Categories
Living in Society

A New Grassroots Politics

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels.com

If I had a nickel for every time someone said today’s Democrats need to get in the game, I’d be rich. The trouble is what do Democrats do differently to overcome the Republican advantage in Iowa?

Democrat Catelin Drey is the case that conventional Iowa political organizing can be effective. On Wednesday, after her 4,208-3,211 victory in Iowa State Senate District 1, that Trump won in 2024 by 11.5 percent, she enumerated what worked for her in an interview with Laura Belin and Zachary Oren Smith. In descending order, she said door-to-door contact, telephone contact, and person to person contact within their existing social networks helped identify her voters and get them to the polls. This is so old school, I remember my father doing it during the 1960 Kennedy campaign.

The special election environment helped. Governor Reynolds set the date for the special election to replace deceased state senator Rocky De Witt on June 30 for Aug. 26, 57 days later. The short duration meant there was no time to wait for anything. The campaign ignited with energy. Volunteers, including multiple state senators and representatives, rallied immediately to help. Importantly, volunteers arrived from all over the state, contributing to knocking some 17,000 doors during the campaign, Drey said. She had plenty of volunteer help. Money wasn’t a problem either, enough so that Republican Party of Iowa chair Jeff Kaufmann complained about it.

Things might be different in a general election when folks can’t travel to the west side of the state because local races depend on their work at home. I expect Kaufmann will add this seat to his target list when it is up again next year. Drey seemed quite talented during the interview. Maybe she can pull off a 2026 re-election in a Trump district without all the statewide help. I hope so. Well done Catelin Drew!

I’m from Iowa so I am used to working hard for a candidate and then losing the election. I can think of some things Democrats need to change to turn the Republican advantage around.

Some history. When the worm started to turn on Republicans after the U.S. Supreme Court gave the 2000 election to George W. Bush, Democrats slowly began to change. When Bush won re-election in 2004, it was game on. In Iowa, we came back in 2006 by electing Democrat Chet Culver as governor and Dave Loebsack defeated long time Republican house member Jim Leach. The 2008 Iowa Democratic Caucuses had the most interest and biggest attendance I’ve seen in 32 years living here. As we all know, and may be weary of hearing, Barack Obama won Iowa and the nation in 2008. In 2012, Obama’s margins deteriorated yet he won Iowa again. In retrospect, 2008 was the high water mark of Democratic political activism in Iowa. Loebsack got elected to seven terms, but Culver turned out to be a one-term wonder and we haven’t had a Democratic governor since.

I love memories of the 2006-2008 campaigns but the electorate has changed. I would argue it changes at least every presidential cycle. Trump successively grew his vote count in Democratic Johnson County, Iowa during each of his three elections here. Recognizing such demographic changes is the first thing Democrats must change. Nothing stays the same. We should be like Catelin Drew and talk to everyone possible.

Marc Elias of Democracy Docket did Iowa Democrats no favors when he prosecuted Rita Hart’s 2020 six-vote house race loss in the Congress. When the Iowa Secretary of State certified the election, Hart should have accepted it, even though the path to appeal was there. Given the political climate at the time, the case was dead on arrival. NBC News reported, “Republicans sought to cast her litigation as Democratic hypocrisy for trying to undo a state certification of an election after Democrats criticized 138 Republicans for objecting to the Electoral College count on Jan. 6.” The place for Democrats to win elections is in voter contacts, not in courtrooms, or in the U.S. House.

Finally, Democrats should talk in terms of the voter’s interests. For Catelin Drew, this came naturally. Because childcare was an issue for her personally, it lent credibility in conversations where childcare was the voter’s concern. We can set aside all the verbiage about the whys and wherefores of needing childcare, like Rita Hart raised in an op-ed in the Solon Economist. Candidates seem better off sharing their authentic selves and empathizing with voters as best they can.

I think we need a better name for it than grassroots politics. The electorate has changed and is changing. Democrats need to find voters where they live: on the grass, on the internet, at work, at the grocer, and at the gym. We have done it before and we should get back to it. We need a change and that could be the change we need.

~Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Environment

Republicans And The Damage Done

Iowa Windmill

When I visited the Iowa legislature, one of the people I sought was Rep. Chuck Isenhart from Dubuque. Almost every bill regarding conservation, climate change, renewable energy, and water quality involved him in some way. We were sad to see him lose his last election. Since then, Isenhart has been staying active including writing about environmental issues on Substack.

Why would our national legislators back away from clean energy? Isenhart has some thoughts.

“Just because our gardens are growing cucumbers doesn’t mean we have to make pickles,” Isenhart wrote. “Backing away from clean energy while continuing to subsidize fossil fuels and mandate biofuels puts us in a pickle, making even the wildest dreams come true for those who advocate for an “all-of-the-above” energy future (meaning ‘don’t leave fossil fuels behind’).”

In an Aug. 18 post, Isenhart outlines the damage done to renewable energy programs by Republicans. He starts with his personal story of installing solar panels on his roof and what a good deal it was for him, the utility company, and the environment. The story arrives here:

So – good for consumers, good for business, good for workers, good for the environment. Win-win-win-win. Thus, good for government to keep promoting, no?

Ahhhhh, no. Iowa’s Congressional delegation voted unanimously to unravel most of the federal government’s support for clean energy. Your chance to use the incentive I did is fast running out.

The federal tax credit program for residential solar, wind, geothermal and battery storage now expires at the end of this year, not 2034 as originally planned.

Churches and non-profits with big energy bills can also still get in on the deal through the Elective Pay program with the up-front help of donors who like to see tangible returns on investment like this church.

In related news, Iowa’s congressional representatives Ernst, Grassley, Hinson, Miller-Meeks, Nunn, Feenstra also eliminated the energy efficient home improvement credit (December 31), the new energy efficient home credit (June 30, 2026) and the energy efficient commercial buildings deduction for property construction that begins after June 30, 2026. All of these serve to reduce energy consumption and climate impact. (The Sun Also Sets by Chuck Isenhart on Substack).

We may know how bad Republicans are with advances in renewable energy and the environment. Isenhart lays it out with specifics. Read his entire post here.

~Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Creative Life

A Life of Photos – Part V

Frank Shorter in the 1981 Bix 7 road race in Davenport, Iowa. He placed second. Bill Rodgers placed first. Photo by a friend using my camera while I ran the race.

When in November 1979 I returned from Germany to Iowa after serving in the U.S. Army, I was driven to continue running. The first road race I ran was seven weeks later on Jan. 2, 1980. As I finished graduate school at warp speed in May 1981 (17 months), I didn’t know what to do with myself. To use the pent up energy, I went on long distance runs and very long bicycle trips around Johnson County, sometimes both in a single day, and typically alone. In retrospect, it was a compulsion.

I hung out with some artist friends who encouraged me to be physically active. One August Saturday, we drove together to the Bix 7 road race in Davenport: I went to run the race and they accompanied me as friends sometimes do. Before I headed to the starting line, I gave them my camera to take some shots, including the one above.

In addition to Frank Shorter, they photographed the race winner, Bill Rodgers. Rodgers was just a speck on the print, hardly recognizable unless someone explained it. I favored this image where I could tell who it was. In an album somewhere I have images of myself in the crowd of runners, yet those are not kept with the ones in a box where I found this one and half a dozen others from that day.

In Part IV I wrote about orphaned photographs. What does a person do with leftover prints once the album is made? For me, I sometimes put them in an envelope with the negatives and tucked them in back of the album. Mostly, though, they get separated from the rest and placed in a box. Orphans in practice, I guess. The only thing to do with them in 2025 is label and place them in an envelope to go back in the box.

At that Bix 7 it had been a while since Frank Shorter won the 1972 Olympic gold medal in the marathon. This photograph means something in that it captured a famous person doing what he’s famous for. In 1981 it was not clear what career path might exist for a former Olympic champion. It was said at the time he entered every kind of road race he could find to further his career. I was literally there, with him.

A thing about photography is that while it can prove physical proximity, it does not demonstrate a relationship. I had no relationship with him or with most of the runners in that race. I am fine with that. My main concern was to finish the race without a mishap and then enjoy the company of friends on our way back to Iowa City.

I can see from this single print how difficult it would be to devote the same attention to the thousands of orphaned photographs in our house. I want to get through all of them for maybe the last time. Yet there is only enough time to live life once. It is a fine thing, though, to remember that specific August day in my home town.

~ Read all the posts in this series by clicking here.

Categories
Living in Society

What About Our Stuff?

Detail of the Centennial Building at 402 Iowa Avenue, Iowa City, Iowa. Photo Credit – The Daily Iowan.

The decision to close the Iowa Historical Society Research Center in Iowa City has been made. On Saturday, Aug. 23, I participated in a rally to reverse the decision in a packed room at the Iowa City Public Library. The main ask from the event organizers and from State Representative Adam Zabner, who represents the district where the building is located, was to sign the online petition to reverse the decision. Click here to sign the petition. There was more.

My takeaway is the decision to close the facility is pure amateurism. Archaeologist and historic preservationist Kathy Gourley questioned whether the dire financial picture the state reported is true. She presented information about negotiations with the state legislature last session to secure an additional $1 million in funding for the center. While the legislature only provided a half million, that is not chump change at the historical society. The main thrust of this decision was that “your history” doesn’t matter.

Jonathan Buffalo, historian and director of the Meskwaki Historical Preservation Department told friends, relatives and neighbors about the proposed closure. They replied, “What about our stuff?” The Meskwaki house a collection of early photographs at the Research Center. We might all ask the same question. Communication about the closure was a surprise to almost everyone who read or heard the news. There appears to be only the vaguest of plans for the move. A lack of transparency runs throughout.

Here’s the rub. The state archivist is not following professional procedures for closing a facility like this. Donors gave consideration to what items they may have donated to the State Historical Society. Part of the deal was the artifacts would be cared for in perpetuity. Instead of assuring the public that any change would meet this obligation, it’s been like, “Let’s go to Walmart and get us some plastic bags to haul what we don’t like to the landfill.” It is amateur hour.

Rebecca Conard, native Iowan and historian at Middle Tennessee University outlined some of those professional procedures during the rally. Things like looking at the Iowa collections as a whole and then making a transparent, public decision on what to do with items that are less relevant today than they were when donated.

What about our stuff? Will it go to a warehouse? Will it be discarded? There have been no good answers. If the state had considered the public impact of closing the Iowa City Research Center, they would have researched and provided some of the answers when they announced the change. They apparently didn’t. This made a difference that, in part, created the social anxiety on display at the Iowa City Public Library on Saturday.

Valued collections live in that building today. What will happen to archives of Meskwaki photographs, the Iowa Musicians Project, pioneer diaries, manuscripts, and the rest of the materials? Let’s hope they are not rendered into oblivion either by tucking them away on a shelf in a Des Moines warehouse or by discarding.

To learn more, read Trish Nelson’s backgrounder on the issue here.

Sign the online petition to reverse the decision to close the Iowa Historical Society Research Center at the Centennial Building click here.

~Written for Blog for Iowa

Categories
Living in Society

Giving Back

Sky at dawn on the lake.

Since our family moved to Big Grove Township, I volunteered to make lives better. Any monetary considerations were insignificant. A regular person does not volunteer in the community for the money. Part of living a sustainable life in rural areas is contributing to the general well-being. I did what I could. I felt blessed and had to give back to the community in which I lived.

Within the first year we arrived, the home owners association asked me to join the board. I did. These organizations get a bad rap. In our case, we managed the association like a small city. We provided a public water system, a sanitary sewer district, road maintenance, refuse hauling, and real estate sales and purchases. Over time, we upgraded the roads from chip and seal to asphalt, dealt with changing government standards related to arsenic in drinking water, reduced the number of wells from three to one, complied with changing Iowa Department of Natural Resources standards for wastewater treatment plant effluent, handled a lawsuit, and coordinated activities like road use and maintenance with neighboring associations. If the board doesn’t do these things, they don’t get done. Everyone is the better for such volunteer boards. I served, off and on, for over 30 years.

In 2012, when only one candidate was running for two township trustee positions, I ran a write-in campaign and won. Being a township trustee included managing emergency response and a volunteer fire department with other townships and the city. Toward the end of my tenure, we formed a new entity to manage emergency response. We maintained the local cemetery, and supervised a pioneer cemetery where the first person to die in the township was buried. This work helped me understand how tax levies work and how they were used to support things the county did not, things like a small fire department or saving someone’s life in an emergency. There was only a single conflict during my time on the board, about the main cemetery. All of the trustees showed up at the cemetery to resolve a dispute with an individual. No one wanted the job of township trustee and someone had to do it, so I stepped up.

When the local seniors group had an opening on their board, I volunteered and became its treasurer. This lasted about two years, but it provided insight into this segment of the community. Everything we did, from providing community meals to giving home bound people rides to medical appointments to arranging outings around eastern Iowa, served an often neglected segment of the population. It was a great opportunity to learn about the life of our senior citizens before I became one myself.

The contribution to society with the most personal meaning was financially supporting construction of the current Solon Public Library building, occupied in 2001. We didn’t really have the money in our budget yet having a decent public library is something we valued. We found the money to donate. The small city library went from being located under the city band stand, to a store front, to the old jail, to a modern building specifically designed to be a library. In the beginning, the library was staffed with volunteers from the Solon Young Women’s Club and the Solon Study Club. Today, there are full and part-time paid staff that work alongside volunteers. A library is something the whole community can use. I am proud to have helped build ours.

There are other ways I gave back to the community. Giving back is a personal value to hold dear in turbulent times. We should all find ways to give back to society in this Trumpian time of self-interest. If we don’t, who will?

Categories
Creative Life

Friday Photos

Wednesday was a day like this. Sky above the Solon Public Library.

The hardest part of being an amateur photographer is making the images look different. For the most part, I prefer outdoors photography. Here a gallery of some of this week’s images.

Wildflowers along the trail.
Big salad for dinner.
Trail walking.
Vegetables all cleaned up.
Cattails
Flowers along the state park trail.
Categories
Living in Society

Survivor with Plans

Bur Oak tree on Aug. 20, 2025.

The Bur Oak tree near the front of our property is one of the few of our 20 trees unaffected by the 2020 Derecho. Most of the others were blown over outright or began a slow dance with nature to see when their last leaf-out will be. Most of them will be gone in five years because of injuries sustained during the derecho. A lot of work went into planting those trees. I have memories of each of them and who worked with me when planting.

When I wrote the outline for my autobiography, I figured it would end with the coronavirus pandemic. Little did I know that Donald Trump’s assault on society as we know it would be a thing. After eight months, it seems clear the baton I will take up has to do with intellectual freedom, which best matches my skill set. What form it will take is to be determined. I’m going to a rally about saving the State Historical Society building in Iowa City this Saturday. I should see like-minded people there and be able to hook up and get started on developing an initial plan with others.

I expect to be active again soon. Like the oak tree, I expect to survive the storm.

Categories
Kitchen Garden

It’s Tomato Time

Tomato harvest Aug. 19, 2025.

Garden tomatoes are a highlight of the Iowa growing season. Growing them is a skill I learned and modified so there are enough for household needs, plenty to give to friends and family, and a generous donation to local food pantries.

There really is nothing like eating a garden fresh tomato a short distance from where it grew from seed and ripened.

For six weeks or so, we live in bliss.

Categories
Living in Society

Summertime Heat

Pears are not ripe yet.

The last week has been a combination of ambient temperatures in the high 80s to low 90s, heat index of 105 or more, and thunderstorms. As a septuagenarian I stay inside with air conditioning once I finish early morning, outdoors chores to avoid passing out in the heat and humidity.

I took a box of cherry tomatoes to the community food pantry. My other Monday errands included filling the auto gas tank and lottery gambling. It was a quick trip, with exposure to people. I like the people part of it, and finishing while it’s relatively cool. Monday errands has become a thing in retirement.

It has been a struggle to mow the lawn, so the grass is growing long. I’ll need the cut grass for garden mulch and if nature dials down the humidity for a day or so, I’ll harvest it. I did manage to mow the ditch as it dried out, and before it got too hot. It was a workout.

When I was younger I would work strait through the heat and humidity. A few years ago I got woozy and had to lay down on the ground to recover. After that I decided to take better care of myself. As an Iowan I’m used to the heat and humidity. As a senior I learned to live another day.

Then there are the big salad dinners of summer.

Big salad (before dressing) with fennel, celery, cucumber, tomato, bell pepper, and broccoli from our garden.
Categories
Creative Life

A Life of Photos – Part IV

Grandma Sarah Elizabeth (Dean) Miller’s bentwood rocking chair made from willow. She was my great, great grandmother. Photo taken by the author in 1983, Cox Hollow, Wise County, Virginia.

Sometimes we would go on a trip and take photographs. In fact, in my time, a trip and a film camera seemed to go together. Because I was able to purchase a camera with money from my newspaper route, I took photos when on family trips. When Mother and Father went on a trip they would take my camera. You go on a trip, you take some photographs to develop and show the folks back home. When trip photos got processed, we would sort and edit them. Sometimes we made them into an album. Simply put, trip photography was a cultural behavior with a beginning and endpoint and fixed technology for a trip’s duration.

I’m speaking of the pre-internet days. We got our first home computer on April 21, 1996. We didn’t do much with online photography until May 3, 2008 when I bought my first digital camera to make it easier to post on social media platforms. Back then, the process to put print photographs online had some obstacles, importantly, the lack of a scanner, which was expensive equipment. In 2025, with mobile device technology, that is all pretty seamless. It was not so in the 1980s and ’90s.

This photograph of Grandma Miller’s rocking chair was from a trip my spouse and I made to Virginia in 1983. The image records the artifact. There is a backstory. We both sat and rocked in the chair. We had a discussion about it with my great aunt Carrie who had possession of the rocker when we visited. We discussed it being made from local willow trees. I’m not sure, but believe I have a photograph of Grandma Miller’s daughter, Tryphena Ethel Miller sitting in it. (Spelling is “Tryphenia” on the 1940 U.S. Census). The chair is both an Appalachian artifact and a family heirloom. Forty years later, I don’t know what happened to it, although it may still be sitting on that front porch in Cox Hollow where we first saw it and took this photograph.

On that trip, my great aunt said she did not want her photograph taken. So many years later it is hard to remember the conversation. I believe it had to do with the Appalachian belief or superstition that there was a connection between a photograph and one’s soul or spirit. I was not trying to steal a part of Aunt Carrie’s soul. I respected her wishes and did not take a photo.

Also on that trip, my uncle, spouse and I visited Grandmother Ina Elizabeth Addington’s grave. She died in 1947 of food poisoning. She was also the granddaughter of Grandma Miller. My uncle got teary eyed while we were there visiting his mother, so I did not take a photograph of the grave marker just then. We returned the next day for that. Discretion is an important part of trip photography.

While trip photographs serve as a form of aide-memoire that conjures our living memory of what happened, so often they get separated from memory and stand as orphans. Their dependence on the photographer and the specific trip is a consideration in curating any photographic collection. In this case, I will likely put all the 1983 trip photographs that are not in an album in an envelope together and label it. Likewise, when considering which images to keep and which to label by writing a short note on the back, we can make a big difference when the photographer dies or leaves images behind. Deciding what to do in cases like this is a main task of this project.

This photograph has a date of July 1983 printed in red ink on the back. I added the following text: “Grandma Miller’s rocker. Made of willow. Grandma Miller was Tryphena’s mother.” A person needs to know more than a little context for that to make sense. Compared to most prints I have, those are a lot of words. Working through how and what to write on the back of prints is another main task of this project.

I could say a lot more about trip photography. As an organizing principle, it just makes sense to put all the images captured on a specific trip together. That doesn’t answer the question of passing along one’s heritage. I need to flesh this out in a future post.

~ Read all the posts in this series by clicking here.