Here is the very first Blog for Iowa post by Linda Thiemann originally posted on April 2, 2004. Memories, memories…
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Welcome to Blog for Iowa, the official weblog of Democracy for Iowa!
Let me introduce myself. My name is Linda Thieman (pronounced TEE-mun), and I live in Storm Lake, Iowa (Buena Vista County, NW corner of the state). I am working with Dr. Alta Price of Bettendorf to set up Democracy for Iowa. I have volunteered to be the blogmaster for Blog for Iowa, and the webmaster for Democracy for Iowa. You may know me from my participation in the Dean campaign. I post on the Blog for America under the name “Linda in Iowa,” and I also run the 6 Reasons site, create flyers, and back in September, 2003, I hosted the Virtual Steak Fry. Those were the days, my friend!
You know, I used to be an ESL/EFL teacher. One of my teaching jobs landed me in Japan on a branch campus of an American university. There, I taught in an Intensive English Program that was organized by proficiency levels. Each teacher was given a syllabus for the level and the same set of tests to administer. We shared a set of common goals and objectives, and we desired to accomplish the same end – to empower the students, to teach them not only the English language and American culture, but how to thrive in an American university setting and in an American classroom. Yet, within that structure, we, the teachers, were given complete freedom to meet these goals and objectives in a way that suited each person’s talents, preferences, and creativity.
That is the very thing we are trying to create as we build this new organization called Democracy for Iowa. We are the official state chapter of Gov. Howard Dean’s new progressive political action organization, Democracy for America. Democracy for Iowa will work to elect candidates to office who are socially progressive and fiscally responsible. We will work within the Democratic Party, but this is just one of our goals. We also seek to make Democracy for Iowa a place where all progressives and moderates are welcome, whether they consider themselves Democrats or not. Originally, Dean for America welcomed a broad range of participants, including Democrats, Independents, Greens, moderate Republicans, Libertarians, and others, and we will make Democracy for Iowa a place where all of these people, our sisters and brothers, are welcome, too.
We are hoping through Democracy for Iowa to create a structure that will serve us (not rule us), and that will help us meet our goals and objectives (more about that later). We hope the Blog for Iowa structure will serve as:
1) a way for Iowans to keep up to date with what is happening in Democracy for Iowa;
2) a place where Dean delegates can find each other and organize strategies for the next levels;
3) a place where Iowa counties can organize and communicate;
4) a place where DFIA leaders can connect with each other; and, last but not least,
5) a way for Iowans to contribute to DFIA, to make comments and suggestions, to have an ongoing conversation as we build a structure that will suit our purposes.
This is just the beginning, a glorious, exciting beginning. We will rise from the ashes of the Dean campaign and soar to victory – and, oh, by the way, we WILL take our country back!
Blog For Iowa 