RIP: No deadlines

We lost a great one when Paul Struck died on Monday at age 78. Our sympathies go to his wife, Darla, and family. The editor of the Cherokee Chronicle Times will be missed dearly. He was a wit. A sage. Bull-headed. Often right. Fearless.

He was a star at Storm Lake St. Mary’s and Buena Vista College in baseball and basketball, a teammate of the late, great Larry Biittner of Pocahontas on those dynastic Beaver teams of the 1960s. Oh, the tales Struck could tell. He grew up on the lean side in Truesdale and then Storm Lake, when the family moved to Cherokee. Paul would ride the train to Buena Vista in the morning and hitchhike home to Cherokee in the afternoon, often catching a ride from the state trooper. We were kids then, his fans..

We remained fans as adults. Cherokee was blessed with two legendary editors in our lifetimes: Tom Miller, former editor and owner of the Cherokee Daily Times, who judged the Pulitzer Prizes; and Struck, one of the most intensely read community columnists for his entertaining, and sometimes biting, style.

Paul got his start with Miller, then took a break from the news to sell steel buildings, and ended up back in the newspaper business. He landed on the news desk at the Sioux City Journal, but was lured back home to help launch a hometown newspaper with his nephew, Troy Valentine. The Brothers Cullen printed the Cherokee Chronicle and we renewed our old fraternity with Paul. Even when we were scrapping over $10, we could always laugh at each other.

It was our pleasure to reunite with Paul when we purchased the Chronicle Times a couple years ago. Paul had kept a flicker of life going in the days of distant owners. He was excited for a reinvigorated newspaper representing the place he chose as his hometown. We remain grateful to him for helping us in the transition. He wanted to keep on writing. We all do. He had more to say. Time took him away. We take a lesson from that: These matters are urgent.

Paul Struck had a voice and used it for his hometown until he couldn’t. We should all take note.

Avoiding thought police

Iowa Republicans are cracking down on diversity, equity and inclusion efforts through the board of regents. It is as extreme as any DEI idealism. A law was passed that defunds anything smacking of programmatic diversity. The regents are working themselves up to eliminate such language from their own mission statements and the like. The University of Iowa responded, in part, by consolidating its gender and ethnic studies into one School of Social and Cultural Awareness. Social justice and American studies majors were eliminated, and departments were consolidated to rid themselves of quarrelsome names like African American Studies. Other departments, colleges and universities are busy redrafting all sorts of documents to comply with the latest social retraction ordered by the thought police in Des Moines.

We suspect that Native American and African American scholarship will continue, if sort of underground to keep legislators off their backs. We are in one of those cycles where people have to lay low until the most recent eruption of racism ebbs. Teachers keep on teaching. There are ways. We have been down these roads, and somehow we find a way home to thoughtfulness.

We attended schools run by the ultimate authoritarians — priests — yet we were able to come away with a broad understanding of the American story (one of us with an American Studies major, no less). Same with Brian Lenzmeier, the president of Buena Vista University. No matter what the mission statement says, we know that BVU values diversity and inclusion and believes in equality because Lenzmeier and the trustees believe fundamentally in fairness. The Presbyterians are not Wobblies. Not to worry. Northern Iowa is cranking out business majors and coaches. Is Lisa Bluder some sort of radical? Iowa State celebrates Jack Trice and George Washington Carver, so what is wrong with that? Are the kids in Ames really filling their minds with woke-ism in Agronomy 101? Has Central College produced any socialists? The closest might be Trustee Harry Smith, because he worked for CBS and NBC News.

With dunderheads at the helm, the best approach is to go along with the gag until it clears and the gasbags run out of hot air, all the while teaching what needs to be taught. Academics must be deft and discreet in dancing through the assault on free inquiry and scholarship. It will blow over. At least, it always has.