Iowan C.J. Petersen at the DNC Honors the Americans with Disabilities Act

And other items related to the convention and Tom and Ruth Harkin...

Aug 25, 2024

First, the Convention!

The Democratic National Convention is over. There were so many great moments to be proud of. I have many thoughts about the speeches, but nothing you haven’t read or thought of before (but check out fellow Iowa Writers’ Collaborative member Dave Busiek’s take on how the Democrats should have been able to keep the program on time here.)

Now we have to maintain the momentum.

If you haven’t seen MSNBC’s comparison of the roll call votes of the Democrats and Republicans, don’t miss it! Watch it here.

The great showman Trump was “rolled.”

Personally, one of the best things about the convention was getting texts from my friend Josh Manske, a delegate and farmer from Algona. He’s also a board member of the Iowa Farmers Union. Josh writes the new monthly Corn Belt Newsletter. Above is a photo of him at the convention he sent me Thursday night.

I almost dropped my drink when I saw my friend John Russell take the stage. John was a rural organizer for the Elizabeth Warren campaign prior to the 2020 Iowa caucuses. He was everywhere. So smart, so thoughtful, and so kind. And now he is a social media influencer! That doesn’t surprise me. Our young people are so passionate about making the world a better place and know how to use the powerful tools available to us. John’s one of the best.

Read Art Cullen’s take on John for the Washington Post here. Art is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editor for the Storm Lake Times and Pilot and a fellow member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please consider subscribing to the newspaper. Or consider a paid subscription to Art Cullen’s Notebook.

John Russell writes for The Holler. Please consider supporting John’s work if you can. His speech was amazing. Watch it here. John lives and writes from Appalachia. Check out this tweet I happened upon:

Me too! I’ll also trust the guy with the mullet over the guy who is bought and paid for by a hedge fund manager.

C.J. Peterson

C.J. is the guy in the screenshot at the top of this column, behind the guy in the unfortunately positioned ear of corn hat. You can see from his hands that C.J. is signing.

I’ve known C.J. for several years as he worked on various campaigns and now he’s Press Secretary for Rob Sand in the Iowa’s Auditor’s Office. I’m proud to call him friend. I got to know him even better at Julie Gammack’s wonderful Okoboji Writers’ Retreat!

In the video, C.J. is signing to communicate with those with hearing issues, in part to honor the Americans with Disability Act and Tom Harkin. Here’s a video I took of the TV so you can see what C.J is doing. He gets a little late start:

C.J. studied political science at the University of Iowa. He was recently named a prestigious Truman Scholar. Here’s part of what the University of Iowa says about C.J.

C.J. Petersen likes to joke that he’s “the most nontraditional of nontraditional students.”

“I’m just your average gay, deaf, small-town Iowan,” is how Petersen once described himself on social media. A first-generation Hawkeye and community college transfer, he arrived at Iowa in 2023 as an online student earning a bachelor’s degree in political science while working full-time as communication director for the state auditor—all from the small farm in rural Audubon County where he lives with his husband, Luke.

Now 33, the former cell phone salesman turned political organizer has won what is widely regarded as the premier graduate scholarship for aspiring public service leaders in the U.S. He is one of just 60 college juniors this year to be named a Truman Scholar and one of 15 UI students to have earned a Truman Scholarship since the program began in 1977.

C.J.'s signing is a powerful statement. Look at the pride in his eyes! Sure, there was someone signing for the convention in general, but C.J. stepping forward and signing behind Iowa Democratic Chair Rita Hart was a profound statement of inclusion, something Iowa Democrats get behind.

Plus, there may have been more significance to his efforts than those of us who don’t understand ASL know. I asked Google AI if there are ASL dialects:

Yes, American Sign Language (ASL) has dialects and regional accents, similar to spoken languages. These dialects can vary in rhythm, pronunciation, slang, and signs used. They can also reveal information about the signer's age, background, and location. For example, ASL users from New York City may sign faster, use different body language, and use more profanity than other ASL users. ASL users from the South may sign with more ease and flow.

Of course there are regional variations!

And above are a couple more screenshots of C.J. and Senator Tom Harkin engaging with the ASL community. Isn’t the ASL name sign for VP Harris awesome?

Thanks so much C.J. for opening a door for us into the beautiful ASL world!

Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health

Speaking of Tom Harkin, the Harkin Institute is hosting a two-day event September 25 and 26 titled Industrial Farm Production, the Environment, and Public Health. From the Institute’s website:

Hosted by the Harkin Institute for Public Policy and Citizen Engagement with an Introduction from Senator Tom Harkin (retired), in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future. This event is part of Iowa Environmental Education Week co-organized with the Iowa Environmental Council.

The rapid concentration of farm animal production in factory farms makes meat, dairy, and eggs plentiful and cheap, but this type of agriculture comes at a great cost to human health, communities, and the environment. A new book by Johns Hopkins University Press, Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health, brings together public health and other experts to examine some of the most critical topics related to industrial farm animal production.

You can learn more here. And register here.

Adam Shriver, Interim Director of Wellness and Nutrition Policy at the Institute and Robert Martin, one of the editors of Industrial Farm Animal Production, the Environment, and Public Health and I are going to do a Zoom meeting this coming week that I will post here so we can learn more about the event.

I see that my friends Chris Jones and Austin Frerick will be at the event. Chris is the author of The Swine Republic, Struggles with the Truth about Agriculture and Water Quality, and Austin wrote Barons: Money, Power, and the Corruption of America’s Food Industry—both powerful books addressing the crisis we are now in. Chris also writes the Swine Republic substack column and is a fellow member of the Iowa Writers Collaborative.

If these two are in the room, I assure you that it will be an interesting two days.

And Ruth Harkin has a new book! I have a review completed that should appear next weekend, so I won’t say more. I’ll post about it when it comes out. Here is a list of events where we can come and talk with Ruth about her new book and hear her read excerpts.

Public Events for Ruth Harkin:

Book Release: September 5, 5-7 pm at The Harkin Center, Drake Univ. 2800 University Ave, Beaverdale will be on hand to sell books. Here's the link for tickets.

Wednesday, September 11, 6pm. Hosted by Prairie Lights Bookstore, this event is being held at the Iowa City Public Library, 123 S. Linn St, to be moderated by Robert Downer.

Saturday, September 14th, 5 pm. Washington, D.C., Politics and Prose Bookstore, moderator Charlie Cook, 5015 Connecticut Avenue, N.W.

Thursday, September 26th, 6:30 pm. West Des Moines Public Library, 4000 Mills Civic Pkwy, West Des Moines, IA Author Series. Book talk and signing. Co-sponsored by The Harkin Institute. Beaverdale Books will be selling books.

I’m a proud member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Please check out our work here. Subscribe! Become a paid subscriber if you can afford it. Please and thank you. We need you. Thanks for being part of the team! Want to buy me lunch or a cup of coffee? Venmo @Robert-Leonard-238.

The Iowa Writers’ Collaborative is now offering our political podcast Iowa Down Ballot. I’m happy to be in the company of legendary journalists offering our takes on the current political scene. It’s a take you won’t see or hear anywhere else. This past week, Dave Price hosted a conversation about the Democratic National Convention with Dave Busiek, Julie Gammack, Art Cullen, Kathie Obradovich, Laura Belin, and me. Thanks to Zachary Oren Smith for producing and to Dartanyan L. Brown (a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative) for providing music.

My friend Spencer Dirks and I have a podcast titled the Iowa Revolution. Check it out!

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