Iowa Lacks Public Land, But We Can Help Right Now

I love the outdoors. It’s a place of solitude and calm. It’s worth traveling for.

But it’s also necessary to preserve places here, near home. 

That’s why I’m going to flip my ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million county conservation bond.

The previous bond helped build out the beautiful Clear Creek and the Iowa River trails, where I’ve biked through rolling hills and to community events; acquire the Pechman Creek Delta, where I’ll be bow hunting for deer this fall; buy the Ciha Fen Preserve, which I discovered through Will Kapp’s lovely local hikes book (and where I was when I learned the result of the 2020 election and let out a deep sigh of relief); and with about 12 other big projects throughout Johnson County.

I want more and know we deserve it. Iowa ranks 47th on percentage of public land, and this is a meaningful step we can take locally to expand this and persevere more natural public spaces for the future.

When you vote, please take the time to flip your ballot over and vote “yes” on the $30 million Johnson County conservation bond.

Early voting started today.

La Traversée de Charlevoix

We did the thing.

Backpacking is a weird pastime. Walks in nature? Everyone agrees they’re great. Long walks in nature, day after day, regardless of the weather, carrying your food, bedding, clothes and all the other things you need while forgoing basic hygiene? Through hiking? Weird.

But weird is where challenge is. And where challenge lies, there lies the chance for growth and transformation. Yes, there’s basking in the majesty of the natural world. Eating lunch by a creek or on top of a mountain and discovering moose prints and new fungi, but there’s also pushing through the mental slog of hours of rain and mud and the miles of rocks and roots. And then there’s spending 24 hours a day with your partner, unbathed and unvarnished. And in there is a serious metaphor for relationships and life. 

We did the thing.

The thing we did:

📍La Traversée de Charlevoix, Quebec, Canada 

🗓️ 7 days, including three of rain

🚶109 km (68 miles) end to end

📈 3,336 m (10,945 feet) of gain

📉 -3,686 m (12,093 feet) of drop 

It’s Not Even Worth Criticizing Anymore

My camera roll contains this front page from the Iowa City Press-Citizen with a story about a one-term president who’s been dead for 60 years:

Meanwhile, one of my mentors, former music critic and now emeritus professor Don McLeese, writes on social media about a Des Moines Register review of Foreigner’s Iowa State Fair performance:

An embarrassment, but I fault the paper rather than the reporter pressed into service. In graf 3 we get the names of all founding members, none of whom are currently in the band, while graf 4 gives the names of who is now in the band, without saying who does or plays what. But really, when this is your lead graf, you’ve got nowhere to go but. . .nowhere:

“Though Foreigner might be on their Farewell Tour, it felt like the very first time, as the band proved to the crowd of 11,141 on the second day of the Iowa State Fair that they will forever be one of the greatest rock bands of all time.”

This is not a bash-the-reporter post. It’s just hard to even feel like it’s worth criticizing Gannet, which strictly paywalls its sites, makes it impossible to unsubscribe, doesn’t offer its reporters the support — editors, pay, guidance, mentorship — they deserve and isn’t producing news that serve its communities.

The criticism I’ve leveled in this space over the past 15-plus years have often been dopey, but mocking critiquing has always come with some hope for improvement. That hasn’t been possible at Gannet properties for a while now, and my disappointment and acceptance is now complete, making this the last time I plan to acknowledge the present-tense existence of these papers.

So -30-, I guess.

Mercy Iowa City bondholders fear their payout dwindling

Vanessa Miller in The Gazette:

Nearly two months after a bankruptcy judge confirmed a liquidation plan for the former Mercy Iowa City’s tens of millions in assets, secured bondholders “have yet to receive a single ‘effective date’ distribution” of cash.

And those bondholders — Preston Hollow Community Capital and Comptershare Trust Company — are asking the judge to get involved before the money available dwindles further.

Previously on Healthcare Shouldn’t Be Profit Driven: Public hospital system saves local healthcare facility from private loan sharks.

Cry me a river.

Why We’re Voting For Mandi Remington for Johnson County Supervisor

Laura and I sent this to the Little Village, The Gazette and the Press-Citizen:

On June 4, we have the opportunity to elect someone who leads from her values, not her ego. That’s why we are voting for Mandi Remington for Johnson County Supervisor in the Democratic primary, and urge you to join us.

If you’ve watched a Board of Supervisors meeting in the last couple of years, you’ve witnessed our elected leaders be, at times, selfish, petty, rude, dismissive, derisive, and purposefully obtuse as they engage each other and the public, and as they conduct the business of our county.

With more than 30 years of local government service between the two of us, we know political dysfunction when we see it. But you don’t need that much history to see we need to change the dynamic at the dais. 

Mandi’s lived experience as a single, working mother brings first-hand, personal understanding of the barriers so many in our community face. Her leadership of the Corridor Community Action Network shows she will work for her community in need. Mandi will lead with hustle, heart, and compassion. 

Join us in voting for Mandi Remington on or before June 4.

Mercy

The Red Hand Files:

Mercy is a value that should be at the heart of any functioning and tolerant society. Mercy ultimately acknowledges that we are all imperfect and in doing so allows us the oxygen to breathe — to feel protected within a society, through our mutual fallibility. Without mercy a society loses its soul, and devours itself.

“I want my grandchildren to go to the No. 1 high school in the state, not the 139th.”

Erin Jordan and Alejandro Rojas in The Gazette:

Many parents are mad the Iowa City Community School District is closing its elementary school in Hills, but that doesn’t mean they want to send their kids to a lower-ranking district instead.

…

Sen. Dawn Driscoll, R-Williamsburg, and Rep. Heather Hora, R-Washington, met with the Hills City Council last week to talk about the possibility of changing school boundaries to move Hills students to the Lone Tree Community School District instead.

Iowa Republicans, including Driscoll and Hora, continue to defund public education in Iowa, where the past decade has seen state funding fail to keep up with inflation, leading to building and program closures.

The solution Republicans are offering: move your school to a shittier district that doesn’t guarantee it could keep the building open, either.

Respectfully, Fuck Off

A footnote on a column by Aletha Cole, The Gazette’s conservative columnist, about trans and non-binary protesters in Johnson County:

*For reasons of conscience, the author respectfully declines to use “they/them” as individual pronouns.

These “reasons of conscience” are unspecified, and appending “respectfully” doesn’t make it so.

Johnson County Protester Acquitted

Molly Hennessy-Fiske writing about the acquittal of Tara McGovern, charged with crimes for protesting an anti-trans speaker, for The Washington Post:

Johnson County District Attorney Rachel Zimmermann Smith responded late Wednesday afternoon: “The Defendant got a fair trial and, regardless of the outcome, that is always the ultimate goal.”

Is the goal of any prosecutor a fair trial? And if the ultimate goal is a fair trail, why did Zimmermann Smith offer everyone plea deals?

The American Bar Association:

Plea bargaining accounts for almost 98 percent of federal convictions and 95 percent of state convictions in the United States.