Iowa: We Started It!

In Denver, Iowa has received a lot of recognition and praise for standing for Barack Obama "that cold January night", and opening the door to the movement that has swept the nation. Iowa should be proud. Not only of our belief in Barack Obama, but of our state government, activists, and communities.

Every morning we have guest speakers to begin our day. Yesterday we had Governor Chet Culver and Lt. Governor Patty Judge. Wow, these two have done so so much to improve our great state. Culver spoke of the disasters Iowa has endured this summer (They will go down in history to be in the Top 10 worst natural disasters in the US), and also showed the silver lining; that Iowa is "going to rebuild to be a stronger, safer and better state." He stated that Iowans locked arms and used resilience to get through the floods and tornados, and that every single one did their part. (Donate at www.embraceiowa.org. The other night Union Pacific wrote a check for $50,000 to Embrace Iowa.)

We also heard from Mike Gronstal, the Senate Majority Leader, who reminded us of how far Iowa has come with the democratic majority. Since 2006, minimum wage has been raised for 250,000 workers, Iowa has produced 3 million gallons of alchohol for fuel, we have made strides in our civil rights, produced more wind energy per capita than any state in the union, passed children's health care, and went from having our teacher's pay rank 42nd in the nation to 25th.

That's the only reminder we need to remember why we stay democrats in Iowa!