Senate Journal: Page 922: Wednesday, April 2, 1997

  922 JOURNAL OF THE SENATE 80th Day
  President Kramer presented the Honorable Ron Corbett, Speaker of
  the House of Representatives, who welcomed the Pioneer Lawmakers
  on behalf of the House of Representatives.

  President Kramer presented the Honorable John P. Kibbie,
  member of the Senate, who responded to the welcome.

  Senator Kibbie announced the 1977-1978 class of legislators who
  were eligible to become members of the Pioneer Lawmakers and that
  lobbyists Bob Boyken from Waterloo, John Lewis from West Des
  Moines, and William Smith and F. Richard Thornton from Des
  Moines, were awarded honorary memberships in the Pioneer
  Lawmakers Association.

  Senator Kibbie presented James Flansburg, retired columnist from
  the Des Moines Register, who address the joint convention.

  I first walked into these chambers in search of a news story about 40 years
  ago.

  What I remember best was a speech in the Senate. An old family friend, a
  senator
  from the Cedar County town of Clarence, Earl Elijah, was talking about a
  bill
  rewriting the probate code.

  The bill was six inches thick, an impenetrable forest of paper for most
  people, and
  that grand old man hefted it above his head and gave his speech.

  "I just hope you lawyers know what you're doing," he said, and sat down.

  I guess they did. The bill passed and remains the basic law yet today. Some
  members here might not approve of this standard but I use it yet. The bill
  must have
  been a good one when you consider the absence of scandal, great law suits
  and public
  indignation.

  I've thought of old Earl Elijah - I think his family and my family settled
  in Cedar
  County about the same time in the late 1840s - dozens of times as I've tried
  to make
  sense of this place and the way it has changed through my career as a
  reporter, editor
  and opinion columnist.

  His speech hinted at the bonds of trust that ran this place, held it
  together, then.
  The continued existence of the committee system still implies that - you
  concentrate
  your efforts on this endeavor and I'll concentrate on that one - but from
  what I've seen
  and read, anyone who believes in a bond of trust today is begging for
  disappointment.

  Sometimes nowadays I get the impression that everyone is trying to put
  something
  over on everyone else, with no consideration for what it might do to the
  commonwealth as a whole.

Iowa General Assembly

Index: Senate Journal (77th General Assembly: Session 1)

© 1997 Cornell College and League of Women Voters of Iowa

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