"Until Iowa" Thirty Four Days

How Many Days “Until Iowa”?  Writing this New Year’s Eve, it’s 34 days until the Iowa Caucuses, but “Iowa” has been a state since 1846, and indigenous tribes lived on this land centuries before. Democratic candidates have spent months here. We have had the privilege and responsibility of meeting and having conversations with many. Iowa is! However, during the “until” I have decided to post some of my observations. So, here goes for today! 

The perception remains among some that Iowa is “fly over country” where people don’t live in the 21^st century. For instance, I noticed that whoever prepared the current TV ad for Andrew Yang pictured a farm woman and child standing in front of an old fashioned windmill from 70 years ago. Missing in the picture are the wind turbines one sees driving (or flying over) this state. Iowa leads the nation in per capita wind power capacity. Iowa was the first state to generate more than 30% of its electricity with wind power. The climate crisis is real and we need to act now.  More on “Until Iowa” in posts to come.

Impeachment is not Just a Football Game

Why pay attention if we know how it’s going to turn out? I heard a man say, “This impeachment thing is like football game. If I’ve already heard the final score, I don’t want to watch the game later on TV.” But of course it’s not a game, not football, and not just a partisan “thing”—unless that’s the way one frames it. If one listens carefully, and reads, the impeachment process draws us back to the central idea and foundations of this country.  We are called to study again, or for the first time, the U.S. Constitution and to think deeply about Democracy and rule of law and governance by the people, not a monarch. Democracies across the world are in danger today. Leaders who want power for themselves, and an  atmosphere of fear of the “other,” threaten the world and the earth itself.

We boldly go to war to “fight for our freedom.” So costly in lives! How noble. This is also a time for nobility, one that does not call for guns: nobility and  integrity, and wisdom. Democracy, our constitution, and freedom to care for one another, including strangers, as people and as nations together is at stake. We must pay attention.