Chuck Hurley with the Iowa Family Leader is No Civil Rights Hero

And a tribute to great newspaper columnists who shaped me, as a boy and now...

I was honored to have a column in the Des Moines Register yesterday. As you can see above, the headline was “What is ‘merit’ after gender-balance law repeal?

If you click on the link, you get a more detailed headline:

Think again about what's meant by 'merit' in gender-balance law repeal

Without objective measures, merit is a social construct that often keeps the privileged and those like them in power.

I would copy and paste my column here, but the Register gave me their important platform and I am grateful. Click here to read it at the Register.

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Chuck Hurley is the guy behind Governor Reynold’s left shoulder above. I wrote the column for the Register after I read this article last Thursday:

Here is the link. I encourage readers to click through and read it. In sum, to me, Hurley’s “victory” for “civil rights” was an old white guy (I can say that. I am one—one who doesn’t resent other people who don’t look or think like me getting a seat at the table—and not only that, I value their contributions), whimpering that he didn’t get his way, so he did what privileged people often do—he sued.

His was a “victory” for the patriarchy, not for civil rights.

There are ways to get close to objectively measuring merit, say in grading or civil service exams. We all know, however, how much subjectivity goes into job hires or the judging of grant applications, for example. We all have our biases, and when there are few or no objective criteria across multiple variables, those biases rear their ugly heads. Acting like merit is “real” in these abiguous situations is committing the “fallacy of misplaced concreteness” or reification.

I would say more about the column, but I don’t want to spoil reading it. I will say here that I think I have a good ending “punch line.”

So thanks to the Des Moines Register for publishing it.

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Speaking of the Des Moines Register, I read this important, yet sobering column earlier this week:

This is excellent reporting by Phillip Sitter. Click here to read it.

All of these men did brilliant war coverage in times of extreme danger, and we owe them and their families great thanks. Some of them died while covering wars.

Let’s not forget them.

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I owe a special debt to one of them—Gordon Gammack. Growing up in Iowa in the 50’s and 60’s, my family was a two-newspaper family. In the morning we read the Des Moines Register and in the evening the Des Moines Tribune.

Gammack reported for both papers over the years, and the first thing I looked for when the paperboy threw the paper into the yard was his column.

Gordon Gammack helped teach me to read, write, and think. His calm, level-headed writing in some of the most difficult situations in the world impressed on me the value of journalism, and how storytelling works.

I don’t really have the words to express this, but in his writing, he also helped teach me what it means to be a good person.

Yes, a good person. To be honest. To seek to be clear-thinking. Compassionate. To be analytical and to listen to all sides of an argument. To seek and value the truth.

When I grew up I wanted to be like Gordon Gammack.

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Donald Kaul and John Karras with the Register were also important influences. They taught me the power of humor in writing, and the need—no—the demand that we question authority and power, and to fight for the little guy. And gal.

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The apparently puzzled guy in the center above is me in high school journalism class ca. 1971. I went on to become an anthropologist which shares a common history with journalism.

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As a young person, I had many other great mentors in the newspaper world, including Studs Terkel, Hunter Thompson, and the inimitable Irma Bombeck. I could go on and on. Please look them up if you don’t know them. Those who know my writing well and also these columnists will see their influence on what and how I write. Toss in the amazing anthropologist Margaret Mead and her Redbook column that I read as a boy (my mom had a subscription), and my intellectual pedigree becomes clear.

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And now I come full circle, because my friend Julie Gammack, the daughter of Gordon is one of my mentors now, as her father was when I was a boy.

If you know about the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, and if you are reading this I suspect you do, Julie Gammack is our mentor, and chief wrangler. She has managed to corral maybe 50 of us Iowa-based writers who produce compelling news, features, and commentary that may surpass any such association in the Midwest, and maybe the country.

Two years ago this coming July, Julie “twisted my arm” and “made me” start this Substack column. I initially dragged my feet, not knowing if I had the time or commitment to produce commentary that readers might value.

Over the years I’ve written numerous columns for the New York Times, TIME magazine, and many other publications, but little did I know that writing for Substack would free me to write about a great many things that I, and the readers who subscribe to my Substack care about that might not find purchase in other media. Like this column.

One of the best things about Substack is the connections we have with our readers. Reader comments are empowering, honest, and occasionally remarkable. Without you, dear readers, we are typing into a void.

For all these years the Gammack family has been walking side by side with me, even though they didn’t know it. So thanks Gordon and Julie! You’re the best!

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My friend Spencer Dirks and I have a podcast called “Iowa Revolution”. We talk about politics and much, much more. Click here to subscribe. It’s fun and sometimes wacky. Spencer often gets me out of my comfort zone…

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I’m proud to be a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative and appreciate our relationship with the Iowa Capital Dispatch. The collaborative offers some of the very best news and commentary in Iowa and the Midwest, if not the nation. We would love to have you join us as a reader, commenter, supporter, whatever. And to those who are already subscribers, all of us in the collaborative greatly appreciate your comments and support. To us, we are all on the same team, with different talents and we all want to make Iowa, and the United States, a better place to live. Learn more about us here.

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