Persistence of the coronavirus pandemic and public reaction to it is appalling. As former chair of the Johnson County Board of Health I know we can do better.
It is the first crisis of this scale we faced in my lifetime. It’s personal. Too many people I know contracted COVID-19 or died from it. As the virus runs out of control, it’s easy to predict more illness and deaths.
Statistical reports show cases of COVID-19 in Iowa increasing dramatically. The number of hospital and ICU patients with COVID-19 is rising. Epidemiologists at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics say that while there are beds, there is not sufficient staff to support the surge response.
A mistake our leaders made was to politicize our response to the virus.
President Trump all but abandoned working on the pandemic after the election. “The president is holed up in the White House, his public schedule empty, tweeting about how he has won an election that everyone knows he lost,” wrote historian Heather Cox Richardson on Friday. To the extent the president cared about the coronavirus it was a political calculation — a failed attempt to get reelected.
Governor Kim Reynolds has been as bad as the president. Her comments Nov. 10 regarding a targeted mask mandate would be comical if they didn’t endanger Iowans. In the meanwhile Reynolds touted that the state’s rainy day fund remains intact. That’s cold comfort to people having symptoms of COVID-19 who can’t get tested.
We have been left to our own devices. If you don’t wear a mask in public and are planning a large family gathering for the upcoming holidays, you are part of the problem.
Stay home if you can, wear a mask in public. Postpone large holiday gatherings until the virus is under control.
The coronavirus is home for the holidays.
~ This letter appeared in the Nov. 19, 2020 edition of the Solon Economist
While returning from a walk in the state park I picked up four yard signs a neighbor placed in their yard. Two of the candidates are poised to win and two are not.
While crossing the street, another neighbor called out but I couldn’t hear them. They walked over to discuss Saturday’s events in the general election. They had considered leaving the country if the president were reelected. Like many in our neighborhood, they keep their politics private. Sigh of relief the president was defeated. They are good neighbors.
After my walk I drove over to a damaged street sign and removed the signs from the pole. It is hard to get the screws loosened so I brought it home to repair in the garage if I can. Leaves are mulched with the mower so the minerals can return to the soil. The smell of neighbors burning leaves permeated the neighborhood. What fall work remains in the yard is optional. Today looks to be in the 70s so it is a chance to work outdoors.
Emails began arriving from groups with which I associate after the election. This one from the Climate Reality Project is typical.
We will mobilize support like never before for federal-level climate policy, and will bolster this with continued state and local-level work, which has been so instrumental in building this movement since 2016. We will persist in fighting for climate justice, by forging partnerships and adding capacity to campaigns that address systemic ways the climate crisis hurts historically marginalized communities. And we will continue to the grow the Climate Reality Leadership Corps, ensuring we have even more voices conveying our clear message. We have the solutions at-hand, and there is no more time to waste.
Ken Berlin, President and CEO, The Climate reality Project
To work on any of the received requests, I had to get organized. Here is what I came up for post-election priorities from an email to friends:
My first Iowa work will be determining a leverage point to advocate for mitigation of the coronavirus pandemic. The virus prevents us from organizing as we are accustomed. I plan to follow State Senator Rob Hogg’s lead on this. As you likely know, experts are saying we will be challenged by the virus into 2022. This is a high priority.
I’m working on nuclear arms control issues with the Arms Control Association, and on the climate crisis with the Climate Reality Project. I’m also working with the Sierra Club on the Pattison Sand proposal to pump water from the Jordan Aquifer and ship it to arid western states. However those things dovetail with your organization will be our points of opportunity to work together.
The Biden administration will quickly become besieged with its efforts to undo the four years of the current administration, therefore I view moving the ball forward on our issues as something our folks in DC should lead. My expected local contributions include writing an op-ed for the Cedar Rapids Gazette every 4-6 weeks (arms control and social topics), organizing a group in Solon to help me work on issues including politics and political advocacy, and set the stage for a Democratic comeback in the 2022 election. Tall orders all.
I don’t see Iowans devoting much bandwidth to the TPNW (Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons) until there is an opportunity for the administration to listen and take action on the treaty. I forget who’s having the Zoom meeting that includes Rose Gottemoeller but I plan to listen in. For the time being, the U.S. government and those of the other nuclear states are ignoring the treaty. If that changes in the next couple of years I’ll get more involved.
If we don’t get organized ourselves, we will be hindered in working with others. Onward we go!
Monday was getting ready for election day. According to the Iowa Secretary of State website, my voted absentee ballot was received by the county auditor on Oct. 7.
I also volunteered to be a poll observer for our precinct today. In the past this person struck the names of Democratic voters from a list we generated so a team in a nearby home could reach out to those who hadn’t voted. We had drivers who could pick up and transport voters to the polling place. We made calls and door knocked until everyone had been contacted. Our statehouse candidate typically stopped by for a pep talk. There was also potluck lunch and dinner — the day served as a social event. This year, because of the coronavirus pandemic, we are only observing voting operations, alert for trouble. No potluck meals or camaraderie for us.
I don’t expect trouble. The president’s call for his supporters to serve as self-appointed election observers sounds like a form of voter intimidation. In our rural precinct more people know each other than don’t, so if there is trouble, it is likely to be quickly resolved by poll workers. I doubt we’ll have to call the sheriff and am trained in what to do if there is trouble. There was a discussion of Iowa’s open carry law for firearms during our training.
There was a training Zoom call, a 42-page manual to read, a credential to print out and laminate, a lunch to pack. I’m planning to wear Dockers and a woven shirt, something I haven’t yet done in 2020. Also in my kitbag are two N-95 masks, the most comfortable shoes I own, and a book to read. It will be a long day. My shift begins at 6:30 a.m. and continues until everyone in line at 9 p.m. finishes voting.
Monday morning the county auditor reported 61,083 voters cast a ballot thus far. In the last presidential election the total number of votes cast was 77,476 or 84 percent of active registered voters. The coronavirus pandemic is driving early voting numbers and the county expects a new record in voter turnout percentage and number of votes cast.
I have no informed opinions or even guesses about the outcome of the election. Statewide Democratic candidates have to win our county to have a chance and Joe Biden, Theresa Greenfield and Rita Hart are expected to do well here. The irony is I won’t see as many Democratic voters at the polls because of the coronavirus pandemic. Many Democrats are voting early to avoid spread of COVID-19.
I expect to have something to say about the election results once they are known. I remember the 2000 election, though. George W. Bush won that election only after the U.S. Supreme Court decided Bush v. Gore on Dec. 12, 2000 and vote counting ceased. In 2020 there have already been electoral shenanigans by Republicans. Sadly, mustering an army of lawyers has become a necessary part of our elections. I hope not to see any lawyers in our precinct unless they are coming to vote.
The headline contained an unmistakable message: “Fauci warned U.S. won’t return back to ‘normality’ until late 2021.”
I went to school, graduated, have been socialized, and ergo know what this means. Better plan something else next year.
Maybe if Americans were more disciplined in our approach to the coronavirus pandemic we’d be doing better. Iowa is currently setting new daily records for number of hospitalizations due to COVID-19. Where there are so many hospitalizations for the disease, there will be deaths. Americans in 2020 aren’t disciplined so we’ll just let the virus ravage us. That’s a heck of a way to approach this situation.
I plan to make a serious effort to finish my autobiography in 2021. That should keep me close to home and virus free.
Thursday I visited my parents’ grave site at Mount Calvary Cemetery in Davenport. My sister joined me. The foot marker she ordered for Mother had arrived and was in position. It was similar to the government-issued one on Dad’s side of the plot. Mom’s hadn’t had the benefit of 50 years settling into the ground. They weren’t properly aligned so she will get someone out to fix it in the spring.
Now that I’ve reached a certain age, and am a survivor, spending time in the cemetery (above ground) is not bad. There were plenty of positive memories among the monuments. We searched for our maternal great grandparents’ graves and couldn’t find them. A number of family members are buried in close proximity and I couldn’t recall exactly where. While we looked, everywhere were people we knew in life. A grade school classmate, my high school guitar teacher, my dentist and physician, a friend whose monument proclaimed, “judge, philosopher, humorist.” There were neighbors and friends we’d forgotten until reminded by their last physical presence on earth. It’s more than tolerable being alive in a cemetery. It’s enjoyable.
The obelisk of Antoine LeClaire, a principal founder of the city, is prominent inside the entry to the cemetery. In 1832, at the end of the Black Hawk War, LeClaire was present at the peace treaty signing for which he interpreted. He also served as interpreter of Black Hawk’s autobiography, which remains in circulation. The church my grandmother attended in later life, and which eventually hosted her funeral Mass in 1991, was built on land that came from LeClaire.
Grandmother is buried in this cemetery too. I remember taking our daughter to her freshly dug grave after the memorial in the cemetery chapel. I explained what death meant in the practical terms of cemeteries. When I asked her about it years later, she didn’t remember. However, I do and maybe such memories are why I don’t mind exploring cemeteries.
The dead don’t worry about the coronavirus and that makes them different from the rest of us, at least for the next year or so.
More than 66 million voters already cast a ballot in the general election that ends a week from today. For perspective, Donald Trump’s popular vote in 2016 was 62,984,828, Hillary Clinton’s was 65,853,514.
The coronavirus pandemic is driving the high number of early votes cast. We won’t discover who won until election staff around the country finish counting according to their local laws.
Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com puts it this way:
We’re in the last full week before Election Day, and as we’ve been saying for a while now, President Trump is running out of time to mount a comeback and close the gap Biden has opened in both national and state polls. We’re way past the point where a normal polling error alone could hand Trump the win. Still, Trump has a meaningful chance, per our forecast — a little worse than the chances of rolling a 1 on a six-sided die and a little better than the chances that it’s raining in downtown Los Angeles. And remember, it does rain there. (Downtown L.A. has about 36 rainy days per year, or about a 1-in-10 shot of a rainy day).
If the electorate fails to recognize the mistake made in 2016 and correct it, I don’t know what to say. Well I do have some things to say, but I’m keeping them to myself for the time being. It’s an uncertain year made worse by a pandemic that people, including the Iowa governor, can’t agree about. It’s been a public health crisis and a failure of political leadership. There is no separating ourselves from the impact of the coronavirus as it spreads without significant constraints. I don’t know anyone in Iowa who has not been affected in some way.
If Joe Biden and Kamala Harris win the election it’s hard to say what’s next. There is a lot to do. If Biden summed up the challenge succinctly by saying “Build Back Better,” the resolution of challenges facing the nation are complex. At a minimum we must implement a better plan to contain the pandemic and immediately reduce the number of ongoing infections and deaths. Simultaneously, damage done by the Trump administration must be undone if it can be. Biden may rescind many of the executive orders Trump signed, and rejoin international treaties where possible, yet there is more to it. We won’t know until the election results are known and Team Biden has a chance to look under the hood of the car wreck the current administration has been. Then we will discover the extent of the damage.
I’m optimistic there will be better days. Because of the resilience we’ve built into our Midwestern lives the last four years have been tolerated as well as could be expected. Having a Democratic president who has support in the legislative branch of government would be positive. Positive enough to provide hope after a long, dark period in American history.
Let’s hope it isn’t raining in Los Angeles on election day.
The colors of the maple tree in front of our house don’t photograph well. We have to stand and take in the feeling they arouse. The variety is called Autumn Blaze.
Branches high up in the tree have been blown down and broken by wind storms. The foliage is not as dense as it once was. Like all maple trees the wood is soft and if the right kind of insect gains entry it will be curtains. I remember planting the tree with our daughter in the 1990s, shortly after moving to Big Grove Township.
We had no idea how the changing colors of autumn would make us feel. If we knew, we would have planted another.
The coronavirus pandemic rages in Iowa and in the United States. Republican politicians in charge are downplaying the seriousness of the virus so as not to have to address it before the election. Only a cynical, craven person could do so. The same kind of person who sent meat packers back to work without adequate protections after outbreaks were revealed.
The end of the year holidays are upon us with Halloween a week away. I wrote a post for our neighborhood Facebook page:
“My personal two cents: Just finished reading the complicated Iowa City rules for trick or treating during the coronavirus pandemic. To me, it’s simple. If parents want to take their children out in the neighborhood they should be free to do so. At the same time if members don’t want to participate, they should leave their front lights off and not answer the door. There should be no “tricks” or unpleasantness for anyone during the pandemic. As President Trump said in Florida last night, ‘you should do all the things’ to prevent spread of the disease. We know what those ‘things’ are: wear a mask, practice hygiene, use sanitizer, and clean up upon returning home. It’s important to create a positive environment for children during a fun holiday that marks the beginning of the end of year holiday season. I hope we are closer to normal by Halloween 2021.”
The coronavirus pandemic brought normal to a screeching halt.
On March 13 I spent the day with a friend I’ve known since grade school ending with a beer at a bar in Tiffin. After that there has been no normal.
My personal timeline went like this:
March 7: Governor Reynolds activated the State Emergency Operations Center for COVID-19.
March 8: Iowa Hygienic Laboratory reported the first three positive test results for COVID-19 in Iowa.
March 9: Governor Reynolds issued a Proclamation of Disaster Emergency regarding COVID-19.
March 11: World Health Organization declares COVID-19 a pandemic.
March 24: First Iowa death attributed to COVID-19.
March 29: President Trump extends federal stay-at-home order until April 30.
April 2: My final shift at the home, farm and auto supply store.
April 6: Began 30-day COVID-19 leave of absence from the home, farm and auto supply store.
April 11: Purchased poetry books via email from local used bookstore to support them during the coronavirus pandemic.
April 14: Received CARES Act coronavirus pandemic payment from U.S. Treasury.
April 16: Interviewed by Andrew Keshner of MarketWatch about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on gardening.
April 21: Conducted first home owners association board meeting via conference call because of the coronavirus pandemic. Same with sewer district board of trustees.
April 28: Gave notice of retirement to the home, farm and auto supply store due to the coronavirus pandemic.
April 29: Statewide food policy council meeting on the CARES Act, via Zoom.
May 1: Iowa for Biden Round table on the Economic Impact of COVID-19 on Rural Families Moderated by Tom Vilsack, via Zoom.
May 6: Webinar on UPS Supply Chain Challenges during the coronavirus pandemic, via Zoom.
May 6: Arms Control Association meeting about COVID-19 and Global Security, via Zoom.
May 27: First COVID-19 screening (negative).
June 1: Prescription for cholesterol medicine during followup at local clinic. Socially distanced.
June 2: Began exercising for 25-30 minutes daily for health reasons and due to shelter in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
June 15: Conference call with Vice President Mike Pence on COVID-19, other topics.
June 16: Second COVID-19 screening (negative).
June 18: Began bicycle riding for exercise.
June 28: Haircut at home because of the coronavirus pandemic.
July 13: 75th Anniversary of the Atomic Bombings – Deconstructing the Myths and Promoting a Nuclear Weapons-Free & Just World, via Zoom.
July 23: First garden donation to local food rescue non-profit.
July 23: Rita Hart meeting on re-opening the schools, via Zoom.
July 29: Dental appointment in Cedar Rapids. Partial treatment because of COVID-19 restrictions.
August 2: Bicycle crash on Lake Macbride Trail.
August 9: Op-ed in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, 75 Years After Hiroshima.
August 10: Derecho, lost electricity.
August 13: Bicycle crash on Polk Avenue detour because of derecho damage on the trail.
August 14: Electricity restored.
August 15: Discussion with the orchard about return to work for the fall season. Declined due to the coronavirus pandemic and high number of infections in Johnson County.
August 20: Third COVID-19 screening (negative).
September 10: Followup appointment at local clinic. Socially distanced.
September 13: Op-ed in the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Is Rural Iowa Different?
September 26: Pop-up event with Doug Emhoff (Kamala Harris’ husband). Drive through campaign sign pickup due to restrictions of coronavirus pandemic.
October 23: Washington Post reports, “America is poised to enter its worst stretch of the pandemic, with cases spiking and the country on the precipice of shattering its daily record for infections in the next few days.” In Iowa we have the eighth highest COVID-19 infection rate among the states. There have been 1,617 Iowa deaths linked to the coronavirus.
As Election Day approaches, the coronavirus dominates the news and lives of many who live in House District 73. I voted early for Lonny Pulkrabek as state representative and recommend you vote for him too. Pulkrabek will engage with other legislators to do something about spread of COVID-19 in Iowa.
Given the chance; the Republican majority did little to address the global pandemic for Iowans.
The single bill related to the pandemic that passed last session was Senate File 2338 which took away liability for COVID-19 from businesses. State Senator Rob Hogg said of the Republican majority, “no proposals, no bills passed,” to mitigate the effects of the pandemic. As a member of leadership Rep. Bobby Kaufmann has culpability.
At a minimum, what was needed was to add capacity at the Iowa Hygienic Laboratory so they could process more tests. Because the legislature did not, Iowa fell out of compliance with White House and CDC recommendations regarding testing in nursing homes.
Iowa friends and family of mine tested positive for COVID-19. A child I know did too when schools reopened. The minister who officiated at our wedding died of the disease. The pandemic is proving to be personal for so many of us.
Republicans had their chance. It’s time to elect Democrats like Lonny Pulkrabek to effectively address the pandemic.
~ A version of this letter first appeared in Little Village Magazine in Iowa City. Also published in the Cedar Rapids Gazette on Oct. 24, 2020.
Temperatures seemed normal, rain adequate. When there were exceptions, dealing with them was easy and intuitive. Gardeners produced a great crop.
Meanwhile, the arctic is melting, the antarctic too. NOAA reported the third warmest September in the history of record-keeping. Drought and desertification plague many parts of the globe. Hurricanes and typhoons wreck havoc on lives. If the derecho effectively ended our garden production, damaged hundreds of thousands of acres of corn and bean fields, and destroyed half the tree canopy in nearby Cedar Rapids, well that’s a once in a lifetime kind of event… we hope.
A reckoning is coming for how we get our food. California’s Central Valley, which produced one fourth of the nation’s food suffers from drought with limited alternatives for securing water to grow crops. The Central Valley supplies 20 percent of the nation’s groundwater demand and is the second most pumped aquifer system in the U.S. These conditions for farming and food supply are not sustainable.
In March, soon after the governor signed the proclamation of disaster emergency, grocery stores began running out of food. Many people reacted by planting a garden or expanding the one they had. They joined community supported agriculture projects. Since then food supply chains worked to fill most of the shelves. Whether grocery retail sales will return to what they were is an open question. As the coronavirus pandemic continues, it is getting worse in Iowa, causing many to stay home when they can and develop alternatives to how and what they eat.
In Iowa we are blessed with a temperate climate. Converting from row crops to diversified agriculture should be done yet is not as easy as it sounds. Smaller farms require cheap labor to produce vegetables and livestock for niche markets. Mid-sized farms are constantly on the razor’s edge working to maintain profitable and diverse operations while avoiding the burden of large capital investments. Big farmers are stuck in a web of government subsidies, commodity markets, long term capital investments, and changing demand for food.
On March 13 I had lunch at a restaurant and a beer at a bar with my best friend. That was the last time I ate restaurant food or went to a bar. Cooking at home has become the norm, not just for me, but for many. That has an impact on food service companies that supply restaurants, and food processing companies that prepare food for distribution. We lost one of the anchor restaurants on our Main Street in town. There will be more business casualties unless people return to restaurant dining soon. With winter coming and the pandemic getting worse in Iowa, diners seem unlikely to return to restaurants until next spring or summer.
It comes back to Iowa’s temperate climate. It seems clear climate change is changing the way we live. As long as we have a temperate climate here we’ll survive.
In graduate school I interviewed people who survived the great depression. What they did then is what we have to do now: create a home industry that meets more of our needs and relies less on global supply chains that developed since World War II. Self-reliance should come easy for Americans as it was defined early in the history of the republic. What’s needed today is broad adaptation of a self-reliance approach to living.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended everyone celebrate Thanksgiving virtually this year to prevent spread of the coronavirus. I suspect many Iowans will meet in person and contribute to spread of a disease that is out of control here. A temperate climate can’t help with that. What we can do is plant a garden, something our environment currently supports.
Even with advances in electronic communication, those of us who take the coronavirus pandemic seriously have become increasingly isolated. Not everyone takes their chances of contracting COVID-19 seriously, which complicates things.
In Iowa, the governor’s approach to containing the virus has been mostly voluntary. The results speak for themselves. Last week the Iowa Department of Public Health released a White House coronavirus task force report. The Des Moines Register reported:
“Iowa continues to see more than twice as many coronavirus infections as the national average,” White House officials warned. “Community transmission has remained high across the state for the past month, with many preventable deaths.”
Since Governor Kim Reynolds’ March 9 Disaster Proclamation, more than 100,000 cases of COVID-19 have been identified (three percent of the population), and 1,471 people died from the disease. Mitigation of the coronavirus is not going well in Iowa.
Yesterday, while visiting the county seat to get bicycle parts, about nine in ten people wore a face mask on the streets, a marked improvement reflecting the seriousness of the pandemic. More generally, Iowa is not reporting similar face mask usage.
A retired physician sent some 3M-brand N95 masks. Their spouse, who is a practicing physician, couldn’t get an adequate supply at work so they purchased them in bulk. It’s a sad state of affairs when front-line medical workers, who deal with coronavirus infected patients daily, can’t get an adequate supply of personal protective equipment seven months into the pandemic.
Many of us are not afraid of the virus. We’re following the recommendations of experts, which is to stay at home as much as possible and wear a mask while practicing good hygiene in public. The stay at home part sucks.
It’s not that there isn’t work to do at home. I haven’t been to a restaurant since March, all social events were called off or restructured to maintain social distancing, and emails, phone calls and text messages have increased dramatically. Meetings are conducted on line using Zoom or Google Meet, or via conference call. It’s not the same as meeting in person, shaking hands, interacting with other humans. If the logistics of meetings are much improved, the personal nature of them is diminished. There is no end of the pandemic in sight.
In the spring my work at the farm was isolated from the rest of the crew because I was the only worker living off the farm. Moving most workers on-site was their reaction to staying COVID-19 free. The plan is working. I gave up my part-time retail job at the home, farm and auto supply store in April, and didn’t go back to the orchard in August. Retirement was forced upon me by the pandemic. My new potential cohort of retired seniors is not getting together as they once had. I wasn’t ready to give up the human interaction of the workplace, yet did in response to the risks of continuing.
I spend some time with neighbors who joke about wearing their Trump campaign face masks. They know I’m supporting Joe Biden and I’m used to the friendly political interaction. We don’t discuss politics that much. When one family’s child brought COVID-19 home from school, a pall fell on the neighborhood.
With winter approaching, 2021 looks to be isolating. I planted garlic last week and went to the metropolis to get straw bales for winter cover. Like the garlic cloves just planted, we are alive and and ready to spring to life when conditions are right. For the time being, we are isolated.
Journey Home 
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