Bev
Clark is the picture of determination.  Living on a farm near
Baxter in Jasper County keeps her isolated from the larger Iowa Dean
community, but that hasn’t stopped her for a second.



Blog for
Iowa, she says, “IS my Dean community in Iowa.  Way beyond helpful
or useful.  I am telling you, I love the blog.  I check it
out several times a day.  I can't think of anything else that is
devoted to Iowa like this blog is.”



A former practicing attorney and an MSW by training with a specialty in community organizing, Bev is now active in Another Mother for Peace,
an organization of moms who believe that it is their patriotic duty to
speak out against war.  According to the Another Mother website,
“our precious democracy allows us as citizens to voice our opinions and
to influence the debate in Washington.”  Peace Homework is how
they make their voices heard.  The current assignment is to get peace on the platform.



Bev is also active with MMOB
(Mainstream Moms Oppose Bush).  Once active in the Seniors for
Dean letter-writing campaign to Iowa, Bev now writes letters to
Missouri, a swing state, through an MMOB project.



But, she warns, sometimes the “rules” can be a little bit tricky.  “The [MMOB] website
has the voter registration information and forms with federal
information and Missouri information. . . . But, Missouri has some
special ‘weight of paper’ requirement . . . for a voter registration
form.  So, now I am thinking I will print off the 'application
form for a voter registration form' and send that with an envelope
addressed to the Secretary of State, Missouri, and see if that will get
the person a voter registration application.  All in all, some
stupid requirement about special weight of paper (which makes
computer-printed forms NOT allowed) sounds like another way to
disenfranchise voters.”



It’s funny how we’ve all awakened to that sort of thing.



Bev was
active, too, during the June 19th health care events across the
country.  “I went to Uncle Nancy's coffee house in Newton for
about 3 hours and gave everyone who came in a little flyer about health
care statistics that I got off Blog for America.  I overheard an interesting discussion between two women about being at the
doctor recently for an illness and the doctor gave her a prescription
that was expensive.  So, the person said, ‘I don't have any health
insurance.’  The doctor then tore up the prescription and wrote
another one that was for a generic and much less expensive.  What
do you make of that?  Something perhaps about the medical
establishment-pharmaceuticals being in bed together?



Everyone
willingly took my flyer; only one person was somewhat negative – he is
a self-employed person with a large deductible on his insurance and he
resents paying full price when people without money get 'a full ride,'
according to him.”



Or, more likely, no ride at all.

Bev, not
unlike many an Iowa Dean supporter, cannot bring herself to get fully
behind the Kerry Kamp.  A recent fund-raising email from Kerry,
exhorting us all to “celebrate,” elicited this feisty response from Bev
Clark:



“I am a
DEAN person.  Remember Dean?  The person who gave us the
courage to say “No” to Bush?  I give money to progressive
candidates.  I am writing letters for Mainstreet Moms Oppose Bush.
I will write some senior letters.  I'll probably call
people.  However, I will not send money to Kerry directly until I
see proof that proper respect is being paid to the Dean people and to
DEAN himself.  So far, I don't see the proof I am awaiting to
see.  Your campaign asked for input…this is mine.  I read Blog for America
regularly and I think it is a fair appraisal of how the Kerry people
treat the Dean people.  There's a long road to travel to bring
unification even on the progressive side.  When will the Kerry
campaign pay the proper tribute to the contribution of Howard
Dean?  Oh yes, I'm female, white, over 55, a retired lawyer with
kids who do not have medical care, and I am a staunch supporter of
Another Mother for Peace from the Vietnam war days.  In closing,
Dean gave us all the gift …’it's about us.’  I try to honor
this, and I wish you would do the same to Dean.”



This,
then, is the face of the Iowa Dean supporter.  We will do what we
can, but we will not fall in line.  Watch out, World – here we
come.


Linda Thieman