Mary McBee and her pipeline fighting pup, Sygna
The following post was written by pipeline fighter, Mary McBee, from Tama, Iowa.
“IOWA NICE”
I was born and raised on a farm in northern Iowa, nurtured in a rural community where we learned to be polite and considerate of other people, like them or not, because we all depended upon one another. It was a gentle unruffled way of life, synonymous with the smooth quiet flowing rivers, the gently rolling landscape. Yet, I was born with a restless adventurous spirit, was often dreadfully bored, and could not wait to “break out.” At age 30, the opportunity presented itself and I swept up my two young children and headed west.
Out west, we thrilled in fast raging rivers, roamed in spectacular mountains, climbed sheer barren cliffs. I loved it. The human populations seemed akin: outspoken, feisty, free-spirited, often extreme. My temperament fit the landscape and people well and I flowed with ease in and out of chaos. No boredom there.
As decades passed, eventually my two adult children found their way back to Iowa, and before long, I followed. However, adjusting back to the subtle behaviors in Iowa was difficult for me. I was appalled at the sweeping environmental damage that had taken place here while I’d been absent for decades, now finding that Iowa was the most biologically damaged landscape in the entire country. I couldn’t understand why more people weren’t shouting and marching in the streets to stop all this. Then I was told to remember that I was back in Iowa; here, we are “Iowa Nice.” Needless to say, this was considered a demeaning term from the viewpoint of many now very frustrated and greatly concerned Iowans.
Then there’s my daughter who has always loved Iowa and Iowans. Now in her grandmother years, she even has a sign in their house that reads, “Be Nice or Go Away.” Is that a born Iowa native or what??
However, as the years have gone by and I’ve dug deeper and maneuvered through various and sundry active undercurrents here, I’ve come to appreciate Iowans far more. The independent thinkers are here, the activists are here, the rebels are here. They’re just more subtle, like the rivers and landscapes. In fact, Iowa has a very long proud tradition of independent thinkers and free spirits, along with being “nice.”
Way back in the mid-1800’s, when the federal government was trying to stash Indians away into Oklahoma and Kansas, and when Californians were killing their Indians and turning Indian ears in to collect bounties, Iowans said, “no,” and requested permission for “their Indians” (Meskwakis) to stay. Soon after, when slaves in Missouri were desperately trying to escape bondage, Iowans created an entire assistance network from the Missouri River to the Mississippi, organizing a high-risk underground railroad system to help slaves escape. Furious Missourians and Kansans burned churches and homes in Iowa. John Brown used Iowa as his main passageway between Kansas and Harpers Ferry, Virginia, where he eventually met his end (some Iowans along with him) while fighting slavery, thus lighting the fire that started the civil war. Then there were the family farmers who rose up in the 1930’s, creating the Grange in the upper Midwest and eventually overthrowing the massive influence of big corporations (especially railroads) that had come to wield too much power. And, of course, it was Iowans a decade ago who surprised the nation by overthrowing party favorites and pushing the first black American forward in the race as a presidential candidate.
A decade ago I saw this subtle undercurrent rise again when a large corporation and city leaders thought they could quietly slip in another polluting coal power plant near Marshalltown. That was squashed. And Iowa taxpayers are now starting to object about carrying the financial burden of cleaning up our Iowa waterways, ones that huge corporate farms have been encouraged to pollute by both corporations and government subsidies.
And currently there’s a battle taking place over the highly destructive Bakken Pipeline that’s to cross from one corner of Iowa to the other. It’s a huge pipe (nearly 3’ in diameter), one that would carry massive amounts of unrefined dirty and explosive oil from western North Dakota to the Mississippi River for shipping to international markets. Dakota Access, the pipeline construction company, wants to drill under and trench through major waterways/rivers en route (when leaks/spills occur, these go undetected longer). According to the Bakken Pipeline Resistance Coalition, the pipeline would cross through 17 of our states major river ways and 246 or so minor streams and river crossings.
Dakota Access also wants eminent domain rights to take land away from both private and public landowners en route even when they choose not to sell, and, plans to bring in many of their own pipeline labor union workers so the majority of the construction jobs won’t even go to Iowans. Dakota Access had no problem rolling right over leaders in North Dakota, South Dakota, and Illinois, and thought they could do the same here, too. Then they hit that unexpected Iowa buzz saw and now have a ferocious battle on their hands.
Farmers, environmentalists, Indians, Quakers, and some 30 other Iowa groups, both urban and rural, are all joining hands to ask questions no one else thought to ask and to demand responsible decision-making from political leaders. Demonstrations and sit-ins are taking place, a number of hefty lawsuits have been filed, our governor’s corporate ties and decisions are again being questioned.
Just because Iowans are “nice,” doesn’t mean they simply lay down and wait to be trod upon. Perhaps I was meant to be in Iowa after all?
Mary Richardson McBee,
Tama, IA
June 14, 2016