These remarks were delivered to the Storm Lake United Banquet on April 17. You realize that you have almost achieved fossil status when you are asked to review the past half-century in Storm Lake, and how it has changed. I was a junior at St. Mary’s High School in 1974. We had nuns teaching math, science and English. I miss them now in my dotage. They rapped my knuckles with a ruler. Told me to take my hat off indoors and say thank you. They taught me how to write. For that, I won a Pulitzer Prize, which generated a movie about Storm Lake that has screened around the world, most recently in Odesa, Ukraine. I have been across the country speaking about The City Beautiful for the past seven years to large crowds and small, and they marvel what this little town with a big heart has done.
Storm Lake has a great story to tell. Thank you for sharing Storm Lake's history with us, Art. What happened, and continues to happen, in and around your home town is a testament to all of those people who knew and know now that you must plan for the future. Well done, Storm Lake.
This is a direct quote from Republican President Ronald Reagan: July 30, 1981 — Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy – “Our nation is a nation of immigrants. More than any other country, our strength comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands. No free and prosperous nation can by itself accommodate all those who seek a better life or flee persecution. We must share this responsibility with other countries.”
My own comment: Any person who will walk from Honduras to Texas has the determination and courage to reroof my house or work in a meatpacking plant where wages are pushed low by the consolidation/monopolization of 4 or 5 companies who control not only wages, but also prices. The corporate monopolies busted unions and lowered wages. Immigrants were willing to accept them because anything was better than their home countries. They are being abused by the corporations they work for.
If you are not a Native American you have benefited from the courage of your immigrant ancestors.
You have that great “guy next door” relatable way of writing, Art. Always enjoyed it. You still come off as a shill for corporate ag, though you make the mandatory nod to environmental damage caused by corporate ag. You still insist the humbling and impoverishment of workers should be excused. You imply regularly that diversity is a social good of some sort even though it results in corporate outlaws abusing their workers., workers who have no voice.
Diversity is a virtue of the comfortable professional class. They just happen to be the core of the Clintonized Democratic Party. If diversity results in poverty it’s evil.
Storm Lake has a great story to tell. Thank you for sharing Storm Lake's history with us, Art. What happened, and continues to happen, in and around your home town is a testament to all of those people who knew and know now that you must plan for the future. Well done, Storm Lake.
This is a direct quote from Republican President Ronald Reagan: July 30, 1981 — Statement on United States Immigration and Refugee Policy – “Our nation is a nation of immigrants. More than any other country, our strength comes from our own immigrant heritage and our capacity to welcome those from other lands. No free and prosperous nation can by itself accommodate all those who seek a better life or flee persecution. We must share this responsibility with other countries.”
My own comment: Any person who will walk from Honduras to Texas has the determination and courage to reroof my house or work in a meatpacking plant where wages are pushed low by the consolidation/monopolization of 4 or 5 companies who control not only wages, but also prices. The corporate monopolies busted unions and lowered wages. Immigrants were willing to accept them because anything was better than their home countries. They are being abused by the corporations they work for.
If you are not a Native American you have benefited from the courage of your immigrant ancestors.
You have that great “guy next door” relatable way of writing, Art. Always enjoyed it. You still come off as a shill for corporate ag, though you make the mandatory nod to environmental damage caused by corporate ag. You still insist the humbling and impoverishment of workers should be excused. You imply regularly that diversity is a social good of some sort even though it results in corporate outlaws abusing their workers., workers who have no voice.
Diversity is a virtue of the comfortable professional class. They just happen to be the core of the Clintonized Democratic Party. If diversity results in poverty it’s evil.
What make you so angry and pessimistic?
Supposed liberals in full support of corporate outlaws. Creeps getting rich on the backs of poor people. A diverse workforce is always the fallback.
Sounds like a lot of anger. What's the solution?