State park trail entry point.

Journey Home

Tales from the pilgrimage.

Electorate Study

  • Blow Up the Coordinated Campaign

    In Iowa, the Democratic Party organizes the nuts and bolts of statewide campaign operations around something called the “coordinated campaign.” The coordinated campaign has been a blessing and a curse. On the short list of preparations for 2016, one hopes the coordinated campaign is blown up and re-invented into something that can win against what… Read more

  • Walking the Walk

    Twelve participants in the Great March for Climate Action made a reprise visit to Washington, D.C. last Wednesday. Ed Fallon, march founder, tried to get meetings with the White House and the Environmental Protection Agency to coincide with the end of the march last September, however, key people were unavailable at the time. The White… Read more

  • Politics in the County Seat

    With sun shining and temperatures above freezing, yesterday was a pleasant day to be out and about in the county seat. Four interviews for the newspaper, a stop at a used bookstore, and afternoon conversation with friends over coffee. We discussed the world as we know it… and politics. There was news in the political… Read more

  • January in Winter

    The ambient temperature dropped four degrees since waking. Morning’s gray light brightened the plains as the new day arrived without fanfare. One of the dozens of viruses and colds making the rounds has me feeling punk. That’s understating it. The arc of disease seems to be on the downside: there is energy to post a… Read more

  • Step Forward

    LAKE MACBRIDE— Having bit my tongue for several years about the state of our electorate, 2015 will be a time of writing about our politics and society in a process of working through ideas, to determine a path by which progressive ideas can gain more solvency in government. Meeting so many people since 2012—in politics,… Read more