House Journal: Page 96: Friday, January 17, 2003
My fellow Iowans:
I came to Iowa in August, 1970.
It was because of a girl.
I was 19, in college, and in love.
This girl invited me to come here and meet her family.
I got in my car and drove for 13 hours. I crossed the Mississippi at Burlington - it
was the first time I had ever been that far west - and before I left, I had fallen in love
for the second time.
The first time, of course, was with the girl.
The second time was with the state.
Your state. My state. Our state.
I was, naturally, predisposed to have nice thoughts about Iowa. After all, a state
that produced as smart, as pretty, as wonderful a girl as Christie Bell had to be a
pretty special place.
But I was instantly taken by Iowa’s beauty, by her people, and by her land. I
started noticing the rivers, the trees, the fields, the prairie flowers. I noticed the colors.
I thought to myself, the state is as pretty as the girl.
On my first evening in Iowa those 33 years ago, Christie and her family took me to
a potluck supper in a cabin on the banks of the Skunk River in Henry County. I was
there two things - really my first two impressions of Iowans. I saw a sense of pride -
pride in the quality of the pies and the stews and the dishes that folks brought to the
potluck. And I saw a sense of community - a joy of being together, a wisdom shared
between old and young, a caring about those things we should care about, a concern
about those things we should be concerned about, and, most of all, a simple gratitude of
being able to be among friends and one 19-year old stranger.
But that’s the wrong word. I never felt like a stranger from the moment I crossed
that bridge at Burlington. For me, that bridge spanned more than Mississippi. It
brought me to a new life as well as a new land - one where small towns are more than a
place to live. I’ve learned that they represent a lifestyle and values worth preserving -
Iowa values, hard work, self-reliance, family, community.
It’s a life, I’ve come to realize, that is bound tightly to the rich land that God
handed to us and to the strong values our ancestors bred in us. From the beginning,
Iowa’s success has been rooted in its rich soil and natural bounty. That is still true
today and it will be tomorrow if we have the vision to seize the opportunities of the
future. A parent can give a child only a few things or real worth - love, values,
knowledge, and an education. And those are the things our ancestors have passed onto
us. A great capacity to love this land and the people on it, the strong values of hard
work and honesty and sharing, a knowledge of our land and ourselves, and one of the
best educational systems in the world.
© 2003 Cornell College and
League of Women Voters of Iowa
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