Progressive Iowa: Living Liberally

I thought it might interest Blog for Iowa readers to learn what other progressives are doing around the state. In this post I want to talk about Living Liberally, better known as Drinking Liberally.

Four years ago at our Quad Cities Democracy for America (DFA) Training Academy (now known as the DFA Campaign Academy) Arshad Hasan told us about Drinking Liberally. Arshad at the time was in charge of the Training Academy (he is now DFA’s Executive Director) and he made anything he suggested seem like so much fun we had to check it out. And, admittedly, we thought the name was very funny!

So a few of us hosted a Drinking Liberally chapter for a year or so. The basic idea was to get progressives together to socialize. Even back then we were a little uncomfortable with the emphasis on drinking, and sometimes we would meet at a coffee shop and drink coffee!

What with busy schedules and our seeming inability to comply with the national Drinking Liberally’s monthly check-in requirement, we eventually let it go. But late last summer a few folks started getting together again for Drinking Liberally in the Quad Cities. We are in the process of getting more hosts (we think four would be best for us) and joining up as an official chapter once again.

Being busy with health care reform and all last year, I was only drinking liberally on rare occasions. But I am going to be one of the four Drinking Liberally hosts. For one thing, I am trying to get our local DFA group meeting on a regular basis again, and we decided to piggyback at least some of our meetings on the Drinking Liberally meetings. Drinking Liberally starts at 6:30 pm, and we will have DFA meet at the same place but from 5:30 to 6:30 pm. Many of the same folks are in both, and it cuts down on the number of meetings each month. Also, it forces us to concentrate on action at our DFA meeting, and leave discussion of issues for Drinking Liberally.

In the process of figuring out how to get signed up again as an official chapter, I discovered that Drinking Liberally has made some progress itself. For one thing, it is now Living Liberally, and includes Eating Liberally, Screening Liberally (a series of socially-conscious movies), Reading Liberally (book tours of progressive authors), and Laughing Liberally (a political comedy project).

I also found that we have four official Drinking Liberally chapters in Iowa. You can go to the Drinking Liberally website, find the groups, get contact information for their hosts, read their blogs and sign up for any of them near you. I would definitely contact their hosts before going to a meeting, since the Cedar Rapids and Iowa City groups do not have recent posts on their blogs and I would guess are either not meeting or meeting unofficially and probably at a different place and time.

Ames – Meets every Friday at 5:00 pm at Legends American Grill, 119 Stanton Ave

Cedar Rapids – I am not sure this group is still meeting. Do any of our Cedar Rapids readers know the status of this group?

Des Moines – Meets every Thursday at 8:00 pm at AJ’s on East Court, 419 E Court Ave

Iowa City – I am not sure this group is still meeting. Do any of our Iowa City readers know the status of this group?

It looks like there is a Screening Liberally group in Des Moines as well, although it does not seem that they have done anything in the last year, at least not as reported on their blog.

If there are other Living Liberal groups meeting in Iowa, feel free to post information in the comments or email me or our editors, Trish Nelson or Paul Deaton, and we can get some information up about your group at Blog for Iowa.

Starting a Drinking Liberally or Eating Liberally group might be a way for people in smaller towns in Iowa, or where progressives are rarer, to find other like-minded individuals. You can look into starting a group here.

Finally, if you are in a group that is already doing something similar to Living Liberally, you might want to consider becoming an official part of Living Liberally. Maybe you have a book club that reads “progressive” books, or a regular “Social Justice” movie night. Or maybe you are getting together with other progressives to socialize on a regular basis anyway. If it is appropriate for your group, you may want to connect with Living Liberally so that other like-minded folks can find you.

Alta Price is a
physician practicing Pathology in Davenport, Iowa. One of
the original Deaniacs, she stays involved with Democracy for America,
Iowa, and the Quad Cities. She advocates for quality, affordable health
care for all, primarily as a volunteer with Progressive Action for
the
Common Good (Health Care Reform Issue Forum). E-Mail Alta Price