Planetsave

People Understanding People: UN Iowa?

By: Anthony J. Gerst.

If one thinks of Iowa, the thought of an active UN organization is probably the last thing that comes to mind. However, we quiet mild-mannered Iowans have a tendency to be quite active in concerns of the globe. Iowans take their civic duties seriously, as the state UN chapter even publishes the UN Advocacy News for concerned members.

Working primarily with the Better World Campaign, the educational branch of the UN foundation, the Iowa Chapter will be holding several meetings around the state. From the peace and security meeting I attended, to ‘citizens speak back’ events on climate change, poverty and hunger, and one on human rights.

Regrettably, Deborah Derrick the Executive Director of Better World Campaigns and former Senior Adviser for Legislative Affairs at the U.S. State Department, found herself stranded upon the tormented tumultuous tarmac of American’s runways in D.C., and was unable to attend the meeting.

We were graced however with an excellent speaker from Drake University, Professor Debra DeLaet. This charming speaker is from the college’s Department of Politics and International Relations. Rather timidly she took center stage making it a point to stress, several times, that the following would be her own opinion. In her classes it is evident she imparts to her students that the world is interdependent. She put forth a four-point proposal in her speech. Debra DeLaet’s opinion is that the primary issue of our nation should be getting back to the core values of America. In a follow up question, I pushed her to define this in more detail. As I suspected, and hoped, she was referring to the need for America to rely upon our Bill of Rights and civic freedoms to guide our security concerns - at home and abroad.

Another primary point in Professor DeLaet’s speech was the need to seek out the moderate voices in the world, not the extremists, when attempting to deal with foreign policy issues. It is with much regret that extremism runs rampant throughout the world today. The politics of America is polarized with extremist elements running the party machines. In my opinion the best aspect of the professor’s speech was her final point, hammering home that security issues in our nation go beyond military threats. Like I, the good professor stresses that environmental issues are a greater concern for our nation. Her examples were that of resource scarcity, and pandemic threats that would affect the globe more dramatically in terms of human life, than the current terrorists threats.

The meeting hall that evening was full of individuals, obvious activists in the political and civil society of the Muscatine Iowa community. I had anticipated a polarizing debate over the issue of the Iraq war. In reality this was only mentioned at the end of the meeting. A distinguished gentleman made the comment that if he were a member of the press, he would be reporting about what type of people were holding this meeting. Which could meet to discuss peace and security and not bring up the troops, acknowledging them or discussing their lack of equipment? One lady retorted to this, saying the issue of supporting the troops was being used as a tool to silence the opposition to the war. Personally, I believe you can be both against the war and still support and honor the troops that are fighting in it. There is a difference between respecting the service of these men and women, and your positions upon the actions taken by our government.

Lori Nelson from a state university was representing a fledgling organization called PEACE Iowa. The acronym stands for Peace Education & Action Center of Eastern Iowa. Part of their mission is to educate people about the links between war, politics, social and economic practices. They stress cultural exchanges, and have created a means by which students from Iran and Southeast Iowa can communicate with each other. This great nation of ours needs more organizations that believe our citizens should be reaching out to the peoples of the globe. I applaud the newly created PEACE Iowa, should you be interested in starting something like this in your state.

The site is still a work in process, so be persistent if you believe the best means for achieving world security is people understanding people.