I’m writing this from cross country camp—our annual tradition of running too many miles, eating too much pasta, and pretending sleeping in bunk beds is somehow good for “team bonding.” Two years ago, I was here in the exact same camp in who knows where Illinois, but I was a very ...
I have the same upsetting concerns felt by all of us — for example, cuts in Medicare, growing the national debt, rising prices — all are really worrisome. But I must refer to another concern where our representatives and senators have let us down. The federal funding for Iowa Public TV ...
Many rural Coloradans, especially in agricultural communities, feel looked down on by their urban counterparts. One cattle rancher I spoke to put it plainly. “It’s an attitude … we are the idiots … we are the dumb farmers … we don’t really matter.” The sentiment is also ...
Finally, we're the "top of the class." Eighth graders at St Joseph's School in Chelsea, Iowa. Top dogs! No more being second-class runts! We're the Cats! Numero Uno! Our 8th grade class of 1963/64 included Lindi, Becky, Jeanne, Connie, Susie, Marlene, Kathy, Tom, Tom, the twins, Jim ...
I believe memory is sometimes a collective thing. Occasionally, a person will have a memory which will cause another to remember something else which will then in turn cause another to remember something entirely different. However, if all this sparks from your Ma remembering something from ...
There’s nothing quite like the Iowa State Fair to remind you what “Iowan culture” really means. Naturally, I went with my friend Tommy to do some deep anthropological research, because what better way to study culture than by watching a group of women holler “Haaaarrrr-old!” at the ...
Mid-Iowa Community Action (MICA) changes the lives of nearly one in eight people in central Iowa, around 25,000 people per year. Poverty isn’t unique to us—it touches nearly every town and county in the U.S., but what is happening in Tama County, Iowa, isn’t the same as in Dallas County, ...
Dictator Trump called in the National Guard to protect people in Washington D.C. The same dictator Donald Trump pardoned people who attacked the U.S.A. Capitol. When will Ashley Hinson, Dean Fisher and other Republicans stop kissing Trump’s butt? I can't wait for the day dictator Donald Trump ...
There used to be a Russian Colony just north of San Francisco, which was part of Mexico, in the early 1800s. With President Trump meeting with Putin in Alaska, which was itself bought from Imperial Russia, it's all leading up to a importination of renewed Russian expansion. Feeding into the ...
If you want to understand a place, the U.S. Census is a good place to start. Every ten years, it freezes a community in time, counting every person who calls it home. But here’s the thing—numbers only tell part of the story. In small-town Iowa, the real truth lies between the lines, in the ...