Ruth Harkin's inviting memoir on Iowa life, presidential campaigning, releases today
Tom and Ruth Harkin leaned forward in their Fleur Cinema seats in Des Moines in the early evening of July 17 as a film chronicling the civil rights journey of people with disabilities rolled across the screen.
They knew the activists, people with a range of physical disabilities, some here, some departed for decades. And the Harkins sat next to State Rep. Josh Turek of Council Bluffs, Iowa's first visibly and permanently disabled legislator that night in the theater. The old political warriors encouraging the new.
The Harkins, Tom, a defining Iowa voice in the U.S. Senate and House for 40 years before retiring a decade ago, and Ruth, a pioneering force for international development and the ascendency of women, have made advocacy for those with physical and intellectual disabilities a feature of their shared public service.
That's why they were there for the film, "Crip Camp," and a long panel discussion on disability rights and conversation with Josh Turek on this summer night in Des Moines. They talked with Iowans in the lobby until the theater staff had to turn the lights off, and head home themselves.
The ground-breaking and intentional advocacy continues to this day at The Tom and Ruth Harkin Center at Drake University, a force for disabled people and others marginalized or overlooked.
Which puts author Ruth Harkin's just-released memoir, "When My Husband Ran For President And Other Short Stories," in perspective. It is a chronicling of public service and a wonderfully entertaining and inviting glimpse into life behind the scenes — to this point for the octogenarian Harkins — as the story yet unfolds. It's hard to fathom that a couple who are peerless in their contributions to the state are still giving. But they are.
"I've been writing over decades," Ruth Harkin said in an interview with The Iowa Mercury.
For now, the great gift to Iowa that is Tom and Ruth Harkin keeps on giving. "When My Husband Ran For President And Other Short Stories," reflects that. It humanizes an already very human Tom Harkin, and shows us what made Ruth such an influential Iowan in her own right, with heartfelt recollections ranging from Ruth’s Minnesota schoolgirl years to marathon days as the wife, and savvy strategist, in her husband's 1992 presidential campaign.
"Although this is sad, there's nothing quite as wonderful as being loved in defeat, especially by those who have given you the most," Ruth Harkin observed in the book about the night her husband dropped out of the Democratic presidential nominating contest then Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton would go on to capture.
"I think one of the things about Tom is he has the courage of his convictions," Ruth Harkin said in the interview. "That is a phrase that's been used about him, and he will always go with his convictions. I think a lot of times to become a nominee of a party for president you really have to go more toward the middle of the road perhaps. Tom never bent his views to run for president and went with his views and was passionate about them. I was really proud of the way he conducted the race."
Iowans will see themselves in this book, just as they saw themselves in Senator Harkin.
"His constituency in Iowa identified with him and knew what he was talking about," Ruth Harkin said.
Senator Harkin is a native of Cumming, Iowa, (in Madison County, near Des Moines, and home to the iconic covered bridges) where the Harkins maintain a home to this day. They grew up in the fifties and sixties Midwest and always have operated with a sensibility Ruth describes in her book as "Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without."
Senator Harkin is a master of repurposing, of finding excuses to avoid throwing most anything in the trash. Tom Harkin owns three leaf blowers — because he won't toss the older, obsolete ones, we learn in the book.
That thrifty spirit goes double for towels — which you never throw away. They can be used to dry off after showers and find a purpose decades later as rags for cleaning tools in the garage, Ruth Harkin writes.
"My favorite is accumulating towels," Ruth Harkin writes. "I can't imagine throwing a towel out."
For her part, Ruth Harkin was elected to public office before her husband. She won the election for Story County attorney in 1972. Tom Harkin would win election to the U.S. House in 1974 (after losing a 1972 bid).
Later, Ruth Harkin would serve as deputy general counsel for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. President Bill Clinton in 1993 selected her as president of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation.
"I am among the first generations of women who pursued full-time careers outside the home and juggled career and family life," Ruth Harkin writes.
According to a statement from Iowa State University, “when Clinton spoke at Iowa State University on April 25, 1995 he had high praise for Ruth Harkin. In his speech at Hilton Coliseum President Clinton said of Ruth Harkin: ‘She has done more to create American jobs by financing international trade than any person who has ever held the position. You can be proud of her.’”
Ruth Harkin, in the interview with The Iowa Mercury, said she never considered running for an office other than Story County attorney.
"I was really not interested in running for another office," she said.
Ruth Harkin originally started putting what she described as vignettes together for family and friends in a book she had no interest in seeing more widely distributed.
"That's what started me on my way and then I have been persuaded along the way that maybe there is a bigger audience for this book, that more people might find it interesting, particularly if you are from Iowa and know about some of these stories," she said. "I hope for this book that it makes people smile, maybe laugh."
All the proceeds from the book will go to the Harkin Center.
(Douglas Burns, founder of The Iowa Mercury and a fourth-generation Iowa journalist from Carroll, is a member of the Iowa Writers’ Collaborative. Read dozens of the most talented writers in Iowa in just one place. The Iowa Writers' Collaborative spans the full state. It’s one of the biggest things going in Iowa journalism and writing now — and you don’t want to miss. This collaborative is — as the outstanding Quad Cities journalist Ed Tibbetts says — YOUR SUNDAY IOWA newspaper. )
Tom and Ruth are remarkable people who have accomplished remarkable things in their service to others who needed a hand up. And in this journey, they never lost sight of who they are and where they came from.
Most excellent review. Thanks!