This is not the first time the State University of Iowa has had water, but it's surely the worst, and I'm in mourning. When I was a student during the first half of the 1940's, I thought of the river as riverbanking--or a cold walk to change classes from one side to the other during the winter. Riverbanking is code word for hanging out (better put, laying out) on the river bank with a designated other. On one side is the administrative/liberal arts section, including the Old Capitol from the time Iowa City was seat of state government. On the other side are the medical/athletic buildings. As time has passed and many new buildings have come about, there are crossovers such as a theater and an art building. The liberal arts side is in crowded downtown Iowa City. To give historical perspective to floods, I sat transfixed in front of the Weather Channel's pictures of the 1993 flood which devastated towns and commerce up and down the Mississippi. But all harkens back to a flood in Iowa City while I was in college My roommate was photographer for the Daily Iowan and inveigled someone to take her up in a plane to get an aerial view. Damage was not as severe as 1993 and certainly not like 2008. The roommate, however, received reprecussions, both good and bad. Bad , because her father had died in a plane crash and her mother had strong thoughts about her taking the pictures. Good, because the resulting pictures were in her portfolio when she later set up her own business in Chicago's Congress Hotel. When the first pictures came streaming in, my reaction was to say ANOTHER KATRINA. Not the political backstabbing good-job Brownie type, but the displacement of persons and depletion of resources. Just think of all that corn people were ready to burn in their tanks, and things get real. Forget about enough corn for steaks. Think food for people, and some for people globally. Think money. Think! How will we look at June when November comes? Volunteers are needed. What for? Ask the people hurting. And look at the road atlas. This is not a case of a sudden drowning of a little spot on the map which happens to loom large in my personal nostalgia. Cedar Rapids, more widely known because of manufacturing and commerce, is only in little better shape. Des Moines, with a total shutdown of its water supply in 1993, had a little luck this time, but Cedar Rapids! No water. I remember so clearly taking a Venezuelan engineer, doing graduate work at SUI, to the water treatment plant in Cedar Rapids. Well, it's no time to cry. But I feel I just have to ask all those folks who spent so much time in February, whether in person or by digital transmission, for HELP. It's as American as apple pie. Don't let the feel-good articles about a landmark building in Iowa City distract you from the fully national scope of a disaster. When the Mississippi River is drowning, we all pay the price.
Margaret Bassett is an 86-year old, currently living in senior housing, with a lifelong interest in political conumbrums. She hopes to hold out for one more presidential election. Bachelors from State University of Iowa (1944) and Masters from Roosevelt University (1975) help to unravel important requirements for modern communication. Early introduction to computer science (1966) trumps them. It's payback time. She's been "entitled" so long she hopes to find some good coming off the keyboard into the lives of those who come after her.
You are a beautiful writer and you just hit a home run with this piece. I don't know if you are a drinking woman...but I would love to down a whiskey with you! In New Orleans, with a few friends in tow.
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Georgianne Nienaber (145 articles, 46 quicklinks, 13 diaries, 337 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 11:58:05 AM
If anyone of you want to volunteer you might want to read the QuickLink I posted from the United Church of Christ. I post a lot of QLs, and if you can't find it, I'll help.
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 12:00:21 PM
Feeling helpless over events is bad. Worse is outgrowing the ability to down a whiskey. I get high on the keyboard thinking of one more bit of nostalgia. Itchy fingers is what's left.
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 12:11:22 PM
... I hope I'm one of those friends Ms. G was talking about, even though I don't tip-da-till anymore conversing with someone of your knowledge and talent would be time well spent.
I don't think people realize yet the magnitude of this disaster. New Orleans was big, this is bigger. New Orleans was mostly about people and a culture, this is people and food when food is starting to become a concern for those that are barely making it as it is.
The reason I believe there is not more attention being giving to this is that, like with New Orleans, they have not a clue as to what to do and are afraid to let people know of what may spark the first food-riots we'll see since the depths of the Great Depression. For nearly 3 weeks now mega-stores like SAM'S Club have already been rationing how much rice or wheat one can buy.
I pray I'm wrong. But any student of American history should know whatever happens to the Bread Basket happens to the rest of the country.
Being in New Orleans I hope you'll accept my sincere empathy for what you're feeling for a land you love and I pray you get to go river-banking again before too long.
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Mr M (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 51 diaries, 2028 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 1:38:50 PM
Trouble doesn't much care whether it comes from Nature's ravages or from human foolishness. I don't think what is happening on the Mississippi is worse than other disasters. It's just that there is a disconnect between those engaged in political dialogue and events on the ground.
Drought or flood, we know they occur. And they usually occur with distractions. After living through the Dust Bowl and the so- called Great Depression, it's reasonable to assume that reality trumps social frivolity.
In the time of the Rust Belt we forgot to read either the weather forecast or the cost of oil. And now clouds of war do not preempt the extreme weather which is rankling the United States.
We have to call them as we see them. The global ecoomy is threatened. Rainy day funds are flushed down the military drain. It's time to think of belt tightening and staying close to those who stand tight with us. Let's don't worry about the Department of Homeland Security. Let's just keep aware of keeping the homeland safe. People have energy, and if you have confidence they have compassion==I do--we'll pull through. That's my take on things since the 1930's.
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 3:17:14 PM
Margaret, we need to hear more of your voice. Experience and wisdom is what you offer and from where we gain knowledge. Perhaps I can coax Georgianne to down a second whiskey on your behalf - and I just may belt one back as well. OEN is a better and hopefully, wiser place because of your presence. Thank you.
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Jan Baumgartner (54 articles, 138 quicklinks, 10 diaries, 260 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 6:13:43 PM
Remember you are the one who encouraged me. My problem is now I wanted read the six books I ordered from Amazon in June in what I thought would be the dry season. Problem is weather is getting in the way. I hope weather in Maine is sea breezy. I hear even the Northeast is having unusual weather. Whatever happened to four seasons?
I would like to write more but I need to read those books too. Some said I should read "Bird by Bird" and I've wanted to do that for years. I have Ann Wright's and David Sirota's, both of which I'm anxious to take on. Is there a good one on time management?
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 7:22:07 PM
It's a delight to have you here at OEN. So... what are the other books you're reading? By the way, earlier this year I attended a conference, run by the omega institute, in Rhinebeck, NY, thought the conference was held in NYC, where Ann LaMott was the closing speaker. And I read Bird By Bird about five or ten years ago. It's worth reading.
In terms of time management... don't ask me. Besides, living past 80, you're doing something right in your relationship to time. <G>
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Rob Kall (891 articles, 4057 quicklinks, 350 diaries, 1925 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9:14:47 PM
When it comes to addictions my least favorite is nicotine. We are into moderate on the ozone scale today and my neighbor down the hall smokes so much her smoke creeps into the hall. Just because I was a one-packer for 20 years doesn't mean I don't think nicotine is a terrible addiction. My sister and her husband both died of emphesemia despite having lived in beautiful Minnesota for much of their lives.
But it's all in the framing, as they say in political talk. Here by the Smokies where the haze was an idyllic description for tourists reality set in and there are days when the TV tells tourists to beware.
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 7:48:20 PM
of my friend and mentor, Rosamond Carr, who passed in Rwanda two years ago, just days before we were supposed to get together. My mother passed on the same day. I want you to know Rosamond, and anyone else who reads this to know her, also.
Margaret, My mother went to the University of Iowa in the early 40s and she too talked about what it was like to go near that river in the winter. I have pictures of her and my uncle in the summer time near the river. My mother grew up in Cedar Rapids and that town is going to die and it is a shame. The waters alone would have done it in but what was in the waters is what is making for a huge disaster. And on top of that, the lack of any flood insurance due to some arcane legal talk about the distance from the 500 year flood plain and the 1000 year flood plain has put many peoples' livelihoods at severe risk.
On top of that, the Missippi is going way past what is healthy for a healthy food crop. Plus here in New York, upstate, on Monday night they got a huge hail storm and a good deal of the produce crops are damaged. Hail does awful things to young corn, tomatoes, strawberries and apples, as well as peaches. Much of that is gone now too. The summer is just beginning and people don't like to think about things that make them feel helpless.
They would rather get angry about the price of gas. You must continue with your writing about Iowa. It is a wounded bird and it may never fly right again because the people there are having a very desperate time.
One last thought. The mailman on my route told me last summer he was moving to Cedar Rapids as he was retiring. He was laughing at us because he felt he was going where it was safe and where he didn't have to put up with lots of stuff he didn't like. I know where he moved and it was hit hard and will never come back.
You can run but you cannot hide.
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Deborah Emin (20 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 78 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9:28:50 PM
The Mississippi may kick up but we got on the same page
I'm going to turn in shortly despite knowing the queue is filling up. But I must thank Rob for the radio program tonight. You're getting good!
Thinking of the floods, which seem to be bad still, what do you hear or see from the East Coast? My concern for the summer is that there'll be brownouts because of the hot weather. So far we are all right in my part of the world. We're on TVA. In late 1970's there were days when ALCOA had to use gas during the day. They've fixed that now. At the Towers we are totally electric, and the minute the power goes off the elevators don't run and the emergency diesel generator kicks in. It makes fumes and my windows are above it. So I never open my windows at that time. In the nine years I've been here only once did the whole City lose power. It's little things like that which are big problems where we have a lot of people on oxygen and their breathing machines stop working.
I think of the elderly in Iowa. They do have so many. Summers are miserably hot. There's a saying that if you listen at night you can hear the corn grow.
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Margaret Bassett (38 articles, 2206 quicklinks, 30 diaries, 1501 comments)
on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 9:51:15 PM
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