- Sep 13, 2002
- 98,888
- 207,160
- 113
Is not from the Register or Gazette. It is Art Cullen of the Storm Lake Times AINEC.
This is fabulous (and insightful) writing:
By Art Cullen
The Iowa Senate’s first order of business this year was to boot those pesky Capitol reporters off the press bench on the chamber floor and upstairs to the gallery with the zealots and schoolchildren on tour.
It was just the fight state Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver (R) hoped to pick. On cue, the press howled about being evicted from the bench that was built along the wall of the glorious Iowa Capitol where the Senate 122 years ago expressly reserved a spot for the ink-stained wretches to ply their trade. Punishing the “lamestream” media in a fit of pique over seating privileges is a great way to start a legislative session heading into midterm elections.
It was so good that Kansas picked up on the idea a week later and also told the press to take a hike upstairs.
Next on the agenda in Des Moines: draft a list of books to ban from schools involving race or sex. Here, Kansas already had the jump on Iowa. Not to be outdone, Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman, a Republican from the nearby suburbs, said that the media and teachers were complicit in a “sinister agenda” to push “deviant” materials onto children. He wants to impose criminal penalties on Marian the Librarian if she puts on the shelves something like “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” — or whatever a farmer-legislator finds prurient without having read it. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in her Condition of the State address suggested that every school district should publish its entire curriculum online with a listing of assigned reading material. Some of this stuff could be X-rated, she claimed. She wants parents in charge.
If parents wanted to be in charge, they might just check their kid’s backpack. The principal will show them the lesson plans if parents are curious or concerned. Our elementary principal in Storm Lake, Iowa, is a nice woman. If you think a book is objectionable, she wants to know. That kind of problem solving — if that is what is needed — doesn’t fit the current script for political theater.
Who writes this script? Someone faraway in Virginia, where they recently used it to win a governor’s race. We don’t worry too much about dirty books here in Iowa, because we’ve got our hands full keeping the kids away from meth, stupid video games and one another. Critical race theory is not on the blackboards of Storm Lake schools. It used to be that a degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a principal’s certificate meant you knew something more than the average newspaper editor or Joe the Plumber about how to get a kid to read. It won’t be the parents drawing up the lists of objectionable materials — it will be a bunch of state senators whose caucus was found to be a boar’s nest of sexual harassment. Defining what is objectionable is why some people run for office now — not to fix the failing Linn Grove bridge over the Little Sioux River.
It could all be harmless fun, banning reporters, censoring books and demonizing teachers. Eventually it all washes into the past, like the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. But sometimes it doesn’t and then you end up like some European countries in the run-up to World War II.
Call me a worry wart, but there was this incident a year ago on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. If you call someone “enemy of the people” enough, some people can start to believe it. When you declare that books about teens struggling with their sexual identity are obscene or deviant, you smear a group of people. If you ban that book about how White people stole Iowa by killing off the native people and dispossessing them of their land, you deny our history. Then anything is possible.
Iowa used to pride itself on being the education state. Not so much anymore. Is it worth shaming teachers who were heroes in the classroom right on through the pandemic and shunning the public through the press? Does that whole charade wear well through an election? The governor boasts a $1.2 billion surplus to give away in tax cuts — with hopes of eliminating the income tax altogether. That should be enough to get you through November without analyzing “The Catcher in the Rye.”
These days you go with what you know works, and it worked in Virginia. The Linn Grove bridge replacement has been delayed by a year for lack of funds.
This is fabulous (and insightful) writing:
Opinion: Bridges are failing in Iowa, but the legislature wants to ban books
Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds (R) wants to put parents in charge of children's education. (Charlie Neibergall/AP)By Art Cullen
The Iowa Senate’s first order of business this year was to boot those pesky Capitol reporters off the press bench on the chamber floor and upstairs to the gallery with the zealots and schoolchildren on tour.
It was just the fight state Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver (R) hoped to pick. On cue, the press howled about being evicted from the bench that was built along the wall of the glorious Iowa Capitol where the Senate 122 years ago expressly reserved a spot for the ink-stained wretches to ply their trade. Punishing the “lamestream” media in a fit of pique over seating privileges is a great way to start a legislative session heading into midterm elections.
It was so good that Kansas picked up on the idea a week later and also told the press to take a hike upstairs.
Next on the agenda in Des Moines: draft a list of books to ban from schools involving race or sex. Here, Kansas already had the jump on Iowa. Not to be outdone, Iowa Senate President Jake Chapman, a Republican from the nearby suburbs, said that the media and teachers were complicit in a “sinister agenda” to push “deviant” materials onto children. He wants to impose criminal penalties on Marian the Librarian if she puts on the shelves something like “Lady Chatterley’s Lover” — or whatever a farmer-legislator finds prurient without having read it. Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds in her Condition of the State address suggested that every school district should publish its entire curriculum online with a listing of assigned reading material. Some of this stuff could be X-rated, she claimed. She wants parents in charge.
If parents wanted to be in charge, they might just check their kid’s backpack. The principal will show them the lesson plans if parents are curious or concerned. Our elementary principal in Storm Lake, Iowa, is a nice woman. If you think a book is objectionable, she wants to know. That kind of problem solving — if that is what is needed — doesn’t fit the current script for political theater.
Who writes this script? Someone faraway in Virginia, where they recently used it to win a governor’s race. We don’t worry too much about dirty books here in Iowa, because we’ve got our hands full keeping the kids away from meth, stupid video games and one another. Critical race theory is not on the blackboards of Storm Lake schools. It used to be that a degree from the University of Northern Iowa and a principal’s certificate meant you knew something more than the average newspaper editor or Joe the Plumber about how to get a kid to read. It won’t be the parents drawing up the lists of objectionable materials — it will be a bunch of state senators whose caucus was found to be a boar’s nest of sexual harassment. Defining what is objectionable is why some people run for office now — not to fix the failing Linn Grove bridge over the Little Sioux River.
It could all be harmless fun, banning reporters, censoring books and demonizing teachers. Eventually it all washes into the past, like the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925. But sometimes it doesn’t and then you end up like some European countries in the run-up to World War II.
Call me a worry wart, but there was this incident a year ago on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol. If you call someone “enemy of the people” enough, some people can start to believe it. When you declare that books about teens struggling with their sexual identity are obscene or deviant, you smear a group of people. If you ban that book about how White people stole Iowa by killing off the native people and dispossessing them of their land, you deny our history. Then anything is possible.
Iowa used to pride itself on being the education state. Not so much anymore. Is it worth shaming teachers who were heroes in the classroom right on through the pandemic and shunning the public through the press? Does that whole charade wear well through an election? The governor boasts a $1.2 billion surplus to give away in tax cuts — with hopes of eliminating the income tax altogether. That should be enough to get you through November without analyzing “The Catcher in the Rye.”
These days you go with what you know works, and it worked in Virginia. The Linn Grove bridge replacement has been delayed by a year for lack of funds.
