First my adopted city has two serious forest fires, along with several others in California. Now my home state of Iowa is flooding. I've lived in Iowa through several flood years so I know what it's like at such times. Flooding is very different from fire in that humans don't have much hope of averting a flood. You can build levees and put sandbags in key areas, but a flood often laughs at such puny human efforts and washes your home or even a large dam away as if it's nothing. A fire will sweep through a large area but with effort it may eventually be contained and even some individual homes saved among others that were burned completely. Both fire and water are tremendous forces to be reckoned with.
Watching the coverage I've seen the places I grew up and visited throughout my childhood in the southeastern corner of Iowa beside the Mississippi river. I've heard national newscasters struggle with the Indian names, such as that of my home town of Keokuk, named after an Indian chief. I had to laugh as one journalist said "Keo-kook" instead of pronouncing the last syllable to rhyme with truck. Yes, we are all kooks in Keokuk, a quaint town whose people demonstrate that "Midwestern folksiness" that gets us through hard times. Yes, another journalist invoked that description. I was reminded of the first Star Trek: DS9 episode where Doctor Bashir is expressing his enthusiasm for the adventures of frontier medicine to Major Kira, who sarcastically ensures him that Bajorans are a "simple folk" who will appreciate his efforts. Midwesterners are accustomed to the condescension from those born and raised on the East or West coast. Yes, aren't we cute, what with helping each other and working hard to rebuild our communities. How old fashioned of us! Iowa, the land of presidential caucuses where people care enough about their responsibilities as citizens to spend an evening convincing others that their candidate is the best rather than simply submitting a voting ballot and going home. Iowa, the land where education is seen as a top priority and students have always been thoroughly tested by the renowned "Iowa Basic Skills Test." Iowa, that place where you are expected to say hello when you see a stranger walk by you on the street. Iowa, the state that's hard to tell from Idaho or Ohio. "Do they grow potatoes there?" "No, corn and soybeans."
Yes, how quaint we are. One of those "flyover" states that people only think of during presidential elections-if then.
Let's hope Iowa is still there after the floodwaters recede.
