Freedom isn’t flourishing in Iowa

Last week, Gov. Kim Reynolds announced a new slogan and logo to promote Iowa. The slogan is “Iowa, Freedom to Flourish,” and the logo features a sun rising, or maybe setting, over a green landscape divided by a road in the “O” of Iowa. The road leads to opportunity, the governor said.

But Iowa’s current slogan “Fields of Opportunity,” is being scrapped. The new log will be used by state government agencies and will grace dozens of road signs welcoming travelers to the state.

We’re not fans of the new logo, which somehow cost $300,000 in pandemic relief money to design. That’s surprising, considering the name “Freedom to Flourish” isn’t original. It’s the title of a popular self-help book aimed at exhausted Christian women, among other uses. The “O” logo also bears an uncanny resemblance to former President Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign logo.

It will cost $375,000 to change that state’s welcome signs. It seems this money could have been better spent.

And Reynolds’s announcement prompts the question, “Who really is flourishing in Iowa?” The answer mostly is Iowans who the governor agrees with, give her campaign donations and fly her across the state and nation in private planes. Evangelical Christian conservatives have watched their narrow worldview enshrined in Iowa law. Businesses who want to hire children to work at more dangerous jobs for longer hours have benefited. Iowa’s water quality suffers while polluters flourish.

But if you’re an LGBTQ Iowan, you’ve watched as your rights recede amid phony culture war fearmongering. People in need of food assistance and medical insurance, including many elderly and disabled Iowans and children, face being kicked out of programs is they have too much in savings. Transgender kids can’t get gender-affirming care, even with a parent’s permission and have been banished from bathrooms coinciding with their gender identity. Women face a draconian abortion ban.

Reynolds and Republicans have made it easier to have books removed from school libraries. How can a book-banning state claim a Freedom to Flourish.

According to Merriam Webster, the definition of freedom includes the “absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint of choice or action.” Statehouse Republicans have issued more bans, edicts and mandates than they have provided true freedom.

And we’ve seen too little action on issues that could help Iowa flourish. Expanding the availability of child care and making needed investments in mental health care aren’t improving fast enough. Public schools face a budget squeeze now that Reynolds has committed billions of dollars over the next decade to providing Education Savings Accounts to pay for private school. Iowa’s universities have received stagnant funding for years, leading to tuition increases.

And yet, Reynolds claims the new slogan will entice talented workers to choose Iowa. But some words on a road sign can’t make up for a sorry agenda prompting some Iowans to hit the road.

(319) 398-8262; editorial@thegazette.com