, but the base turnout number will help future candidates know that their campaign should focus almost exclusively on building a coalition to get to 50 percent plus one using no preference voters, new voters and Republicans. IMHO, this is the new normal.

What I’m saying is that every candidate has a plan to win, and in that plan, the Democratic base is a solid number. We now know what that is in HD73. Winning elections is about bringing voters into a coalition, and the Democratic base is not enough to win. In my precinct, there were 136 straight ticket D voters among 957 votes cast. Take them and the 174 straight ticket Rs out and you have 647 or 68 percent of the electorate to work with.

Kaufmann won our precinct 611-323 (65.4%-34.6%). For perspective, in 2012, a presidential election year and the first election for the newly minted House District 73, Democrat Dick Schwab won the precinct 559-525 (51.6%-48.4%). What happened? It’s not about party registrations.

After winning in 2012, Kaufmann built a reputation as an energetic and responsive state representative who worked with constituents regardless of party. During the campaign, he door knocked our house at least three times and was constantly in the local newspaper doing something to serve constituent interests. Some argue that yard signs don’t win elections, but the fact that Kaufmann’s name was plastered everywhere built name recognition, and like any advertising, it takes a number of impressions to make a sale. He had that.

It turned out that Kaufmann’s more controversial votes in the legislature did not matter as much to most constituents, as his high level of energy and willingness to talk about any issue and produce results.

For Johnson’s part, I wasn’t privy to what his campaign was doing, but I received a couple of mailers asking for donations, along with one from an outside group criticizing Kaufmann. My only human contact with Johnson, after I wrote the articles for the primary, was at public events, mostly outside the district. He wasn’t an active presence in the precinct. I did not see him one time in our precinct, although to be fair the precinct is geographically large, and I might have missed him.

In October I receive a call from the Cedar County Democrats chair who asked about Johnson’s prospects. I responded he would carry the base, which is what he did. The trouble was he didn’t build on the base.

By winning back-to-back elections, Kaufmann made it more difficult for Democrats to beat him during the three elections remaining before the 2020 U.S. Census and re-districting.

Categories
Work Life

Back Home

Carpentry Crew
Polish-speaking Carpentry Crew in Schiller Park

After three days and two nights in Chicago it is good to be home.

The tail end of a cold persists, but I feel much better after spending a couple of days with peers from around the Midwest making sales presentations. We’re selling blenders on the Black Friday weekend—something else writers do to pay the bills.

I watched this Polish-speaking carpentry crew in Schiller Park get started on a project while waiting for our first conference session to begin. I was impressed by the uniform white T-shirts without logos, and the speed with which the partition wall went up. Wonder if they were hiring?

The exigencies of self-employment are always tapping at us, urging for our attention. Today there is a lot of work in the pipeline, and with a bit of organizing, I’ll be at it—bottom to the chair and typing away as quickly as the stories permit.

Categories
Living in Society

Big Grove News – Overnight Midterms

Corn Field
Corn Field

SCHILLER PARK, Ill.— The preliminary election returns for Big Grove Precinct arrived at 10:47 p.m. yesterday from the county auditor’s office. It will be a couple of days before the township trustee write-in votes will be tallied. Once those results are in, I’ll include a more complete analysis of the results and their meaning. For now, suffice it to say that the precinct voters behaved predictably.

Ours is a precinct made up of voters minted in reaction to the firestorm that has been our national media discourse since 2000. They vote on the perceived merits and qualifications of candidates rather than by party alliance. This is highlighted by the straight-party ticket voters: 136 Democratic, 174 Republican and 6 New Independent Party IA (whoever they are) out of 957 voters.

This cycle, they elected Joni Ernst to the U.S. Senate to replace retiring Senator Tom Harkin, 54 to 43 percent (This and all percentages in this post are in Big Grove Precinct only). Finally, Iowa is to send a woman to Washington.

Incumbent Democrat Dave Loebsack was returned to the U.S. Congress 51 to 49 percent. One hopes Dr. Mariannette Miller-Meeks has now gotten the message after her third attempt—we don’t want her.

We followed the rest of the state on statewide office elections, although more analysis about those races will be forthcoming once I have studied the differences. Terry Branstad gets a chance to serve as governor for the longest time of any American governor, including the ones who bridge the Revolutionary War with their service.

Our state senator, Bob Dvorsky, was uncontested, and is well liked, and he easily won reelection with 97 percent of the vote.

Incumbent state representative Bobby Kaufmann beat challenger David Johnson 65 to 35 percent. More analysis of this race will be forthcoming, but Kaufmann ran the superior ground game, by dominating media and sign advertising, and with his physical presence in the precinct.

Incumbent supervisor John Etheredge was the top vote-getter among the three board of supervisor candidates with 58 percent of the vote. Mike Carberry was next with 46 percent, and incumbent Janelle Rettig trailed with 39 percent. Based on county-wide voting, Rettig and Carberry will be sworn in as supervisors. This race is of particular interest to a discussion of the post 2000 voters, so watch for more on this.

Other uncontested county-wide races had Janet Lyness, Kim Painter and Tom Kriz garnering 99 percent of the vote. We retained judges, voted for people who were on the ballot for minor elected roles, although less than enthusiastically.

As the dateline indicates, I am away from home. More when I return later today.

Categories
Home Life Living in Society

Worry, No Worries

Rural Polling Place
Rural Polling Place

Half of our household budget is paid from wages earned by working in the warehouse. It’s a constant worry and last night highlighted a couple of things.

Up all night coughing due to a cold, or something, I called off today. My worries were about 1). being sick, 2). leaving my superior in the lurch by my absence, and 3). losing the $50 or so, I would have earned today. Each took its mental toll as I rolled and coughed and finally called off around 4 a.m. so the voice mail would be waiting when she arrived to open the office.

It was a reasonable decision, as the condition might worsen had I gone in and worked on my feet, giving people breaks. Coughing and hacking over food samples can never be good, so in the end everyone was served. I suppose the worry serves a purpose too.

After my call, the display on my mobile phone showed the outside temperature was 22 degrees—the first hard frost. A friend wrote:

“I was close to tearful about all my reddish orange raspberries that would have been perfect for harvest in just say three more days. Last year they were completely done a few days before any freeze. Sigh. It was a banner year for raspberries and I’ve loved them all! But I guess harvesting berries past Oct. 31 is really asking for climate change!”

So the season spins, its markers passing rapidly, but recognizably as we tread on in life’s journey. At 1:30 p.m., I had stopped coughing enough to feel ready to sit in my writer’s seat and get to work—tissue box at the ready. I turned from worry to no worries.

Some people worry about a Hillary Clinton presidency, but not me. Few people have the breadth of experience she does, and fewer still focus on the advancement of human rights the way she does. This week she was at the Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City with Rep. Bruce Braley to have a pie shake—and be seen there. Specifically, a chocolate-bourbon-pecan-flavored pie shake, according to media. It was a sign of something.

I finished her recent memoir, “Hard Choices,” in between coughing spells this morning.

“Now, more than ever, the future is very much on my mind,” she wrote in the epilogue. “Over the past year, as I’ve traveled around our country once again, the one question I’m asked more than any other is: Will I run for President in 2016? The answer is I haven’t decided yet.”

Far be it from me to opine on the matter of whether she should run for office again. But if she does, positives outweigh negatives, by a distance. In sooth, she has no competition among the parade of potential 2016 aspirants testing the political waters in Iowa this election cycle. That is, if experience matters.

If experience doesn’t matter, as a nation we have lost our way.

In my self-imposed quarantine, I’m hoping a couple of things. 1). that I recover my heath well enough to work at the warehouse tomorrow, as we need the income, 2). that Iowans reject Joni Ernst on Tuesday, and send Bruce Braley to the U.S. Senate, and 3). that Hillary Clinton gives fair consideration to throwing her hat in the ring for 2016.

Hopefully that pie-shake reminded her that Iowans are not so bad.

Categories
Home Life

Everyman for Five Days

Fall Colors
Fall Colors

LAKE MACBRIDE—Five consecutive days without home broadband has been challenging. My work relies on being connected.

While taking stock of this dependency, which borders on addiction, unnecessary concerns drop easily from view. Instead there is time to contemplate the 4 a.m. southern cloud formation, bright against a sky sprinkled full of stars.

It has been a chance to catch up with where I’m bound.

With nervous apprehension, I await the cable guy, who’s coming between 8 a.m. and noon.

I have become Everyman.

A killer frost has been delayed. The tomatoes, peppers and kale continue to grow, albeit more slowly. Today’s harvest included some of each.

The Bangkok peppers have been good for dehydrating and making red pepper flakes. More than a year’s worth is inside to be processed.

The deciduous trees have dropped most of the leaves they will this fall, so it is time to mow and mulch them: one last cleanup of our wild-grown yard.

There will be much more to write, but for now, waiting on the cable guy, these few words will have to do.

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Juke Box

Into the Bubble

LAKE MACBRIDE — With more to do than hours exist in a day, I am taking a hiatus from daily writing here. Not sure how long I’ll be gone, but I expect to resume once things settle down.

In the meanwhile, click on the tag cloud to read your favorite subjects from the archives. And here’s a favorite recording for this and every season.

Categories
Home Life Living in Society

Falling Leaves

LAKE MACBRIDE— The thought of mowing is pushed back until the deciduous trees shed their leaves. Pools of yellow, red, brown and variegated leaves rest silently around tree trunks all around the neighborhood as geese fly overhead. The next step toward winter and its bitter cold.

Yesterday’s options were many—events with politicians Dave Loebsack, Monica Vernon, Rand Paul and Joni Ernst—but I remained working at home. The morning after, I felt better for the decision.

In the last two weeks of the political campaigns, Ernst submitted a Freedom of Information request to a couple of Democratic county auditors requesting detailed information about election procedures. Who knows what motivated the request, but it’s a close election, and if it goes to the wire, expect legal action—not unlike what happened in Minnesota when Al Franken was first elected.

I met my editor at the Press Citizen for coffee in Iowa City. The freelance work for the newspaper was an unexpected bonus as the year moves toward the holidays and its hope of spring renewal. They are short three of six reporters and need help covering stories. Once they get staffing filled, the number of articles I write will decrease. As farmers say, it is time to make hay while the sun shines and I expect to ask for two to three articles per week.

Apple processing began in earnest with filling the dehydrator with slices. The leaves have begun to turn on the Red Delicious apple tree, so it’s time to pick the high apples. Will get the ladder out later this morning. An apple crisp is in the works, as well as fresh juice.

The end of year crunch is here. Fortunately I have learned to come up for air from time to time in the rush of events. Something needed to sustain a life on the Iowa prairie.

Categories
Work Life

Drinking Country Politics

Legislative Forum in Coralville
Legislative Forum in Coralville

CORALVILLE— The League of Women Voters forum last night was a bust for the candidates in my house district. The league puts on a good show at the table, but only a limited number of constituents were present, and the television feed went to only one of six county precincts in the district. Major outlets published limited accounts of the action, but mostly the evening passed and little news came out of the forum. It’s been that kind of year in the most local of local politics.

The forum enabled me to get away from writing and household chores for a while to socialize. I’ve never been part of the drinking culture that plagued more famous writers, and might have come into play if there hadn’t been the forum. I have been hearing a lot about drinking on the radio while driving across the lakes to work.

“I belong to the drinking class,” sings Lee Brice in his country hit “Drinking Class,” released in August. Country music today is full of stories about using alcoholic drinks to celebrate or escape unpleasantness in life. I hear enough of them during my 20 minute commutes to the warehouse to see the pattern.

“Monday through Fridays we bust our back,” the song goes. I don’t know who, except a small minority of people, works that kind of job, so the song seems more aspirational of lifestyle— a form of hope to define culture around externals that seem ersatz and manufactured.

“What I’m really needing now is a double shot of crown,” sings the protagonist in the Lady Antebellum song “Bartender.” On Friday night she seeks relief from a relationship gone bad. “There’s only one thing left for me to to do. Put on my favorite dress and sky-high leather boots, check the mirror one last time and kiss the past goodbye.”

The signs and symbols are archetypal. Shots of Jack Daniels and Patron, jeans that are painted on— stereotypical images of guys who get rowdy and women locked into frames we had hoped were long gone from the culture.

From “Aw Naw” by Chris Young:

Aw naw, somebody just bought a shot of that Patron.
Hang on, we’ve been here all night long.
Aw naw, it would be so wrong
If we didn’t dance one more song,
Show off those jeans you painted on…

“On” doesn’t rhyme with “song,” but we can accept it in the vernacular of bar culture. What impresses about this music is the way it draws from people’s everyday experiences to paint a picture of longing and possible fulfillment or caesura.

James Joyce’s “Araby” in Dubliners, is a variation on this theme, albeit a bit obscure for the drinking class. It’s more about me that this story came to mind.

What innumerable follies laid waste my waking and sleeping thoughts after that evening! I wished to annihilate the tedious intervening days. I chafed against the work of school. At night in my bedroom and by day in the classroom her image came between me and the page I strove to read. The syllables of the word Araby were called to me through the silence in which my soul luxuriated and cast an Eastern enchantment over me. I asked for leave to go to the bazaar on Saturday night.

Much different and yet similar. I’d rather listen to the song about lighting watermelon candles upstairs, “Doin’ What She Likes” by Blake Shelton. “Fixin’ up a pitcher of margaritas,” and then calling the fire department when the watermelon candles ignited the bathroom, is a different and more interesting kind of disappointment than in the Joyce story. To weave a story with that imagery requires talent, and it resonates with people.

I’ll continue to listen to country music in the car, but am not ready to join the drinking class. For now, the occasional political event will have to serve as release in a life of work.