At home and real everywhere in America

Carroll, Iowa

Photo by Luke Michael on Unsplash

Since our nation is more idea than geography, a collection of principles above anything else, this intellectually secessionist notion of two Americas, one with good people, and another peopled by "the other" should be dispatched.

It flies in the face of everything I have sensed as an American, for I have felt strong patriotic surges, bursts of pride in country, and tears for its heroes and defenders in places large and small, famous and forlorn.

I live in small-town America. I am a rural Iowan, born in the eastern part of the state and adopted by family with deep roots in the west.

After being in places with screaming optics, in-your-face sights, New York City or Mt. Rainier or Churchill Downs trackside on the first Saturday in May, I am always again on my way home, on the open road from, say, the Omaha airport. Iowa, I think to myself after being outside of it, has under-appreciated scenery.

The vastness of Iowa, its openness, leaves one feeling simultaneously secure and free. It’s a wonderful sensation — and an American one.

I’ve known the advantages of growing up in rural Iowa, with our schools, and going out in competing in the broader world.

Small towns are a crucial part of the American fabric.

But to dismiss anything outside of our way of life as something less than American is to miss the full American experience.

The breathtaking sight of the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City, the feel of a run across it is with me still. It’s a uniquely American experience to stand on the bridge.

I’m an Iowan, a Midwesterner through and through who finds enormous pleasure and comfort in those quiet drives from Carroll to Des Moines or Omaha, Neb. But spend some time on the Brooklyn Bridge. You find there’s truth in the American belief that anything is possible.

For its part, the Statue of Liberty is disappointing. It came from the French, should belong to New Jersey and is, just, well, so small in relation to what you’ve imagined since childhood. As a symbol it serves its purpose.

Photo by Alexander Rotker on Unsplash

But then there is the Brooklyn Bridge, a 6,016-foot long marvel of utility and beauty spanning the East River and connecting Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Stand at the apex of Brooklyn Bridge’s boardwalk in the morning, listening to the hum of the heart of capitalism, and then find yourself back in Iowa later that night, alone with your thoughts in the comfortable silence of a drive on U.S. 71, slicing through the world’s most productive farmland, headed home to Carroll, Iowa.

That, more than a politician’s opportunistic words, will give you the real sense of America.

Douglas Burns, a fourth-generation Iowa journalist, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Burns resides in Carroll.

Please consider following some of the other writers in the collaborative.

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative Columnists

Laura Belin: Iowa Politics with Laura Belin, Windsor Heights

Doug Burns: The Iowa Mercury, Carroll

Dave Busiek: Dave Busiek on Media, Des Moines

Iowa Writers’ Collaborative, Roundup

Steph Copley: It Was Never a Dress, Johnston

Art Cullen: Art Cullen’s Notebook, Storm Lake

Suzanna de Baca: Dispatches from the Heartland, Huxley

Debra Engle: A Whole New World, Madison County

Julie Gammack: Julie Gammack’s Iowa Potluck, Des Moines and Okoboji

Joe Geha: Fern and Joe, Ames

Jody Gifford: Benign Inspiration, West Des Moines

Rob Gray: Rob Gray’s Area, Ankeny

Nik Heftman: The Seven Times, Los Angeles and Iowa

Beth Hoffman: In the Dirt, Lovilla

Dana James: New Black Iowa, Des Moines

Pat Kinney: View from Cedar Valley, Waterloo

Fern Kupfer: Fern and Joe, Ames

Robert Leonard: Deep Midwest: Politics and Culture, Bussey

Letters from Iowans, Iowa

Tar Macias: Hola Iowa, Iowa

Darcy Maulsby, Keep’n it Rural, Lake City

Alison McGaughey, The Inquisitive Quad Citizen, Quad Cities

Kurt Meyer: Showing Up, St. Ansgar

Wini Moranville: Wini’s Food Stories, Des Moines

Jeff Morrison: Between Two Rivers, Cedar Rapids

Kyle Munson: Kyle Munson’s Main Street, Des Moines

Jane Nguyen: The Asian Iowan, West Des Moines

John Naughton: My Life, in Color, Des Moines

Chuck Offenburger: Iowa Boy Chuck Offenburger, Jefferson and Des Moines

Barry Piatt: Piatt on Politics Behind the Curtain, Washington, D.C.

Dave Price: Dave Price’s Perspective, Des Moines

Macey Spensley: The Midwest Creative, Iowa

Larry Stone: Listening to the Land, Elkader

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Buggy Land, Kalona

Mary Swander: Mary Swander’s Emerging Voices, Kalona

Cheryl Tevis: Unfinished Business, Boone County

Ed Tibbetts: Along the Mississippi, Davenport

Teresa Zilk: Talking Good, Des Moines

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