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House Journal: Page 1021: Tuesday, March 28, 1995

There are lots of things I love about Iowa -- the law library in
this building, the courthouse in Adel, the rolling hills around
Decorah, the views from Lansing and McGregor, the Ledges and the
Loess Hills, the town squares and town characters, the elegance
of Terrace Hill, the soulful faces of our cows in spring, the
starkness of the cattle in the snowy fields on a chilly winter
day, the sheep-shearing at the State Fair, the band concerts on
summer nights, the basketball hoops in farmyards, the river as
it cuts through Iowa City, the morning coffee in the town cafes.
I could go on and on, as you could.
For this state has about everything wonderful you could ask for
from God and Neil Smith -- though, of course, God is on his own
now.
But the thing I love most about Iowa is its values.
Iowa is open -- its spaces and its government.
Iowa is clean -- its air and its politics.
Iowa is honest -- its people and its politicians.
Iowa believes in education -- for rich and for poor.
Iowa believes in hard work -- on the farm and in the factory.
Iowa believes in equality -- for every man and woman and child,
for everyone of every color, of every religion, of every belief.
 Why the very first case in the Supreme Court of Iowa -- 1 Iowa
1, decided even before we were a state -- was a case that
guaranteed freedom to a Missouri slave.
There simply is no place like Iowa in the world.
And I think you -- I think we, I think all Iowa -- should make
that fact the centerpiece of everything we do.
We should do four things:
First, we should put our money and our time and our thought and
our energies into making sure Iowa builds on those values.
Second, we should put our money and our time and our thought and
our energies into making sure we have an infrastructure that
lets us enjoy those values - an infrastructure of parks and
roads and trails and lakes and livable towns and lurable cities.
Third, we should find a way to boast of what we have, to embrace
those who are just passing through for a few years, to inoculate
others with the wonders and awe of Iowa, to ensure that when
people leave Iowa -- after a week or after 20 years -- they
never forget us.
And fourth, we should find a way to celebrate that which we're
so lucky to have -- which we sometimes take for granted,
sometimes tend to squander, sometimes look askance at.
I have some ideas for you.
Let's get rid of the Department of Economic Development.  Let's
have, instead, a bureau called Iowa Values.  Let's not entice
factories and firms with economic giveaways that any state can
match.  Let's let Iowa Values spend that economic-development
money, instead, building on that which is unique, which no other
state can match -- our life style and our people.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: House Journal (76th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1995 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

Comments? hjourn@legis.iowa.gov.

Last update: Sun Jan 14 21:05:02 CST 1996
URL: /DOCS/GA/76GA/Session.1/HJournal/01000/01021.html
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