Notes from me to you

This is a rant.. so forgive me. I don't normally use this space of internet to express my feelings of negativity, but I can't seem to find anywhere else to do so... ;)

Unless you live under more of a socially-unaware rock than I, surely you've noticed the flooding in the Mid-West, as its sprawls over every major national news station and likely even your local reports. Even in my brief moments of news-watching while eating a bowl of cereal, I have seen the floods of Cedar Rapids, Burlington, and Iowa City saturate television.

It was shocking and saddening to see these familiar cities under water, Cedar Rapids, for me, especially... a town I started to consider home throughout my eight years of driving from St. Paul to DeWitt. Once I hit CR, I knew all I had left was an hour of Hwy 30 and all the little towns with which I was oh-so-familiar. CR felt like home.

Now, as the flood waters head south on the mighty Mississippi, St. Louis is starting to worry. I caught a glimpse of this during my omelet-after-work news-watching session last night. A reporter from CNN was walking around St. Louis with a city-planner and a man who researches levies. As they walked near the river, arch in the background, one of the men spoke of all the urban structures that would be affected by the floods if indeed the levies failed. The CNN reporter responded by saying, "So we're not just talking about farm land, here? We're talking about major urban development.." in a very news-reporter urgent tone.

A sudden urge of anger rushed through my body at that moment.. "not just farm land." Oh he didn't just say that???? Ok, dude, I understand that the threat of death increases dramatically when we're looking at the potential flooding of an enormous city vs. farm land. But he wasn't even talking about people- he was commenting on the buildings, the city structures. Again, I disclaim, i get that these are important, too.. as are those in CR, Iowa City, etc.

I think what happened, is his ignorance crept up on him while he was attempting to empathize with the city planner and he accidentally let it slip that he thinks farmland is less important that city buildings. oops! Does he know that he depends on the crop of the mid-west every day? That the mid-west produces the corn that feeds the cows that feed his family and provides them milk? Or how about soy beans.. ever heard of ADM? Maybe not yet (he probably will when the new movie with Matt Damon comes out), but I guarantee he uses products made with soy beans every day. Sadly, its not just he who lives in ignorance of the importance of farmland.. he just happened to slip up on national television (and I wonder how many people caught it or thought about what he said like I did). People just don't get it.. the entire world depends on the mid-west.

I suppose this annoyance has been building as I travel the coasts of this country and watch people of all class, education-level, and race react when I say I'm from a small town in Iowa. A lot of blank stares.... "Iowa, huh? Where is that? How do you spell Iowa? Corn-huskers? Potatoes? Oh, I've heard of Columbus." Nope, that's Ohio, dude. Some people are up on their politics and at least understand Iowa's impact on the presidential primary race.

Normally when people don't know about Iowa, it merely humors me. Its easy to get wrapped up in your own little bubble of life and forget what you learned about the outside world in grade school, I get that. What bothers me, are the people who are pretentious on top of being ignorant- who think that some little city and farm land in Iowa doesn't matter, all the while being completely clueless of their dependence on that very land and its crop. "oh.. heh heh, corn fields, riiight." As if the farmers just plant the corn, play around in it for a while, knock it down and start over again. Really, I honestly think that many people outside of the mid-west (and even many lifer-city-dwellers in the mid-west) don't actually think about what it means to be a farmer, how their crop is used, and how what they do is extremely important in our world and economy.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no worldly-affairs expert. I'd be the first to admit my ignorance in that realm. So as important as the mid-west crop is to the world, I'm sure there's something of equal importance of which I am completely unaware. However, I am not a national news reporter, nor do I feel as though Iowa is better than the rest of the world (though I do have a certain affinity for it), nor do i think farmers are more important than anyone else, its just that they ARE important.. as important as all the other professions that make this economy tick. And farmland is important, imperative, in fact, and I wish people understood that. I wish people would try to think outside their box of life- shame on you Mr. CNN reporter!!!!

End-Rant. Happier notes next time!! :)

love,
me (the proud daughter, grand-daughter, great-granddaughter of mid-west farmers)