Letters to the Editor: Iowa State Historical Society

Secrecy is a hallmark of the Reynolds administration.

Our governor routinely denies requests for public records. Media outlets have been charged exorbitant fees for emails from public officials doing public business on public time. When Covid rampaged through the state, the Iowa Department of Public Health stopped posting daily updates and provided only minimal details about the number of infections and where they occurred.

Reynolds sued the Des Moines Register to prevent it from releasing emails from her staff. Reporters have resorted to suing the administration to receive public records. In the 2024 legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill that would have enacted penalties for any governmental official violating laws on open meetings and open records. Reynolds vetoed this bill — her only veto of the entire session.

Now comes the Governor’s latest affront to transparent government. Recently, Iowa’s Department of Administrative Services announced it will close the State Historical Society of Iowa’s Centennial Building in Iowa City.

The decision was made in a brief period of time without consulting the SHSI board, donors, or other stakeholders. The DAS ignored protocol by failing to request funds from the Iowa legislature to merge the Iowa City collections with those of the Historical Society’s building in Des Moines. The closure appears to be illegal; Iowa Code 8A.707 states that the Department of Administrative Services “shall maintain research centers in Des Moines and Iowa City.”

The Reynolds administration is once again acting hastily and without public input. Property owners, attorneys, city planners, documentary filmmakers, genealogists, developers, and everyday Iowans use this incredible resource — not just academics and students.

Abruptly announcing the closure of a widely-used state resource serving Iowans since 1857 is only the latest example of our governor’s arrogant, secretive, and heavy-handed style of decision-making.  Reynolds’ excuses of confidentiality and executive privilege have worn thin.

In the words of Randy Evans, director of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council, “Government officials sometimes forget that government belongs to the people, not to the officials.” Our government officials have also forgotten that the history, culture, and valuable artifacts donated by thousands of Iowans are not their private property.

David Leshtz, Iowa City

Worthy column

(John Cullen’s column) “No skin in the game” in the Friday, July 18, paper is just excellent… worthy to receive a new refrigerator magnet! Thanks!

I’m sharing it with my neighbors.

Live long and prosper.

Jack DePond, Leon

The Los Angeles heart

Travelling is a great way to explode our perspectives into something much bigger than what we could ever create in isolation. Currently, I am in Los Angeles during the months of June and July, and what I find on the streets of LA  is a celebration of humanity. 

You see it in every frutero stand on the side of the road; in every punk kid walking down the street, or latina goth girl, or lesbian; in the gay community entire streets are given to celebrating their existence; in every taco truck (some decorated with glorious depictions of Our Lady of Guadalupe resonating deep faith and culture); in every baseball fan wearing a Dodgers hat talking about last night’s game; in the churches and old missions constructed in the desert  past and the priests and parishioners who worship there; and in the graffiti on walls where there’s a language and artistic depth to transcend and declare the city holy. 

With a melting pot of diversity so rich, and a population so large and sprawling with a heartbeat running through the streets, it is hard to ignore the love the people of LA have for their city, and ultimately for each other. 

Recent media focus  depicts a city on fire and on the brink of total chaos of epic proportions. While I’ve been here for most of the US military occupation of the city, I felt nothing short of love and a determination for a people to remain free as Angelenos. This autonomy is purely American. Read Alexis De Tocqueville. Read the Lewis & Clark journals about the Corps of Discovery and the exploration of the  American West. Since the earliest days of settlers preparing villages, we wanted nothing more than an original American identity wholly independent from authoritarian rule in England. Our backwoods way often resulted in chaos, and established cultures in Europe took note of the struggling country bumpkins  in the new American territories, claiming we were uncivilized and lacked the more refined nature older cultures seemed to enjoy from years of refining who they are and how they live. That chaos was American. 

We are tough and determined people.  America was always a feral wilderness and the exploration of the country by explorers revealed contours of complex cultures of Native humans and flora and fauna otherwise unheard of hitherto. We called this Manifest Destiny, and in our minds it was from God we were given the West. It was ours to dominate. And the things we didn’t kill in our path to civilization, we trapped and sent to President Jefferson in cages for measurements and for data entry. We have always been determined to understand and to dominate nature. It is the American way. Yet nature and people and a conclusive identity is elusive and hard to catalog because it grows into each other and grows with each other. 

The streets of LA are a beautiful tapestry of cultures colliding and learning how to coexist. There is a feral wildness to city life that operates off a purely human heartbeat. There is brotherly love. Melting pots can feel uncomfortable to a static status quo because it is different from the identity and reality constructed in the safety of isolation. There is wonderment in looking at the world and seeing our differences. And those differences, if we can lean into them and listen and look into the eyes of those who are not like us, will reveal an eternal truth that humanity is not easily defined into singular experience, but it can be defined by the love we have for one another, thus learning from each other’s perspective and experiences in life.

I am grateful for my time to be among the people and to be free in the city of Angels. And I look forward to coming home, and being among the multitudes of people and the tall corn of the Midwest.

Chad Wolfe, Newell