I am a unique bird. I am (ahem!) an Iowa Hawkeye through and through. Yes, east coasters, there is a land of milk and honey and it's located an eight hour drive west of Columbus, Ohio. It's called Iowa and for "Us" it is heaven. I took the liberty of e-mailing a friend by marriage this morning to shamelessly promote my web site. Since the rest of my non-Hawkeye readers are still mostly clueless, Iowa is not Idaho. Iowa is three million, for the most part, God fearing citizens. The State is damned cold in the winter and smelly, sizzling hot in the summer. The state is dotted with hundreds of communities containing two thousand folks. Take I-80 east to west through the state in summer, Davenport to Council Bluffs, and you'll gaze at 336 miles of rolling(emphasis on 'rolling') farm hills blanketed by corn and soybeans.
A Wisconsin friend who once coached in Iowa told me there was something very unique about our state that couldn't be found in any other. Since I live in the Buckeye State I might explain it this way. In Ohio there are four distinct geographic sections: the northwest which includes Toledo. It's a great deal like Iowa; rural mostly with many small towns and the church being the focal point of the peoples lives. Cincinnati is the 'Queen City' and dominates the southwest. Actually, there are more citizens just across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky and it should be called Kentuckohio. The water tower in Florence has written on it, "Come back Y'all". Get the picture? Cleveland and the northeast is a combination of old, formerly industrial cities. There are a lot of woods. It can be compared to New England. Since it borders Pennsylvania they're almost New England---but not quite. Southeast Ohio is, well, have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? This part of the state is one monstrous national forest. And there you have it. Four distinct sections and four separate peoples.
Iowa used to have one great newspaper called the Des Moines Register. I don't mean it was great because it was a conservative paper. It was great because it wasn't a slap faced, make you sick, pain in the rear liberal paper. Iowans aren't liberals. It's the media intelligentsia who have imported outsiders that has made a once great newspaper more liberal than balanced. Here's the very unique thing about Iowa and it's comparison with Ohio. That same DM Register paper can be delivered to each doorstep in every community in the entire State----every day, seven days a week! The effect is a bonding, if you will, for bringing the people together. We have an open forum for thinking, agreeing and disagreeing. It creates a statewide community that no other state has and never will. I love being an Iowan even though I don't reside there, anymore.
We all love being Iowans, "Hear Us Roar".
A Wisconsin friend who once coached in Iowa told me there was something very unique about our state that couldn't be found in any other. Since I live in the Buckeye State I might explain it this way. In Ohio there are four distinct geographic sections: the northwest which includes Toledo. It's a great deal like Iowa; rural mostly with many small towns and the church being the focal point of the peoples lives. Cincinnati is the 'Queen City' and dominates the southwest. Actually, there are more citizens just across the Ohio River in northern Kentucky and it should be called Kentuckohio. The water tower in Florence has written on it, "Come back Y'all". Get the picture? Cleveland and the northeast is a combination of old, formerly industrial cities. There are a lot of woods. It can be compared to New England. Since it borders Pennsylvania they're almost New England---but not quite. Southeast Ohio is, well, have you ever seen the movie Deliverance? This part of the state is one monstrous national forest. And there you have it. Four distinct sections and four separate peoples.
Iowa used to have one great newspaper called the Des Moines Register. I don't mean it was great because it was a conservative paper. It was great because it wasn't a slap faced, make you sick, pain in the rear liberal paper. Iowans aren't liberals. It's the media intelligentsia who have imported outsiders that has made a once great newspaper more liberal than balanced. Here's the very unique thing about Iowa and it's comparison with Ohio. That same DM Register paper can be delivered to each doorstep in every community in the entire State----every day, seven days a week! The effect is a bonding, if you will, for bringing the people together. We have an open forum for thinking, agreeing and disagreeing. It creates a statewide community that no other state has and never will. I love being an Iowan even though I don't reside there, anymore.
We all love being Iowans, "Hear Us Roar".
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