Progressive Power Grows in the Rural Midwest

And two folk heroes emerge...

Rural Decline and Water Quality

I attended two progressive events in Iowa last week that brought me joy. Lots of it. The first was in Iowa City at Big Grove Brewery and Taproom where Jess Piper, Executive Director of Blue Missouri, and Dr. Chris Jones, formerly of the University of Iowa and now president of Iowa Driftless Water Defenders addressed approximately 125 people on the subjects of clean water and building political power. I’m writing about that event here. It was sponsored by Progress Iowa, the Singh Family Foundation and 100 Grannies.org.

The second was in Ankeny with Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement, or CCI, and I will write about that soon.

Jess and Chris are two of the strongest progressive voices in the Midwest that I am aware of. They are both awesome storytellers with unique and powerful voices. It’s been interesting to watch them for the past few years as they work to make the world a better place.

Jess is a former teacher who ran for statewide office as a Democrat in Missouri and lost. From that effort and her life experience, she models values that the majority of midwesterners and Americans share; the importance of family, community, our public schools, freedom to worship, reproductive rights, fairness, inclusion, and opportunity. At the event, she shared her experiences and told us of the importance of being politically active. She writes The View from Missouri by Jess Piper. Her view from Missouri is a lot like the view here in Iowa. You won’t regret subscribing, and every time she posts a tweet on Twitter, I feel informed and empowered. Jess has over 27,000 subscribers to her Substack, over 270,000 followers on TikTok, and over 150,000 followers on Twitter. Her online presence is remarkable.

Jess wrote about the Iowa City Event here.

Chris Jones was a research engineer at the University of Iowa where he monitored Iowa’s approximately 70 water monitoring stations. His background is in chemistry and biology. Chris hosted a blog on the University of Iowa website that was popular but controversial in that he used real data to paint a picture of how bad Iowa’s water quality is, and there are many people in power not interested in hearing that story. 

Republican legislators allegedly threatened to pull funding from the University if Jones were allowed to continue publishing his blog. I wrote about it here and here. Chris also writes about Iowa’s rising cancer rates, and the disproportionate impact poor water quality is having on minority populations.

Chris retired rather than put water quality funding or some other funding to the U of I from the legislature in peril.

Chris writes at The Swine Republic and is the author of The Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Water Quality, a Library of Congress “Great Reads from Great Places” book Selection for 2024. The book was also a finalist with the Midwest Independent Publishers Association and a finalist with the National Indie Excellence Awards.

In her summary of the Iowa City event, Jess shares her perspective on a story that Chris regularly tells:

“I’ll leave you with a story that Chris told toward the end of our event that nearly took my breath away.

The America Needs Farmers game is held each year at Hawkeye Stadium. It began in 1985 in the midst of the Farm Crisis that claimed thousands of Iowa farms. This game is now sponsored by the Iowa Farm Bureau. *I invite you to do your research on the Farm Bureau and just exactly who they support.

Because of the pollution in the Iowa River, the University has its own treatment plant that removes the nitrates from the water to make it suitable for drinking. The water hydration stations at the University of Iowa stadium are sponsored by the Iowa Corn Growers Association…the same group who opposes regulations on certain farming practices and chemicals.

During this game and others, there is a beautiful tradition at the football stadium in which, after the end of the first quarter, fans turn toward the Children’s Hospital overlooking the stadium and wave at the sick children and their parents watching the game from their hospital rooms.

Chris asked a question to the audience that still haunts me…

“Will we ever connect the dots and think about why some of those children are in the hospital in the first place?”

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Folk heroes

Every society has folk heroes. They may be real people like Greta Thunberg, Harriet Tubman, or Emiliano Zapata. They can also be abstractions, intellectual combinations of the deeds of real people exaggerated into mythological personas larger than life like Paul Bunyan and Robin Hood.

Folk heroes often emerge where there is social injustice, representing the desires and frustrations of marginalized or disenfranchised groups. They perform heroic acts and are of high moral integrity with a deep connection to regular people.

They often have mystical powers and special symbols and are charismatic and natural leaders.

We need folk heroes.

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Chris and Jess as Folk Heroes

Chris Jones and Jess Piper are fighting for rural America—for all of America—with no power structure behind them. They aren’t elected officials and have no corporate backing. They met with failure and loss only to learn and become more powerful than they were before.

And they have nothing to lose.

They are fighting social injustice with their words, wisdom, and deeds. Iowa Republican leaders came after Chris and I now suspect they wish they had left him alone.

Furthermore, Chris doesn’t care who he takes on, Republicans or Democrats, if they won’t seek solutions to our water quality issues he will challenge them. Republican leadership has shown that they won’t do anything significant about water quality because they are beholden to the Farm Bureau and large agricultural corporations. The irony of this is that all of my real-world Republican friends care about water quality as much as my Democratic friends do.

Democrats in the legislature have decisions to make. They can make water quality an issue as most Iowans want, or ignore it. Chris has pointed out democratic failures too, and I suspect he will continue to do so. Water quality is a winning political issue.

Both Chris and Jess are natural leaders, and their mystical powers are smarts, passion, and empathy. Science too.

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“It seems as if it’s almost on purpose.” Jess Piper

Jess was talking about the struggles of rural America and the assault on our public schools, our communities, freedoms, and water quality.

It is on purpose as part of how capitalism is structured. European powers have been extracting resources from all over the world maximizing profit and externalizing costs for hundreds of years with little regard for exploited lands or their original inhabitants. The United States continued that tradition with Western expansion and it continues to this day. It has just become obvious to many of us today because it is in our own backyard. It’s not just happening to OTHER people. Amazing what a difference that makes.

The depopulation of rural America is a goal. A big seed and chemical distributor in the county once told me that it would be much more cost-efficient and profitable if he only had to deliver his products to 25-50 farms than a thousand. The “small” farmer was a nuisance to him.

Corporations have extracted resources with Government support for generations with devastating consequences for our people and the environment. Defunding public schools, especially rural schools and their consolidation is part of the plan.

The answer, at least in part, is smart government that breaks up monopolies and diversifies and stabilizes our agricultural base. We need more farmers on the land, not fewer. We also need more livestock on the land, and not in confinements.

Chris Jones is careful to say he doesn’t blame farmers for water quality problems, as they are doing what corporations demand and the federal and state governments facilitate to maximize profits and externalize costs.

The “smart” economic decision needs to be a different one. For our people, for our country, for our world.

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Progress Iowa

One of the groups sponsoring the event in Iowa City was Progress Iowa. They are an incredible organization, have wonderful events and training, and their Friday briefings are excellent. I learn so much at every one. Last Friday’s meeting was very educational, and one part explained the rise of Republican Vice Presidential candidate JD Vance. He’s a bought and paid-for stooge of the oligarchs. Plucked from near obscurity by the anti-democratic moneyman Peter Theil, the once anti-Trumper has been repurposed as an anti-cat lady misogynist for Trump. Please consider supporting Progress Iowa and its efforts.

I don’t know much about the other sponsors, the Singh Family Foundation and 100 Grannies.org, but please consider supporting them as well.

And let’s get behind the new group that Chris runs, Iowa Driftless Water Defenders. Representatives were at the event, but I didn’t get a chance to talk with them. I did exchange texts with Chris about the strategy for moving forward on water quality issues with the group, and he told me that their immediate mission was to find people with standing on water quality issues, and then litigation. This could prove interesting.

Remember, voting isn’t enough. We need to join groups whose values we share and make the world a better place, and safe for democracy. Plus, being around like-minded people and working to make the world a better place is fun. If you can, please consider being involved with your county Democratic party.

And remember, when your children and grandchildren ask you, “What did you do when Republicans came for democracy, you can say, “I fought like hell.”

In my next post, I will highlight the great work Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement also does.

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Ice Cube Press

And here is a special shout-out to Steve Semken, publisher of Ice Cube Press. Steve has done more for Iowa authors than any other press. He published Chris’s book The Swine Republic: Struggles with the Truth about Water Quality and his list on environmental issues in the Midwest is second to none. He also graciously published my book, “Deep Midwest: Midwestern Explorations.

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“Rolling up”

There are many great writers in the Iowa Writers Collaborative, and one is Richard Gilbert. I want to highlight his column this week “Sh*t Richard Says: the high cost of Vet Care.” It’s a powerful story about how venture/vulture capitalists are sucking our economy dry, and are doing the same thing to veterinarians as they did to the newspaper industry and so many other industries. Learn about “rolling up.”

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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. Recently, Rekha Basu, Julie Gammack, Barry Piatt, Ed Tibbetts, Laura Belin, and I talked about the Tim Walz pick, the potential for Kamala Harris to boost Democratic candidates down the ballot, and Iowa's judicial retention elections. 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!