Oh, Cheryl, you've done it again. Your perspective and writing ability give us real insight into some of the wild bills being proposed (and passed) by this legislature!
While it's clear that a threat to the 4-H crowd is far more likely to move the Iowa electorate, the fact is the impact of legislation like SF167 will fall squarely on the backs of the most vulnerable Iowans - poor families, immigrant families, families who aren't white. And this is by design.
The same folks who were making bets on how many meat packing workers would die from covid are now making bets on how many of those workers' children can be sacrificed to the God of Dollars before the rest of us - those with resources, with voices, with choices - decide to do something about it.
Even the kids who manage to survive the industrial landscape that's fattening the purses of Reynolds & co -the meat packing plants, the giant hog confinements, the industrial ag operations - are being lined up in front of that sacrificial altar: no education = no way out. They'll labor to enrich the richest of us until their health fails - which will happen quickly in that landscape - and there will be no pensions, no retirement funds, no health care, no future for them.
In the meantime, a whole lot of wealth will be created on the backs of those workers, but the vast majority of Iowans will never see a dime of it. Unless you're Kim Reynolds or Chuck Grassley or Randy Pflum or a Maschhoff, what you'll end up with is the butcher's bill: disintegrating public education, disappearing rural communities and family farms, a destroyed natural landscape, decimated wildlife habitats, and the waste product of all those used-up lives - hungry kids, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, rising crime and criminal recidivism, homelessness, substance abuse and more.
When will Iowans understand that our communities, small and large, can only ever be as healthy as their weakest members?
When will we stop allowing the vultures to steal our children's futures?
You are correct that the most vulnerable Iowans are poorer and nonwhite teenagers. If someone could only tell me what happened to the common good philosophy that was part of the social fabric of our lives, and served this country so well over the generations. So few today seem to believe that we are in this together, and we need to pay it forward.
It's called reactionism, and it has always dragged us back a step (or two) for every step we manage in a positive direction. If it makes you feel any better, it's far from new - and we've managed to make progress in spite of it.
This new incarnation of the Republican Party, while alarming, is also nothing new. It's called fascism, and it pulls the most unbalanced of power- & money-hungry maniacs every damn time.
The challenge now is to defeat it *before* it unravels into a violent struggle of the people against the regime. Because while history teaches us that fascism doesn't win, it also shows us that the stronger it grows, the higher the price becomes to get out from under it.
Great column. We have too many elected officials who never learned, or have forgotten, the lessons from farm accidents involving children in the past. I was driving tractors and pickups on the road for my father when it was very difficult for me to reach the pedals to shift gears or stop (starting age 9 or 10). Looking back, I cannot believe my parents allowed that.
often think of Marilyn Adams and meeting her before she really had her organization up and going. She explained she named it as she did because she’d heard so many people say, “Well, they’re just kids.” She was asking a room full of farm women if we thought our kids were disposable.
Thank you. I spoke to Marilyn on the phone a few weeks ago. She took her personal experience of loss, and achieved a world of good for others. It's not a "one-and-done" campaign, as I've noticed the assumption that the problem has been solved. Unfortunately, the next generation easily backslides if the issues are not kept in the forefront.
Oh, Cheryl, you've done it again. Your perspective and writing ability give us real insight into some of the wild bills being proposed (and passed) by this legislature!
While it's clear that a threat to the 4-H crowd is far more likely to move the Iowa electorate, the fact is the impact of legislation like SF167 will fall squarely on the backs of the most vulnerable Iowans - poor families, immigrant families, families who aren't white. And this is by design.
The same folks who were making bets on how many meat packing workers would die from covid are now making bets on how many of those workers' children can be sacrificed to the God of Dollars before the rest of us - those with resources, with voices, with choices - decide to do something about it.
Even the kids who manage to survive the industrial landscape that's fattening the purses of Reynolds & co -the meat packing plants, the giant hog confinements, the industrial ag operations - are being lined up in front of that sacrificial altar: no education = no way out. They'll labor to enrich the richest of us until their health fails - which will happen quickly in that landscape - and there will be no pensions, no retirement funds, no health care, no future for them.
In the meantime, a whole lot of wealth will be created on the backs of those workers, but the vast majority of Iowans will never see a dime of it. Unless you're Kim Reynolds or Chuck Grassley or Randy Pflum or a Maschhoff, what you'll end up with is the butcher's bill: disintegrating public education, disappearing rural communities and family farms, a destroyed natural landscape, decimated wildlife habitats, and the waste product of all those used-up lives - hungry kids, juvenile delinquency, teen pregnancy, rising crime and criminal recidivism, homelessness, substance abuse and more.
When will Iowans understand that our communities, small and large, can only ever be as healthy as their weakest members?
When will we stop allowing the vultures to steal our children's futures?
You are correct that the most vulnerable Iowans are poorer and nonwhite teenagers. If someone could only tell me what happened to the common good philosophy that was part of the social fabric of our lives, and served this country so well over the generations. So few today seem to believe that we are in this together, and we need to pay it forward.
It's called reactionism, and it has always dragged us back a step (or two) for every step we manage in a positive direction. If it makes you feel any better, it's far from new - and we've managed to make progress in spite of it.
This new incarnation of the Republican Party, while alarming, is also nothing new. It's called fascism, and it pulls the most unbalanced of power- & money-hungry maniacs every damn time.
The challenge now is to defeat it *before* it unravels into a violent struggle of the people against the regime. Because while history teaches us that fascism doesn't win, it also shows us that the stronger it grows, the higher the price becomes to get out from under it.
Great column. We have too many elected officials who never learned, or have forgotten, the lessons from farm accidents involving children in the past. I was driving tractors and pickups on the road for my father when it was very difficult for me to reach the pedals to shift gears or stop (starting age 9 or 10). Looking back, I cannot believe my parents allowed that.
Glad that you survived your early tractor-driving days, John. It definitely is a tradition that needs to be traded in once and for all. Thank you.
often think of Marilyn Adams and meeting her before she really had her organization up and going. She explained she named it as she did because she’d heard so many people say, “Well, they’re just kids.” She was asking a room full of farm women if we thought our kids were disposable.
Thank you. I spoke to Marilyn on the phone a few weeks ago. She took her personal experience of loss, and achieved a world of good for others. It's not a "one-and-done" campaign, as I've noticed the assumption that the problem has been solved. Unfortunately, the next generation easily backslides if the issues are not kept in the forefront.