SULLIVAN'S SALVOS
October 28, 2021
Sullivan’s Salvos 11/2/21
In this edition:
*Happy Birthday Rachel!
*VOTE!
*Election Anger
*Remembering November 1, 1991
*Interesting Economic Development Results
*Medical Examiner Annual Report
*Did You Know?
*Happy Birthday Rachel!
Happy Birthday to my oldest daughter Rachel, who turns 30 on the 6th! I am SO proud of Rachel! She has grown into a wonderful young woman and a great Mom. I love you, Ray!
*VOTE!
Tuesday, November 2 is Election Day! Please go to the polls that day if you have not already voted!
A friendly reminder: For Iowa City Council, I am supporting Bruce Teague and Megan Alter in the At-Large race, and Shawn Harmsen in District B.
For the ICCSD Board of Directors, I am supporting JP Claussen, Ruthina Malone, and Jayne Finch for four-year terms, and MaKa Pilcher Hayek for the two-year term. Also, please vote YES on the ICCSD school funding question!
If you have any questions about voting, please contact the Johnson County Auditor’s Office at 319-356-6004.
*Election Anger
The run up to this election has me angry.
To be clear, I voted for Bruce Teague and Megan Alter in the At-Large Iowa City Council race. To be doubly clear, I have spent literally dozens of hours speaking with Jason Glass. I consider him a friend. If he gets elected, I’ll try to help him be successful. Whatever the outcome, I like and respect him. But he did not get my vote.
Unfortunately, outgoing Councilor Susan Mims has taken a different approach. Mims is urging people to vote ONLY for Glass. That is her right. But I strongly disagree with Susan's criticisms of the other candidates.
For one, just 4 years ago, Susan Mims specifically encouraged voters to consider her gender when voting. But she says gender should NOT be a consideration when contemplating the candidacy of Megan Alter.
Secondly, Susan Mims has spent the past 25 years saying we need to elect businessmen to the Council. Bruce Teague started and runs his own successful business. Why doesn’t he count?
Finally, Susan Mims says the Council needs “balance.” I think "balance" means different things to us. Historically (probably 917 out of roughly 950) council seats have been held by white people. (12 by Wilburn; 8 by Strait, 6 by Botchway, 4 by Saliah, 3 by Teague.) Meanwhile, moderate-to-conservative white men have held roughly 850 of those 950 seats. Conservative white men have not been historically underrepresented; they have been *WAY* overrepresented!
How can a person really look at the history of Iowa City and say, “We need another middle-aged, straight, white man. Not this gay, black candidate who has already capably served as Mayor”? And where was Susan Mims’ commitment to “balance” when the Council was 100% white, straight, and conservative? Why wasn’t she pushing for “ideological diversity” then?
Yeah, I am angry. We need some public discussion as to exactly what “balance” means.
*Remembering November 1st, 1991
Thirty years ago on November 1, a UI post-graduate student named Gang Liu killed four faculty members, a student, and himself.
Faculty members Christoph Goertz, Dwight Nicholson, Robert Smith, T. Anne Cleary, and Linhua Shan were all slain. Student Miya Rodolfo-Sioson was shot and survived but was left paralyzed from the neck down. She died several years later from complications due to her injuries.
If you ask longtime residents of Johnson County, most can tell you where they were that fateful day. (I was working my second job - a Friday night shift in a Systems Unlimited group home. The residents of the group home were supposed to go out to dinner that night, but we quickly cancelled those plans.)
I wish I could say that in the decades that passed, something good had come from this horror. Frankly, I simply do not see it. Even bigger mass killings have occurred on other campuses across the nation. Heck, it happened in an elementary school! Our mental health system is not really any better, and our gun laws are even worse. The killings make no more sense today than they did thirty years ago.
I hope you will take a moment to reflect upon one of the saddest days in Johnson County history, pray for the many survivors whose lives were touched by the people we lost that day, and pray that we can do better as a state and country.
*Interesting Economic Development Results
I participated in an interesting economic development event in my role representing Johnson County on the East Central Iowa Council of Governments (ECICOG).
The Zoom event gathered a wide range of people from throughout the 6-County ECICOG Region (Linn, Johnson, Benton, Iowa, Jones, and Washington Counties); I believe there were right around a hundred participants. This included elected officials, business leaders, economic development folks, nonprofit leaders, and many more. These groups are never as diverse as organizers would like, but I thought it was more diverse than most.
In the session, they asked us to look at a variety of possible outcomes for our region. Then they asked us to predict how likely those outcomes were. This was the part that blew my mind.
There was an almost universal desire to improve our environmental outcomes. People were all in on wind and solar, electric vehicles, and recycling. They wanted major improvements in water quality. The wanted sensitive areas protected. Again, the support here was nearly unanimous.
There was an almost universal desire to see the lives of workers improved. Universal health care scored high. Improved pay and benefits to workers up and down the line. Paid time off. Affordable and accessible childcare. Investments in amenities such as parks and trails. Well-funded schools. Again, the support was remarkably high.
Then we got to the likelihood of these outcomes becoming reality. Almost everyone, myself included, agreed that these outcomes were unlikely.
So why the disconnect? With all these movers and shakers in the room wanting the same things, why can’t popular ideas win the day?
The answer, I’m afraid, is simple. The answer is that the Republican Party opposes all these things at a State and Federal level. Economic development people can’t say it – they would undoubtedly lose their jobs. But GOP policies are killing our region.
The most obvious proof of this is that Republican elected officials say the right things, then do something else. Kim Reynolds says she wants to work with Iowa’s farmers for a cleaner environment. But in actuality, she busts her butt daily to ensure that no farmer has to follow any environmental standards whatsoever.
It is the same story when it comes to improving the lives of workers. Kim Reynolds saysshe wants to work with Iowa’s businesses to improve the lives of workers. But in actuality, she busts her butt daily to ensure that no business has to follow any labor laws whatsoever.
It is called *LYING*. And the GOP constantly lies to the people at the State and Federal levels. And they HAVE to lie. Because the majority of the people do not like what they are delivering.
So they do two things: First, they lie. They talk about positive outcomes, but then work to ensure those outcomes never happen. Secondly, they distract: Beau Biden! Black people committing crimes! Latinos committing crimes! LGBTQ people! Squirrel!
The people who participated in this exercise should be able to see the disconnect between what they want and what they are getting. But it is not going to improve until they quit electing Republicans to office.
*Medical Examiner Annual Report
We recently got our annual report from the Medical Examiner’s Office, and as usual, it was full of interesting information.
In case you didn’t realize, the Johnson County Medical Examiner’s Office is responsible for investigating all the deaths in the county, and determining whether or not a death is “in the public interest.” If a death is determined to be “in the public interest,” they open a case. There were 2066 deaths last year in Johnson County – 1051 of those were determined to be in the public interest and became ME cases.
Here are several random bits of information, all gleaned from the annual report:
*Most deaths are natural causes, followed by accidents.
*Those deaths also included 38 suicides and 8 homicides, as well as 11 undetermined. (Sometimes – in the case of an overdose, for example – it can be very difficult to determine if the death was an accident or a suicide.)
*The biggest cause of accidental deaths BY FAR is falls.
*A surprising number of these are falls from standing height.
*The second most common type of accidental death is illicit drug use, but falls are 7 times as frequent.
*Methamphetamine was far ahead of all other drug-related deaths. *Most suicides are committed using a handgun.
*30 of 38 suicides were males.
*6 out of 8 homicide victims were women.
If you are interested in more information on the Medical Examiner’s Office or the data in this report, visit the website at: https://www.johnsoncountyiowa.gov/department-of-medical-examiner.
*DID YOU KNOW? Over 6,000 Iowans have died due to gun violence since November 1, 1991.
Anyone interested in learning more about County government should take a look at the County website-
"Sullivan’s Salvos" is sent once per week to any interested party. It will give a brief update on issues of interest to Johnson County residents.
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---Rod
posted by Rod Sullivan @ 10:39 AM
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