One of my long-standing beliefs is nearby Iowa City is a safe haven for LGBTIQA+ people. It is a place where people can live without undue fear and be who they are. It was, anyway. I recently heard the LGBTIQA+ community is breaking up. Folks are moving out of state to escape the regressive policies of our Republican state government. Governor Kim Reynolds has been the lynch pin in persecuting LGBTIQA+ folks and her supporters cheer her on. If what I heard is accurate, this is a sad legacy. We need a haven for the vulnerable until broad acceptance of diversity is forthcoming. By the fact of Iowa City being the county seat the haven it has been exists, yet seems under pressure.
I have been insulated from this because I don’t live or do much in the county seat. My LGBTIQA+ friends are long-standing and rooted. They are friends, not members of some group. When we get together we discuss important stuff like which schools are best, which clinics provide good health care, and politics, of course. This is what normal people do.
Changing perspectives of our lives in contemporary society is part of living. As Iowans abandon the countryside in favor of living in large metropolitan areas, there will be diversity in cities. That it is concentrated is more the problem. Like every other time in the state’s history diversity can cause isolation, alienation, and conflict. People literally get run out of small towns and cities because they are different. Unless one was born and grew up in Iowa, there is no reason to stay. My issue as a native Iowan is I don’t know where I would go if I left.
All of this makes life more difficult for an aging American. It would be great to invite LGBTIQA+ family members to move here and find a home closer to ours so we can spend more time together. They could be their authentic selves, including being part of our family. That remains possible in a more liberal county like ours, yet the freedom needed to perpetuate this culture is being eroded.
We’ll see where this ends. What I now understand is I must be more attentive to diversity in the county seat as well as where I live. If I am not, there will be safe havens no more.
We are nine, going on ten years into the Russo-Ukraine War and there’s no sign of resolution. Russia determined the Ukrainian people are part of Russia and annexed Crimea on Feb. 20, 2014. Russia now occupies one fifth of the Ukrainian land mass.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Washington, D.C. Monday as part of the Biden administration’s “last minute push to convince lawmakers to pass a supplemental funding bill, as officials warn that the money for Ukraine is running out,” wrote the Associated Press. I ask myself, “What are we doing in Ukraine?”
For a while, the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel pushed Ukraine out of the news. Conflict over the failure of the long-standing idea of a two-state solution to Israeli and Palestinian claims over the Holy Land, that began after the fall of the Ottoman Empire, took the headlines. This is mostly because every person I know has an opinion on the long-standing conflict in the Middle East. It was a more current thing to talk about rather than hundreds of thousands of people dying in the Russo-Ukraine War. Historian Lawrence Wittner wrote about this on the IPPNW Peace and Health Blog.
Grinding on for nearly two years, Russia’s massive military invasion of that country has taken hundreds of thousands of lives, created millions of refugees, wrecked Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and economy, and consumed enormous financial resources from nations around the world.
And yet, despite the Ukraine War’s vast human and economic costs, there is no sign that it is abating. Russia and Ukraine are now bogged down in very bloody military stalemate, with about a fifth of Ukraine’s land occupied and annexed by Russia.
Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer posted the following on Threads:
Schumer doesn’t tell half the story and it is not because of the word limit on Threads. When communicating in or to media, the Majority Leader needs to keep it simple. Surprised he hasn’t said something like “Russia bad, Ukraine good.” Maybe Schumer is right to say it like that. I am of an age I want to know more of the story.
Atlantic Monthly writer Tom Nichols wrote about communications on Monday.
President Joe Biden is trying to run for reelection on a record of policy successes. In modern American politics, this is a nonstarter: Many Americans no longer tie policy successes or failures to individual politicians. Instead, they decide what they like or don’t like and then assign blame or credit based on whom they already love or hate.
Tom Nichols, The Glare of Presidential Power, The Atlantic Daily, Dec. 11, 2023.
“Many American voters now want a superhero, not a president,” Nichols stated. What these voters don’t want is to think about is the devastation in Ukraine attributable in large part by United States support for the war.
In a Dec. 10 substack article titled, “Ukraine’s Percolating Hatred of America,” Matt Bivens, M.D. wrote:
We’re coming up on the two-year mark of this completely avoidable and utterly mismanaged disaster. The beautiful Ukrainian countryside is devastated. Enormous sums of money, and the lives of hundreds of thousands of young soldiers, have been squandered. Millions have fled Ukraine, including many of the young men. The old men — those too tied to their communities to go into hiding from the draft — are who’s left to carry on the fight.
Bivens addresses the “the burden of guilt that the United Statesbears for this pointless tragedy.” The story he tells is appalling on multiple levels. I won’t summarize except to say it should be more widely circulated than it is on substack.
My bottom line on Ukraine is we elected people to manage the support we have provided to the country. We should support Ukraine in this fight against Russia. How much support is enough? Today that question refers to financial support Republicans are unwilling to give as the president proposed it. To me, the country elected Joe Biden and when Ukraine’s war with Russia is flagging we have a choice to make. Do we continue as we have been doing and fill the president’s order for more funds? Or do we take stock of where we are and either go all in, or move on to other pressing problems? Those are tough questions for a citizen to answer. For now, I support the president.
Lafayette Flats, Buffalo, New York. Photo Credit – Wikimedia Commons.
Millennials seem unlikely to purchase homes in the same numbers as my cohort did. So many are sharing an apartment or house and paying rent. It becomes difficult for them to build equity the way I did when we paid down a mortgage. There are other consequences of living with others in a shared apartment or house.
The worm has turned on millennial home purchases according to some. When student loan payments were paused during the coronavirus pandemic, newly available funds were directed into home-buying. According to CNN, “The Department of Education said Wednesday it has approved the cancellation of nearly $5 billion more in federal student loan debt, bringing the total amount of student debt relief provided under the Biden administration to $132 billion for more than 3.6 million borrowers.” This should be a catalyst for more home-buying in the millennial cohort. Maybe they will catch up.
The other part of this financial equation is the lack of good-paying jobs. In part, this is driven by consolidation and outsourcing of functions in the business world. Pay packages have changed so more of compensation goes into hourly wages or contractor fees. Thanks Ronald Reagan and the Republicans for this crappy economic environment for younger people.
The change in types of jobs available also has to do with automation. The automation revolution began some time ago, yet it is taking off with force in 2023. Anything that can be done by a computer or robot will be. Human workers? Not needed as much any more.
Stuck living together with unrelated others is an issue, in particular, during the continuing coronavirus pandemic. According to the University of Minnesota, older adults made up 90 percent of U.S. COVID deaths in 2023. While the younger people the virus targets may be less likely to die of COVID, they continue to get sick and it’s debilitating. A goal for mixed households is to prevent the coronavirus from entering the residence. If it does get in, isolating individuals so they don’t contract it in close proximity to each other is a priority. For some that means shutting the door to a private room if they have one and not leaving one’s room except to use the plumbing.
I had a conversation this week about what food could be eaten in isolation from COVID without going to the kitchen or refrigerator often. It came down to only items that could be eaten as is, or made with boiling water. It didn’t take long to develop something both nutritious and filling. I had some ideas to contribute to the conversation.
When I was younger, I rode buses a lot. From time to time I encountered Hispanic men heading North for agricultural work from Mexico and points south. They solved the food issue for a long journey by making a meal of two cans of food: one beans with sauce and the other some kind of vegetable. They carried the full trip’s supply with them in their bags. It was shelf stable, filling, and reasonably nutritious. They could eat them while standing in a bus station and did.
When my group of Army officers left Germany in 1979-80, one of my buddies was assigned to the U.S. Army’s Fort Natick Labs. He participated in development of meals, ready to eat (MREs). Modern versions of these are available to the public, yet are too expensive for a person who has to share an apartment in order to live in a large city. They make nutritional eating, and people keep them in their bug-out bags to use in case of an emergency. The reality is there exists a generation that can’t afford to live, even in the most ideal economic circumstances, let alone in difficult situations during a time of contagion.
Eventually all the housing stock will become available as older generations die off. Perhaps prices will decline enough for millennials to buy. When I was born, I came home to a three generation home where an aunt and uncle lived along with Grandmother, Mother and Father. It was how they coped with limited income from mostly menial or low-skilled jobs. If I believe being related to housemates makes a difference, it’s because I have experience it has. Multi-generational households are a tradition that goes back deeply into my Appalachian roots. My forebears were dirt poor in many cases.
Being unrelated to others in a shared house is something different, though. I don’t have good advice for those who must do so. What may be the first step is realizing shared households have become a permanent fixture in the American landscape, a significant change from what has been. With such acceptance may come peace of mind if not riches. Peace of mind is well needed in a modern society that evolved around wealth migrating to the richest among us. It’s become a place where we must fend for ourselves.
The author’s first Thanksgiving in 1952 with Father and my maternal grandmother. Photo by Mother.
It would be great to write just one more post about Thanksgiving and be done with the holiday. Aside from the fact certain relatives get time off because of it, Turkey Day serves no useful purpose.
Politicians make hay over the cost of Thanksgiving dinner. The American Farm Bureau Association reported a 4.5 percent drop in price for the meal this year compared to last. The average cost of a dinner for ten people was $61.17, they said, although the longer term trend is an increase since 2019. Democrats focus on the price decrease, Republicans nit pick the data and find incremental increases, regardless of AFBA reporting. For example, the price of sauces and gravies is up 7.5 percent, reported my congresswoman. I think the purpose of the holiday is to be thankful for what we have and make sure everyone eats this day regardless of means. That gets lost in our politics.
There is social pressure to develop a narrative in response to the question, “How was your Thanksgiving?” Times I responded with “we didn’t do anything special,” killed the conversation. Years we prepared a special meal were at home, my spouse and myself. Because our child works in the entertainment industry, they usually had to work Thanksgiving. Who needs such social pressure? I’d rather discuss more important matters.
Thanksgiving is a boon to retailers and if one ventures out during the days before the holiday, a well-curated shopping list combined with excellent knowledge of store layouts is essential to maintaining good mental health. I went out on Monday and the stores were already crowded. Our specialty items for the big meal — sweet potatoes and wild rice — were already in the pantry so I stocked up with a 20-pound bag of organic rice, salt for the water softener, items for the freezer, and plant-based beverages. We were almost out of some items, otherwise I would have avoided shopping completely.
While growing up, Thanksgiving was a big deal and a living celebration. After Father died in 1969, the holidays weren’t as much fun any more. Eventually my side of the family just stopped celebrating Thanksgiving. In retrospect, my maternal grandmother was the person who held this tradition together. She died in 1991.
I no longer feel particularly alone on Thanksgiving, even if my spouse is away from home. With telephones and video conferencing, they day is highlighted by such contact and the opportunity to get caught up with each other. Anymore, contact doesn’t always happen on that Thursday, but during the days before and after.
Below is a Thanksgiving dinner we prepared for the two of us in 2013. We had leftovers for a week. We no longer prepare such massive feasts. Rice and beans makes a complete meal. Throw in a sweet potato and a relish tray and we are good to go.
Thanksgiving dinner in 2013.
I wish readers a happy holiday season. Hopefully we each have plenty for which to be thankful. Thanks for reading.
There were political groups, the Republicans came first…
Even though State Representative Brad Sherman is one of the most radical, right wing members of the Iowa legislature, a Democrat would have a heart of stone if they couldn’t empathize with his situation when he announced he would not seek re-election in House District 91.
Sherman wrote, “My Daughter (age 41) died suddenly and unexpectedly at the beginning of the summer, leaving her husband and 4 children (ages 15 to 7). Carole’s father (from SE Missouri) also died a short time later. Both of these events seriously changed our schedules. Then, throw in hip replacement surgery (six weeks ago) for good measure, and that pretty much summarizes our Summer and Fall.” After this boatload of trouble, Sherman decided to move out of district to Algona to be closer to the four grandchildren.
Sherman endorsed Judd Lawler as his replacement when he announced he wouldn’t run in the 2024 election. This is an old political trick, used by both Democrats and Republicans, to stave off competition in a primary. When Sherman ran in 2022, there were six Republicans in the primary, so it may be needed to ensure he influences his replacement.
What do we know about Lawler? Not much. He has been employed by Evelaw since January 2023 as a legal writing coach according to his LinkedIn profile. Here’s a screenshot from the Evelaw website:
I would argue the legislature already has too many lawyers. What matters more is where Judd will land on policy. According to Sherman’s endorsement, “Judd is a man of faith and a life-long conservative. He has a very impressive resume, yet he is a humble man with a sincere desire to serve.” That tells us a little. Lawler established a website which can be found here. Take a look and judge for yourself and judge whom he will serve in the legislature.
Suffice it to say that without Brad Sherman the dynamic of the race for this seat has changed. Now Democrats need a candidate.
I drove my 2019 Chevy Spark due west from North Liberty into gathering darkness between plot after plot of agricultural land. I paid close attention to the road as there was little traffic and light faded to darkness all around, making it difficult to see where the blacktop ended. A combine had its headlights on while harvesting corn.
The trip was an informal get-together of Iowa County Democrats and some friends from Johnson County. The big news of the evening was that extremist state legislator Brad Sherman, who represents us in House District 91, decided not to run for re-election. Republicans already recruited someone else to run for the seat. The only person who knew anything about them was a member of a farm family who saw him occasionally at the Farm Services Agency. The news surprised everyone.
(UPDATE: After this article was posted, Sherman made an announcement via email here).
I haven’t seen much of my Iowa County friends since the 2022 election. I felt I’d better attend to re-establish friendships begun during that campaign. Once we have candidates for the statehouse, I expect to be spending more time with them. It was announced no one decided to run for state senate or the house at this time.
A group from Johnson County was in attendance. My connection to many of them goes back to the 2004 campaign. I had fun chatting with them and getting caught up. We are all getting older. So many people came the restaurant had to call in extra staff to attend to us.
Iowa House Minority Leader Jennifer Konfrst attended. She represents the party well when communicating with media or the public in her leadership role. I told her as much. She said I should run for the House.
My spouse and I discussed me holding public office and it is not in our sweet spot. Who needs the public scrutiny that comes with it? In an Iowa House race, there will be scrutiny. I have been writing in public for so long I’ve taken more than a few extremely liberal positions in newspapers and on my blog. My support, with a small band of clergy, for Iowa City to become a Sanctuary City is sure to come up. I expect most of my controversial writing is easily accessible and would be used against me. Who needs that?
My friend Ed Flaherty, with whom ten of us started the Iowa Chapters of Veterans for Peace, was in attendance, as was his son. Ed and I discussed Saturday’s Armistice Recognition in Iowa City and I said I’d be there. His son Brian was chair of the Johnson County Democrats during the 2008 election cycle when Iowa voted for Barack Obama as president. I recently re-posted my story about closing down the offices here.
One of the people active in local demonstrations after Hamas bombed Israel last month was there. We reviewed the situation and planned actions. We also discussed Newman Abuissa’s Nov. 3 letter to the Cedar Rapids Gazette asking Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart to issue an apology for statements about antisemitism she made regarding a group of university students. Abuissa is chair of the IDP Arab American caucus and friends with James Zogby, founder and president of the Arab-American Institute. In Eastern Iowa we have plenty of connections to what’s happening in the Middle East.
I made it a point to seek out everyone I knew and catch up. By the time I made the rounds of every table, it was past my normal bedtime.I was so busy talking I forgot to order a beverage, which usually is a locally made root beer. To avoid back roads, I took Highway 6 back to the metropolitan area and made it safely home. I am glad I went to the gathering.
District-wide school board election results from the Johnson County, Iowa Auditor.
Election day was not a big deal in Big Grove Township as only 51 of 1,222 registered voters cast a ballot in the school board races. Locals realized the inevitability of two incumbents running for two positions they held the last term or longer. If people wanted to vote, fine. Most realized a single vote did not make a difference during this election and found other things to do with their time. There are no trends to observe or wisdom to be garnered from the results now known.
Congratulations to Adam Haluska and Jami Wolf for deciding to serve on the school board another four years and then for winning their uncontested race.
The contested races for Solon School Board were in 2019 and 2021 when there were more candidates running against establishment views. Establishment voters beat them all down. Apparently, this same surge of younger people running for the board didn’t see an opportunity this cycle.
Elsewhere in the county progressives mostly won. Of note is that Laura Bergus beat incumbent Pauline Taylor in the District A Iowa City City Council race 5,942 votes to 2,995. Bergus ran an innovative campaign and brought in a number of younger voters. Her victory was a sign that the electorate is turning away from the long-time Johnson County Democratic machine into something more hopeful. It was a shocker when SEIU, the union Taylor helped organize in the county, endorsed Bergus. It was also a sign of the times.
Statewide, the book banners, curriculum white-washers, and so-called pro-parent groups did poorly as their bankrupt ideas indicated they should. Those folks were not an identified presence in Big Grove Township. If anything, the Solon District is built around parents who want a say in how the school operates. That’s why it attracts so many young, Republican people to the area. The conservatism is baked into why the schools are what they are.
In the rest of the country, it was a good night for progressive policies. I usually follow Virginia politics as my father’s family came from coal country in the Southwestern part of the state. This time, Virginia Democrats retained the state senate and flipped the state house to Democratic. Well done, Virginia.
I don’t have anything to say about the Ohio initiative to enshrine in the state constitution the right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions. Scores of articles appeared after the polls closed to examine that issue. Pro choice folks scored a victory, and deserve one minute of celebration. With abortion, there is almost never agreement or a final word. The compromises in Roe vs. Wade are likely the best society could do. The U.S. Supreme Court unleashed chaos when they overturned Roe. Any reasonable person would say the court’s action was intentional, long-planned, and based on what moneyed interests want the court to do.
Here in Big Grove Township we don’t get all drama-queen about elections any longer. We’re just thankful there were two candidates on the ballot for two positions. In the nearby City of Swisher, it was write-in votes only as no one ran for mayor. 104 voters wrote someone in. Let’s hope they take the job, something not always guaranteed.
“There comes a time maybe every six, eight generations where the world changes in a very short time. We are at that time now, and I think what happens in the next 2-3 years is going to determine what the world looks like for the next five or six decades.” ~Joe Biden, Nov. 2, 2023
In the midst of political turmoil — both at home and abroad — it’s now or never that we rescue our falling democracies. The window to preserve and advance Democratic ideals is closing as authoritarianism envelopes the land. As Biden indicated above, the next couple of years will be pivotal.
I plan to do something in the next year to help Democrats win elections. Even though state legislative races in my districts are likely lost causes for Democrats, there is much good to be done elsewhere. If nothing else, I plan to work to re-elect Joe Biden and push Christina Bohannan further than she could make it last cycle. That’s a starting point. The problems we Democrats face are deeper than that.
People don’t have common sense. Common sense itself has flown to warmer climates leaving a settled landscape where industrial methods of crop production yield fuel and food hardly palatable for humans without feeding it to some food processor or biological intermediary like hogs, chicken, sheep or cattle. We have become proselytes of the party of “what’s in it for me.” As long as our interests are protected in politics, we are satisfied to turn our heads to avoid what else we might see.
We may well be at the point where traditional methods of winning votes are no longer relevant. When I knocked doors during the 2020 election, to a person, everyone had made up their mind whether they were voting, and for whom. They also had decided how they would spend their political time during the campaign. Everyone was influenced before I got there, and it wasn’t by another person like me who knocked on their door previously. More than any time I recall, broader influences are at work in society and they impact our elections. In 2020, Donald J. Trump beat Joe Biden by 128,611 votes in Iowa. I look around my neighborhood — dominated by Republicans I know — and this margin of victory just doesn’t make sense. Without understanding the forces at work in society, it’s difficult to know what we should do to bring common sense back to Iowa voters.
I’m on the county party’s central committee mostly because no one else in my precinct will take the seat. The second seat from our precinct was not filled for lack of a volunteer at the last caucus. I missed the last two central committee meetings, mostly because even though they were on my calendar, I spaced them off. I used to be diligent about keeping appointments, yet when it comes to a political organization that lost relevance to common voters like me, attending meetings is not a high priority. The organizational structure is not going away, yet it needs to gain relevance and soon. There is less than a year until we vote in the 2024 General Election.
What is it possible to do to save Democracy from the authoritarians? I don’t know yet intend to find out.
The election is three weeks away and it will be anti-climactic in Big Grove Township. There are two candidates for two open school board seats and that’s it. The incumbents are competent people and they earned my support this election. We haven’t decided when and where we will vote, yet in all likelihood it will be at our regular polling place on election day.
Our household is following the news and we’re looking for some positive light. It has been in short supply. It seems the Middle East War will expand beyond Hamas and Israel despite President Joe Biden’s competent management of American support for Israel and the Palestinian people. Expansion of the conflict is not certain, yet there are so many players and so many years of hostilities and conflict, dodging a broader war seems impossible. It is not a good, short-term sign that Israelis are turning against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right wing divisiveness at this moment.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Republicans have yet to elect a speaker after removing Kevin McCarthy on Oct. 5. We have until Nov. 17 to pass a budget or the government will face another cliff and need to pass a second continuing resolution. I’m okay with the Republican plan to pass individual spending bills instead of an omnibus or minibus bill. The clock is running out on their ability to do so and gain U.S. Senate agreement.
Iowa is literally turning into a sick place to live. Our leading causes of death (2021 data) are heart disease and cancer. Iowa is ranked 16th among the states in deaths from heart disease and 24th from cancer. Since 2021, data from the Iowa Cancer Registry indicates Iowa has the second highest incidence rate of cancer in the country. With harvest in full swing, particulate matter in the air is at high levels, afflicting people with respiratory diseases. A report released yesterday indicated Iowans’ incidence of COPD is higher than the national average. Rates of chronic lower respiratory diseases in Iowa are the fifth leading cause of death.
It is important to keep hope alive, despite the challenges of doing so.
After turning soil in the new garlic plot the next steps are breaking up the heads of seed garlic to pick the best 100 cloves, spreading composted chicken manure over the plot, and running the rototiller until the soil is thoroughly mixed. This year the soil is a bit diverse with composted wood chips, compost from the large garden waste composter, and a variety of soil types from planting a diverse mix of vegetables here. Gardening is always an experiment. We’ll see how garlic in this mixed plot goes.
Garlic marks the last planting of the year. From here, garden work consists of taking down all the fencing and caging and stacking it for next year. I don’t always finish that work, leaving some of it for spring.
My posts about garlic are among the most popular on this blog.
Seed garlic 2023.
Last night, two of my political friends Laura Bergus and Pauline Taylor won their primary to advance to the City Council ballot in November. Here in Big Grove, the November election is not significant. As I covered previously, there are two incumbents running for two school board seats and that’s it. Our household plans to vote.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks were both on a trip to the Middle East when Hamas attacked Israel. Miller-Meeks returned early for the House Speaker election today, and Senator Ernst met with Prime Minister Netanyahu on Tuesday. Ernst is co-chair of the Abraham Accords Caucus and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee. While she was there, Israel had begun bombing Gaza. The situation in the Middle East is complicated. The Hamas attack on Israel is not and the United States stepped up to help.
I am working my way off Twitter. I uninstalled the application from my mobile device and read it only on my desktop. There continue to be too many newsworthy accounts and too many valued friends and acquaintances there to give it up completely. Eventually, though, I will. Not having the application on my mobile lets me know how much I relied on it. That needs changing.
Rain is forecast around noon today. I hope to have garlic planted before it comes. It has been unseasonably warm, so if I miss the window, there will be another.
Journey Home 
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