Tonight: Last Child in the Woods Author, Richard Louv

What a great city! Author Richard Louv is speaking tonight (July 30, 2008) at 7:00 p.m. at Hoyt Sherman Place. The award winning author of the best selling book Last Child in the Woods will present a free lecture. Since seating is limited you may want to reserve your tickets just to be sure.

The book has been reviewed positively by

Falling for Grace: Meet Fay Ann Lee

At the Fleur Cinema on Friday and Saturday (August 1 and 2) you will have a chance to meet Fay Ann Lee, who stars in her 2006 directorial debut, Falling for Grace, originally named East Broadway. She will be at the Fleur Cinema and Cafe to answer your questions at each showing on both days: Friday at 4:30, 7:00 and 9:30 and Saturday at 1:30, 4:30, 7:00, and 9:30.

You can see a clip of this romantic comedy on You Tube, read a review (under its original title) from Martha Fischer of cinematical.com, and view the Falling for Grace site. This Cinderella story about a second generation American from Chinatown is set in New York City and co-stars Gale Harold, Margaret Cho, Christine Baranski, Ato Essandoh and Lewis Black. Premiering in 2006 as East Broadway at the Tribeca Film Festival,the film has been retitled for its revival as Falling for Grace. If you watch her 2006 interview, you will recognize her and her voice when you see her in person this weekend.

What is the principle here?

Are you turning in some work to your boss this morning? Better read this first.

The latest campaign button in the news turned up in Idaho. You can see the button and read the story at the LA Times on-line.

What’s the principle?

• Politics makes strange bedfellows?
• Proofread your report?
• It’s good to have a friend check your work?
• Don’t take yourself too seriously?

A New Look for AroundDesMoines.com

You might have noticed - we’re working on a facelift for AroundDesMoines.com!

We have a new look that features six tabs across the top so that we can highlight posts.

And there are four main categories just below that:

• Facing Des Moines: Putting faces on everyday people and telling some of their story
• Life is Political: What’s happening in our lives that intersects politics
• Community: Events and services around Des Moines that you might want to discover
• The City: History, architecture, museums, parks, and places

Note the featured photo and video to the right in the site. We’ll change those from time to time. Maybe bi-weekly, weekly, maybe more. We’ll see. It depends on you.

Do you have something to submit? We’d be happy to find guest writers and contributors who want to write about the city, events, politics, or their favorite cause. Write about what you love. (Submission guidelines)

It’s a great way to show off your writing or photography skills and reach a wider audience.

Contact us at 515.745.9978 or life@arounddesmoines.com

Thanks to Jesse Petersen at Perfectly Petersen for updating WordPress and tweaking our new Revolution City template. Click here to view more details

Note: If you’re keeping up with us in a feed reader you might notice that we’re republishing some of our posts so they work in our new categories. (Sorry about that. We’ll be done with our housekeeping soon.)

Harkin, McCain, Obama and a Deaf Mom

July 26 marked the 18th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) was a principal sponsor of this 1990 bill, and Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) has been recognized as a champion of the rights of disabled Americans. In recent comments Senators John McCain and Barack Obama are in agreement with Harkin that the Supreme Court has incorrectly narrowed the protection intended by the 1990 ADA. Each will press for a clearer law in 2009.

In a video that Senator Harkin posted on YouTube in 2007 you can watch him explain the reasoning behind the ADA and how the Supreme Court has altered the intent of the law by its interpretations. He begins by discussing the four pillars of the law - that people with disabilities could have

• full participation in our society
• equal opportunity
• independent living and
• economic self-sufficiency.

In May 2008 I went to SOBCON in Chicago where the Purple Wren
and I met the woman who writes A Deaf Mom Shares Her World. We all had dinner at Greek Islands Restaurant. (Mm-boy, but that’s another story.) Karen (DeafMom) works hard to achieve full participation, equal opportunity, independent living, and economic self-sufficiency. She does her part and asks for little.

If you wonder if everyone embraces the spirit or the letter of the law called ADA, you can read an account of DeafMom’s experiences at Steak ‘n Shake - an account that I find disturbing. Read it and listen to the linked videos. I don’t think she asked for much of an accommodation. Would she have been treated the same way in Des Moines? I don’t think so. Do you know?

Will our returning veterans receive appropriate accommodation? I watched Hidden Wounds of War, a special video report, on WHO-TV last week - 7 or 8 minutes without interruption, very powerful. It captured the nature of traumatic brain injury of local Guardsman Cindy Robison. TBI is now called the singular injury of the Iraq War. Read more about mild and severe TBI in the New England Journal of Medicine, Discover magazine, or in USA Today. Other veterans are returning with limb and back injuries.  

No matter what we might think of the nature or severity of anyone’s disability, I think that the four pillars of ADA should be respected, that our current law be enforced, and that the four pillars of the original law be upheld as Congress reexamines it. What about you? 

photo by flickr by soldiersmediacenter.

 Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Finding events Around Des Moines

Look here too, but if you are looking for a comprehensive listing of events around Des Moines, The Des Moines Register on line has a comprehensive events site listed chronologically. You will soon discover that their list is long and includes information that may be exactly what you want and some that may be outside your interests at the moment. For example, on Saturday July 26th it is 15 pages long with listings that include Throwing Toast (a band, not a food fight) at Mickey’s Irish Pub in Waukee, All American League Football Registration in Des Moines, and a Computerized Spinal Health Exam at the Hassel Family Chiropractic in Clive.  More important, it includes concerts, bar bands, Music Under the Stars, and the events to entertain. Thus, to help you pare your search, The Register has a very nice search tool by category, location, keyword and date. The results (including links) come up chronologically. If you get no hits, eliminate your subcategory. The Register site is great, especially if you know what you are looking for. Once you find The Des Moines Register’s events site, you will use it. It makes anyone who says there is nothing to do in Des Moines look pretty silly.

Of course, we are always happy to have you look here too just to see what we think might be important or on the off-chance that an event wasn’t submitted to the Register. For example, here’s one:  You can expect 30 artists and vendors for the Art Affair on the lawn at Hoyt Sherman Place from 10 until 4 on Sunday July 27. This was mentioned as well in Facing Des Moines: Meet Mark Johnson. Mark is one of the 30 artists and vendors. Hoyt Sherman Place is at 1501 Woodland in Des Moines

photo by flickr by Mike Rohde 

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell Collegeand retired from Drake University.

Facing Des Moines: Meet Russ Melby

Thousands of Iowans in a hundred communities across the state know Russ Melby. You should know him too. Formally known as the Reverend Russell J. A. Melby, Russ is the Iowa Regional Director of Church World Service whose Iowa office is headquartered in Des Moines. As such he oversees and works with volunteers to organize CROP Hunger Walks in more than 100 cities and towns across the state. The purpose of Hunger Walks is to raise money to alleviate hunger and suffering in parts of the US and the world.

Born and raised in Fargo, North Dakota Russ earned a bachelor’s degree from NDSU after a slightly longer than usual college career that Russ claims was greatly enhanced by a four year interruption where he served in the United States Navy (1966-70). In the Navy he worked in the supply department aboard a tender, a destroyer escort, a DER, and a DD. He credits the reading that he did in the Navy with helping to direct and form his character in very positive ways.

Speaking of reading, without hesitation he named three of his recent favorite books as

• Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church, by Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
• The Dignity of Difference: How to Avoid the Clash of Civilizations, by Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and
• The Bible: A Biography, by Karen Armstrong.

After graduating from NDSU in 1974 Russ went on to the Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary in Minneapolis (now Luther Seminary in St. Paul). He served as Pastor at Pioneer Lutheran Church in White, South Dakota for 5 years before accepting a call to service with CWS here in Des Moines in 1984.

I’m sure it’s not a surprise that he loves his job, and there is probably only one call to service that would take him from Des Moines. Do the Green Bay Packers need a Chaplain? That might do it. There is a small Packer shrine in the corner of Russ’s office: cheese head, photos of old and new Lambeau Field, paperweight, game photos, Packer note cube, and more. Definitely a fan of the Packers.

So if you want to find Russ Melby, where will you run across him?

• in his office at 3816 36th St.
• on the road in Iowa for CROP
• on occasion filling in as guest pastor to talk about his work for CROP and Church World Service
• at home in Ames, or
• at one of his favorite Des Moines restaurants: Tandoor; Bravo! Cucina Italiana; A Dong; Baratta’s.

Look for him around Des Moines.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell Collegeand retired from Drake University.

CROP is an acronym for Communities Responding to Overcome Poverty.

Church World Service is an ecumenical collection of Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian churches and several affiliated organizations including Heifer International, YMCA, YWCA, and others “acting on God’s call to serve neighbors in need.” Quoting from their literature, “Working with partners, Church World Service builds interfaith and intercultural coalitions to eradicate hunger and poverty and promote peace and justice around the world.”

Brother, can you spare a dime? What about a door?

If you’re like me, there is a little bit of squirrel in you who is saving stuff for “when I need it.” Well, I’ve been storing stuff that I “need” for twenty years and haven’t used it yet. Does that sound familiar? Embarrassing, isn’t it? I have stuff that I wouldn’t use if I outlived Methuselah.

More importantly, there are people in Des Moines who need to use my stuff, more than I need to store my stuff. I went to The Greater Des Moines Habitat for Humanity ReStore Saturday, and I lightened my load by loosening my death grip on a little “good” stuff that I really didn’t need. ReStore might be able to use some of your good stuff too: tools, plumbing, cabinets, lighting, lumber, tile, hardware, carpet, doors, windows. Take a look at the list of donatable items or go visit the ReStore in person. It’s a trip! After that look around your garage, basement, and house then start a pile and take it in. The ReStore is on 2nd Avenue at Holcomb across from North High School.

The Habitat’s ReStore is green too. Thousands of tons of materials that might otherwise go to the landfill are sold for bargain prices and put to good use by others. Profits when ReStore sells your stuff will be used by Habitat for Humanity to build new homes while the items you donate are used by individuals to refurbish their own homes. Brother, can you spare a door? Brother, do you need a door?

Brother, can you spare a dime? is a song with lyrics written by Yip Harburg who wrote the lyrics to many songs you would recognize including April in Paris and Over the Rainbow. Brother, can you spare a dime? is a Depression era song about a person who has always been a solid, contributing citizen but suddenly finds himself in need. The song was part of the musical Americana. You can read the words on line or even hear it. It was an important enough song that historian Howard Zinn cited it in Chapter 15 of A People’s History of the United States 1492-Present.

With the floods of 2008 a lot of our Iowa neighbors are rebuilding and refurbishing their homes. If you can spare a dime, try the Red Cross, United Way, or Embrace Iowa. If you can spare a door or a tool, try the ReStore. If you need an item, try the ReStore.

photo by flickr by ifijay 

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Tree debris in the Metro

Live in Des Moines? Got tree debris from the storm? Well, load up the family sedan with tree limbs, brush, twigs, your kids, and the dog and head on out to the MWA Metro Compost Center at 1601 Harriett St. just off S. E. 14th. The City left the door open. (Darn! I just vacuumed the car too.)

Check the City of Des Moines news release for the self hauling and the curbside alternatives.

Live in Ankeny? Lucky you! Beginnning July 23 the City of Ankeny will pick up storm debris curbside until August 3. The website says nothing larger than 8″ in diameter. (There must be some pretty strong people in Ankeny.) 

Live in Johnston? Beginning at 7 am July 28 the City of Johnston will also pick up storm debris, but it better be there at 7 am because that’s when they’ll start - no multiple passes, and they’ll continue until they’re done. Their website say the size should be small enough to be handled by one person. (Only a smart aleck would ask, “How big a person?”)

Urbandale has a regular log and limb collection on 1st and 3rd Fridays but for a fee.

West Des Moines and Clive will have no special pick up.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell Collegeand retired from Drake University.

Branches a little low this morning?

Did you wake up to low hanging tree branches this morning? Me too, but the cardinal didn’t seem to mind. However, elsewhere in the metro it was a bigger problem. As of 9 am on July 21 Mid-American Energy reported that over 50,000 customers had lost power in the Des Moines area. You can check power outages anytime. Alliant Energy has a similar and more informative site. A few years ago checking power outages (if you had no power) would have seemed silly, but today so many have laptops and access cards that we can go on-line nearly anywhere. Well, time to start cutting.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

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