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House Journal: Page 1023: Tuesday, March 28, 1995

And let's build our pride as we build our highways.
Let's tell the world what a wonderful place this is. All the
corporations in Iowa spend hundreds of millions of dollars a
year advertising in magazines and trade journals, on billboards
and television, on T-shirts and semis. What if they all agreed
just to add one little line at the bottom of every advertisement
- a line that said, "XYZ Corp. of Indianola - proud to be an
Iowan."
Wouldn't that message of Iowa pride begin to sink in on people
elsewhere - people who aren't proud of where they live and work?
Wouldn't they start to wonder about Iowa? Wonder what it is that
we have and they don't?
What if every tenth ad, say, went one step further and added one
little fact about Iowa. These ads might end with a one liner,
like: State fact: Iowa has the lowest murder rate in America.
Or: State Fact: Every school and hospital and town hall in Iowa
is linked to America's only state-wide fiber-optic network. Or:
State fact: Iowa's youngsters score the highest in the nation on
college-entrance exams. Things like that. And I'll tell you
this: You'll never run out of eye-opening facts.
Let's have those people in our new agency - Iowa Values - go to
work on that.
I've got another idea. Every fall, let's have a huge festival -
in Des Moines one year, then Cedar Rapids, and Davenport and
Ames, and Iowa City - a different place each year. Let's
celebrate the land and the people.
Let's have it combine the great things we stand for - the Iowa
Values - our good life, and our smart people, and our incredible
resources. Let's have it last a weekend, and let's have
everything from scenic bike rides to barn dances to seminars and
speeches.
Let's tie it in to that great world food prize that John Ruan
gives.
Let's invite an ex-Iowan - someone who was born here or who
lived here - to come and speak to us about something we should
know about - be it war in Bosnia  or architecture in Los
Angeles. Let's learn, and let's have fun. The Iowa Festival -
and the Iowa Speech.
And let's invite back, every year, 200 former Iowans for this
celebration. Men and women from business and education and
sports and entertainment and government  and science and
what-have-you. And let's pick 25 of them each year and give them
a new award, the Iowa Award, that recognizes their achievements
and, not incidentally, keeps Iowa on their minds.
Let's have the governor and the presidents of the universities
hand out those awards and honor those people.
Let's give them to men and women who exemplify the Iowa values -
values of hard work and honesty and education and selflessness.
Wouldn't that be a great autumn festival? New Orleans has its
Mardi Gras. The Twin Cities have their Winter Carnival. Boston
has its marathon. Why can't Iowa have its celebration?
Along with this, of course, we need all the things that all of
you have worked so hard - and continue to work so hard - to give
this state.
We need a sound tax structure that's fair to city and farm,
business and home, rich and poor.

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/01000/01023.html
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