Leach Campaign "Tradition" an Insult 

The following is a Letter to the Editor of the Daily Iowan published on August 22, 2006.

by Jacki Rand (Oklahoma Choctaw)

The 2006 political season is upon us, impelling me to write yet another petition to Rep. James Leach, R-Iowa, to cease his campaign "tradition" of handing out faux Indian headdresses. Four years ago, I wrote to the papers about this and was pleasantly surprised to note the absence of headdresses at Iowa City and Coralville parades. While biking through the Iowa countryside, however, I came across a parade in Lone Tree. There, the Leach cadets were passing out the paper feathers, all in the spirit of "having a good time."

Leach has enjoyed a long political career, in part because Iowa Democrats want to see him as a moderate Republican who will do no harm. But what about the American Indian constituents of Iowa? What about the citizens of the Meskwakie settlement whose children could be destined for the UI, if not for the wretched climate for Native Americans at the university, and in liberal (no, moderately Republican) Johnson County. I can assure Leach that his ego-centered attachment to paper headdresses and the unmitigated gall to refer to it as a tradition does not create an inviting environment for real American Indians.

One of the best Native students at the university wrote a graduate paper on the meaning and historical significance of headdresses. They, like the material culture of many tribes, are not traditional commodities. Rather, they are goods integrated with tribal religious, political, and social significance.

If respect for neighbors, desire for peaceful relations, or just personal dignity will not stop Leach, perhaps this will: Faux headdresses, gyrating mascots, iconic toothy braves emblazoned on sports caps, and dime-store wooden Indians make a mockery of (or willfully ignore) the genocide carried out against American Indians and theft of their resources.

If we accept the middle-of-the-road scholarly estimate of a Native population that began in 1492 with 8 million to 10 million people, even the most cynical of us might be ashamed of the history that resulted in that population bottoming out in 1900 at 250,000, perhaps even ashamed enough to appreciate the insult behind Leach's childish political practices.

Knowledge of an inclusive, honest U.S. history might make some pause over such persistently arrogant practices as those perpetuated by Leach. Is he merely pandering to perceived Johnson County liberals or a political coward who fears to show his real self to his constituents?

see this photo at www.jimleach.com

link to letter:

http://www.dailyiowan.com/media/storage/paper599/news/2006/08/22/Opinions/Letters.To.The.Editor-2236733.shtml?norewrite200608230830&sourcedomain=www.dailyiowan.com

Contact info. for the Daily Iowan:  daily-iowan@uiowa.edu

Sign the petition asking Rep. Leach to stop this practice: 

http://www.petitiononline.com/jalpet1/petition.html

  Ed Fallon's Next Step

Dear Friends, 

As I continue to trek across Iowa, I see the face of injustice in both rural and urban communities.  Injustice takes many forms, and over the course of the summer, I have written and spoken about many of these injustices.  Corporate hog confinements.  The abuse of eminent domain.  Jobs that don’t pay a livable wage.  The lack of access to affordable healthcare.  Discrimination against racial and cultural minorities.

All of us – especially candidates and elected officials – need to stand with those who are fighting injustice, regardless of whether or not that injustice appears to affect us directly.

In April of 1963, in a letter he wrote from the Birmingham, Alabama jail, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. said:  “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” That maxim guides me in my work.  I am convinced that we will succeed in taking government back for the people only when we build a coalition that unites all whose lives are compromised, often times destroyed, by the varied prongs of injustice.

Some injustices are out there in the open, before us in the media day after day.  Others are tucked away in corners and rarely come to public attention.  I encountered one such injustice this week during a visit to the Iowa Correctional Institute for Women (ICIW) in Mitchellville. 

Christine Lockhart, a lifer, has been at ICIW since she was 18.  She has been a model inmate during her 21 years in prison.  On Wednesday she was sent to “the hole,” a small segregation cell isolated from the rest of the prison population.  She was never told what she had done wrong.  When I asked to see her on Thursday, she was brought to my meeting room in handcuffs and shackles.  The “offense” turned out to be something so minor as to be ridiculous.

I have visited the hole at ICIW (and two other Iowa prisons) several times.  It is the most depressing, dehumanizing living arrangement I have ever seen.  Some prisoners end up staying there for weeks, even months at a time.  It is my opinion that some day, such units will be deemed cruel and unusual punishment.  If every Iowan could inspect one of these segregation units, I believe there would be a clamor for their immediate elimination.

That’s not to say that there are not perhaps legitimate reasons to occasionally remove a threatening inmate from the general prison population.  But it is clear to me that the use of lock-up in Iowa’s prisons is being abused, and Christine’s situation was just the most recent reminder.

Oh, and good news:  Thanks to my efforts, help from my great staff and cooperation from corrections and prison officials, Christine was released from the hole this afternoon.  Thanks for taking the time to read this letter.  Let’s continue to do all we can to raise awareness about problems in our criminal justice system and injustice wherever it may appear.

Sincerely,

Ed

UPCOMING EVENTS

Ankeny (PolkCounty).  Saturday, August 26^th at noon at the Best Western Metro North (133 SE Delaware Avenue).  During lunch at the Iowa Farmers Union annual meeting, I’ll receive the Friend of the Family Farmer Award.  The meeting runs from 1:00 on Friday until Saturday afternoon.  Contact the IFU office at (800) 775-5227 for details and registration information, or the visit their website at www.iafu.org.

Des Moines (PolkCounty).  Saturday, August 26^th from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m.  Meet the Candidate fundraiser for Dave Loebsack, candidate for Iowa’s Second Congressional District, at Chet Guinn’s historic firehouse, 1041 Day Street.  Contact Chet Guinn at (515) 282-8054.

Ames (StoryCounty).  Tuesday, August 29^th from 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.  Meeting with ISU Democrats in the Memorial Union at IowaStateUniversity (room to be determined).  Contact Gavin Aronsen at (515) 681-5163.

Ames (StoryCounty).  Tuesday, August 29^th from 7:45 – 8:15 p.m.  Meeting with StoryCounty Democrats at 600 5^th Street.  Contact Drew Miller at (515) 451-4509.

Iowa City (JohnsonCounty).  Thursday, August 31^st at 5:00 p.m.  Fundraiser for Chet Culver at the home of Jim Hayes, 1142 E. Court Street.  Ed will be speaking, and introducing Chet.  Contact the Culver campaign at (515) 288-2287 or carissa@chetculver.com for details.

Millersburg (IowaCounty).  Friday, September 1^st from 6:00 – 8:00 p.m. Fundraiser for Chris Montross, candidate for Iowa House.  Ed will speak and perform music.  Contact Tammy at (319) 642-1233 for details.

Downey (CedarCounty).  Sunday, September 3^rd from 12:00 – 6:00.  “Second Annual Folk Music for Democracy.”  Fundraiser for the CedarCounty Democrats at the Secrest Octagonal Barn.  Ed will be one of many musicians performing.  For details, go to www.iowademocrats.org.

Iraq War Forum in the QC on Aug. 26

By Alta Price

Democracy for America groups across the country have been hosting Iraq War Forums to engage the public in discussion about an issue most Americans consider the most important political issue of the day. Congress seems more inclined to play politics with the issue of the war than to hold serious debate about the many important implications of the war for their constituents and the communities in which they live.

Democracy for America – Quad Cities is hosting an Iraq War Forum this Saturday morning, August 26, 2006, from 9 am until noon. We invite you to join us. You can sign up here or just come! It is not necessary to RSVP.

Event: Iraq War Forum

Date: Saturday, August 26

Time: 9 am until noon (registration begins at 8:30 am)

Venue name: Kahl Education Center, Tenth Floor

Venue address: 326 W. Third St., Davenport, IA 52801

Citizens and experts will come together to discuss the war in Iraq. In our brief time together we will address the following three topics:

1) Iowans for Sensible Priorities will address the economic impact of the war in Iraq on our community.

2) Dr. Miriam Meyer and Kirt Sickels of the Veterans Hospital in Iowa City will talk about the mental health care needs of our returning veterans, and whether our area is prepared to meet them. They will be joined by attorney Clarke Barnes of Geneseo, a retired Marine Colonel, Illinois Circuit Judge, and Veterans Service Representative.

3) Former Congressman Dave Nagle will discuss our options for getting out of Iraq. 
 
This forum is being co-sponsored by the Peace Forum of Progressive Action for the Common Good , the Iowa Chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, Pax Christi, NAMI (National Alliance on Mental Illness) Scott County , and the Social Justice Committee of the Davenport Unitarian Church.

Information about the event is posted at DFA-Link.

  Why 'the market' alone can't save local agriculture

Through one lens, things are looking better than ever. According to a USDA report (PDF), the number of farmers' markets leapt 79 percent to 3,100 between 1994 and 2002. Community-supported agriculture programs -- wherein consumers buy a share of a farm's output before the season starts, sharing the risks and rewards of the harvest -- have followed a similar trajectory. According to one source, North America boasts 1,200 CSAs. Just 25 years ago, the concept didn't exist in these parts.

All that growth aside, though, the overall market for local produce remains tiny. The USDA reckons that farmers' markets account for less than 2 percent of the more than $70 billion Americans spend on produce. And, as I've pointed out before, the overall income picture for small commercial farms is dismal. Key USDA stat: Farms with annual revenues between $10,000 and $99,000 -- which describes the vast majority of farmers' market vendors -- have an average operating profit margin of negative 24.5 percent.

Simply put, small farms lose money, and their losses are financed by the off-farm incomes of the families that run them. From this angle, so-called sustainable farming looks like a precarious enterprise.

Why, then, do farmers' markets and CSAs continue to grow and multiply? Why do people still farm? The local-food revival, it seems to me, runs on passion: people's desire for connection to the seasons, to the soil that feeds them, to powerful flavors that can't be manufactured with chemicals or preserved over 1,300-mile delivery hauls. Aside from the dot-com bubble of the 1990s, I can think of no great boom in American history built more on enthusiasm, and less on profit.

Yet passion has practical limits (as investors in, say, Pets.com learned in 2000). For local farms to supply significantly more than 2 percent of the nation's produce (or meat, dairy, and eggs, for that matter), small-scale farming will have to become an economically viable activity.

Some optimists argue that market forces are already quietly working to achieve that goal. The argument goes like this: surging consumer demand for local food -- coupled with rising energy costs -- has convinced the large supermarket companies to rethink their far-flung supply chains and seek out small-scale producers near individual retail outlets. These corporate buyers will pump cash into local farm economies across the nation, reviving the fortunes of small-scale farmers.

Certainly, evidence for this scenario abounds. The phrase "local is the new organic" has become commonplace. Having turned organic food into another consumer fetish drained of much of its original meaning, the big corporate retailers are setting their sights on "local" cache. Shoppers entering Whole Foods outlets can hardly grab a basket without reading "buy local" propaganda. One pamphlet that confronted me on a recent visit poses the question, "What is local?" The answer seems a bit lenient to me: produce labeled "local" must "travel no more than ... seven hours from the farm to our facility."

Still, Whole Foods has committed resources to local foodsheds. After a scrape with industrial-agriculture critic Michael Pollan, CEO John Mackey pledged $10 million per year in loans to small-scale farmers, among other initiatives.