Hey Art, A lot of us "soon to be octogenarians" would get on the bus to Minnesota or the airplane to Finland if we could climb the bus stairs to our seats, make it to the plane door without having to be resuscitated and be so fortunate to find a kind person to carry us to the cab, on the curb, to drive us to our final destination. What keeps us here in Iowa are the "golden hand cuffs" of our primary care physician and our pharmacist who work hard to keep us alive and the proximity to cemetery plots of loved ones and friends, and, of course, our plans to rest near them. The memories of growing up in the '50s and '60s are glorious. Then, Iowa was definitely "a place to grow". Today, Iowa is "a place to avoid".
Well done - Art, you have an impressive way of approaching a serious subject with a light touch, creating an article that's eminently readable and will - we hope - make some stop and think about what's going on. At least Iowa, being a "red" state, will not suffer the indignities of having National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Des Moines. Of the current situation in Washington D.C., Jamelle Bouie observed in The NY Times, "The vast majority of soldiers and agents deployed to Washington are stationed in the vicinity of the White House". A reader responded with "Give credit where credit is due. They got that one right. Most of Washington's crime wave is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." I couldn't have said it better myself.
In preparing a funeral sermon I conducted yesterday (the deceased leaned to the left, bless his heart) I ran across a couple of pithy aphorisms from William Sloan Coffin, minister of the Riverside Church in New York City during the sixties: Hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts! Your articles are full of hope! Thanks!
I feel such a sadness as I read this very accurate portrayal of the disappearance of Iowa. This on the day Trump is emptying out museums and saying we portray slavery in a too negative light. Goddess help us.
Next comes the Nazi concentration being billed as too horrific . Not sure if it was look or life but one of the top WW2 photographers had his work on concentration camps published, horrifying, absolutely shocking 😳
Sarah Booz surmises correctly; Minnesotans care deeply about water quality and act on it. We left after living in Iowa almost 40 years. Our sons and-more importantly-our grandchild were living in Minnesota by then and we saw the writing on the wall in the early 21st century. We mourn the loss of the Iowa we once knew.
I agree with you 100%! We lived in Iowa for a couple of years after we were first married in the late sixties. Great place! Jobs took us elsewhere, but two of our daughters chose Iowa. Now one of them is leaving and moving to Minnesota because of the things you mentioned. The other is closing in on retirement and staying put for now. None of us likes what Iowa has become! Thanks for articulating some of the reasons!
Thanks, Art. Just yesterday I ran across an opinion piece I photocopied way-back-when: "There are reasons people leave: The wonder is that any of them stay," Jim Walters, Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 18, 2000.
It begins: "A few worried folks have begun to express concern about the continuing exodus of 'educated' young people from our state."
It ends: "It's no wonder that our 'educated' young people flee this state. The wonder is that any of them stay."
A tidbit from the middle: "Maybe that photo of Gov. Terry Branstad (just another 'working farmer,' like his big brother Sen. Chuck Grassley) pulling the lever of a slot machine to christen the first riverboat gambling emporium. Farm boy meets Mammon!"
Lets give Sarah Trone-Garriott, Jackie Norris and a few of the other younger (none of the Democrats running will qualify for Medicare in my lifetime) a shot at this, at restoring what was right with Iowa. Our Education was the hallmark of the Country, I remember as I started working out of state in the early 1980's how people would react when I said I was from Iowa: "the Basic Skills Iowa?" they would ask and it was a source of pride. Or how Iowa was the World's Grocer, we even had a hand in nominating a few good men (and women) for President. We're led by robber barons and old cronies trying to get a better monument for the tombstones.
Just finished the book, "Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind" by Grace Olmstead. She writes on Substack too. Talks about both sides of the debate to leave or stay, worthy read on this topic for Iowans and how determined we are to be rooted or if we feel we owe anything to our native place.
I just spent a few hours this morning on a Warren County prairie remnant, photographing. There was ground fog in the low swales. I eat a delicious peach and reflected when I was finished. Your post this morning Art is an indictment on our loss of freedoms. To the young people who are cutting and running, please don't. Stay with us a while longer and help turn this State around. It will only happen with your help. Find the peace you are looking for in nature. It gives us the energy to carry on.
Our family has been in iowa for 8 generations since the new purchase in 1843. Dad left to fight in the Korean war, returned to the farm, got into a farm accident, and ended up reenlisting. While we live out of state now, my parents have a remnant of the ancestral farm, which i have managed with help from my daughter during the last 20 years, with boots on the ground two or three times each year. I had hoped she would eventually take it over but she finds rural Iowa to be a frightening place—lacking in human biodiversity and having lax gun laws (the farm is next to a shooting range masking as a conservation project). It’s sad to foresee the loss of our family's long ancestral history in Iowa, but I can appreciate my daughter’s perspective, which is reflected in your substack, Art.
Big cities, liberal lifestyles, sea coasts, mountains, technology, warmer weather, etc., etc. have an understandable allure, so I would do it backwards: encourage the young to leave, to explore, to experience, to travel, to educate, to meet and greet, to learn about the world through interaction and experience. Trust them to be the best they can wherever they land.
Yes, there is a huge Iowa diaspora out there and many won't return, but many will, some sooner, some later. You really must leave Iowa to appreciate it, and until you see the problems that afflict any and every place you cannot put our culture in perspective.
Wow! I think this is my favorite column of yours. Everything you said is what I’ve been feeling but unable to put into words. I miss the Iowa I was raised in.
I fled Iowa in 1968 for college and didn't return until last year. The politics are abhorrent, but by chance, our daughter and her family ended up here. So, here we are in our old age: One transplanted Chicagoan and one Iowa boomerranger, by way of 29 years in Arizona. I tell my wife we're not living in the real Iowa, we're in Polk County.
Hey Art, A lot of us "soon to be octogenarians" would get on the bus to Minnesota or the airplane to Finland if we could climb the bus stairs to our seats, make it to the plane door without having to be resuscitated and be so fortunate to find a kind person to carry us to the cab, on the curb, to drive us to our final destination. What keeps us here in Iowa are the "golden hand cuffs" of our primary care physician and our pharmacist who work hard to keep us alive and the proximity to cemetery plots of loved ones and friends, and, of course, our plans to rest near them. The memories of growing up in the '50s and '60s are glorious. Then, Iowa was definitely "a place to grow". Today, Iowa is "a place to avoid".
“Golden handcuffs of our primary physician”- I was just thinking of what it would take to move away from Iowa and these words put it perfectly.
I was going to make a similar comment but you said it well.
Well done - Art, you have an impressive way of approaching a serious subject with a light touch, creating an article that's eminently readable and will - we hope - make some stop and think about what's going on. At least Iowa, being a "red" state, will not suffer the indignities of having National Guard troops patrolling the streets of Des Moines. Of the current situation in Washington D.C., Jamelle Bouie observed in The NY Times, "The vast majority of soldiers and agents deployed to Washington are stationed in the vicinity of the White House". A reader responded with "Give credit where credit is due. They got that one right. Most of Washington's crime wave is at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue." I couldn't have said it better myself.
In preparing a funeral sermon I conducted yesterday (the deceased leaned to the left, bless his heart) I ran across a couple of pithy aphorisms from William Sloan Coffin, minister of the Riverside Church in New York City during the sixties: Hope criticizes what is, hopelessness rationalizes it. Hope resists, hopelessness adapts! Your articles are full of hope! Thanks!
I feel such a sadness as I read this very accurate portrayal of the disappearance of Iowa. This on the day Trump is emptying out museums and saying we portray slavery in a too negative light. Goddess help us.
Next comes the Nazi concentration being billed as too horrific . Not sure if it was look or life but one of the top WW2 photographers had his work on concentration camps published, horrifying, absolutely shocking 😳
Sarah Booz surmises correctly; Minnesotans care deeply about water quality and act on it. We left after living in Iowa almost 40 years. Our sons and-more importantly-our grandchild were living in Minnesota by then and we saw the writing on the wall in the early 21st century. We mourn the loss of the Iowa we once knew.
I agree with you 100%! We lived in Iowa for a couple of years after we were first married in the late sixties. Great place! Jobs took us elsewhere, but two of our daughters chose Iowa. Now one of them is leaving and moving to Minnesota because of the things you mentioned. The other is closing in on retirement and staying put for now. None of us likes what Iowa has become! Thanks for articulating some of the reasons!
Thanks, Art. Just yesterday I ran across an opinion piece I photocopied way-back-when: "There are reasons people leave: The wonder is that any of them stay," Jim Walters, Iowa City Press-Citizen, August 18, 2000.
It begins: "A few worried folks have begun to express concern about the continuing exodus of 'educated' young people from our state."
It ends: "It's no wonder that our 'educated' young people flee this state. The wonder is that any of them stay."
A tidbit from the middle: "Maybe that photo of Gov. Terry Branstad (just another 'working farmer,' like his big brother Sen. Chuck Grassley) pulling the lever of a slot machine to christen the first riverboat gambling emporium. Farm boy meets Mammon!"
Lets give Sarah Trone-Garriott, Jackie Norris and a few of the other younger (none of the Democrats running will qualify for Medicare in my lifetime) a shot at this, at restoring what was right with Iowa. Our Education was the hallmark of the Country, I remember as I started working out of state in the early 1980's how people would react when I said I was from Iowa: "the Basic Skills Iowa?" they would ask and it was a source of pride. Or how Iowa was the World's Grocer, we even had a hand in nominating a few good men (and women) for President. We're led by robber barons and old cronies trying to get a better monument for the tombstones.
Well said Art, again! How do you do that?!...
Just finished the book, "Uprooted: Recovering the Legacy of the Places We've Left Behind" by Grace Olmstead. She writes on Substack too. Talks about both sides of the debate to leave or stay, worthy read on this topic for Iowans and how determined we are to be rooted or if we feel we owe anything to our native place.
I just spent a few hours this morning on a Warren County prairie remnant, photographing. There was ground fog in the low swales. I eat a delicious peach and reflected when I was finished. Your post this morning Art is an indictment on our loss of freedoms. To the young people who are cutting and running, please don't. Stay with us a while longer and help turn this State around. It will only happen with your help. Find the peace you are looking for in nature. It gives us the energy to carry on.
Our family has been in iowa for 8 generations since the new purchase in 1843. Dad left to fight in the Korean war, returned to the farm, got into a farm accident, and ended up reenlisting. While we live out of state now, my parents have a remnant of the ancestral farm, which i have managed with help from my daughter during the last 20 years, with boots on the ground two or three times each year. I had hoped she would eventually take it over but she finds rural Iowa to be a frightening place—lacking in human biodiversity and having lax gun laws (the farm is next to a shooting range masking as a conservation project). It’s sad to foresee the loss of our family's long ancestral history in Iowa, but I can appreciate my daughter’s perspective, which is reflected in your substack, Art.
We are in the camp of we won’t leave just to piss them off! And Iowa, the good and the bad of all if it is home.
Big cities, liberal lifestyles, sea coasts, mountains, technology, warmer weather, etc., etc. have an understandable allure, so I would do it backwards: encourage the young to leave, to explore, to experience, to travel, to educate, to meet and greet, to learn about the world through interaction and experience. Trust them to be the best they can wherever they land.
Yes, there is a huge Iowa diaspora out there and many won't return, but many will, some sooner, some later. You really must leave Iowa to appreciate it, and until you see the problems that afflict any and every place you cannot put our culture in perspective.
Yes except they are being driven out by pollution, which isn’t exactly a free choice.
Wow! I think this is my favorite column of yours. Everything you said is what I’ve been feeling but unable to put into words. I miss the Iowa I was raised in.
I fled Iowa in 1968 for college and didn't return until last year. The politics are abhorrent, but by chance, our daughter and her family ended up here. So, here we are in our old age: One transplanted Chicagoan and one Iowa boomerranger, by way of 29 years in Arizona. I tell my wife we're not living in the real Iowa, we're in Polk County.
Sigh! The truth hurts . . .