Iowa not so nice

Thirty-four year old Scott Siepker, the Iowa writer and producer who takes credit for creating the term 'Iowa Nice,” has got to be cringing. Iowa not-so-nice examples are voluminous:

On Dec. 2, three Iowans were killed at a Pella Wal-Mart store by an out-of-control pickup truck. After the store's frontage was repaired and the store reopened, several Iowa shoppers verbally assaulted workers about how the store being shut inconvenienced their shopping. Nothing was uttered by the disgruntled shoppers about the three lost lives.

In the spring of 2011, when University of Northern Iowa student leaders visited their legislators at the Capitol, a legislator wrote on the badge of Joel Anderson, President, Northern Iowa Student Government, 'UNI: waste of money.” The legislator still represents Cedar Falls-Waterloo.

Iowa's 38th governor Robert D. Ray demonstrated Iowa Nice when in 1975 he encouraged Iowans to assist in the settlement of Vietnamese and Laotian refugees. Quite the opposite was demonstrated by Gov. Terry Branstad when he declared (Nov. 16, 2015) we would not welcome Syrian refugees; 11 million of that country's 22 million people have been displaced by civil war.

Iowa records about 14 hate crimes per year. Yet, since Donald Trump's election victory, Iowa has recorded 14 hate crimes in just six weeks; 18th highest in the U.S.A.

A Cedar Falls High School female was bullied the day after our Nov. 8 presidential election and was told by a boy, 'I'm glad Trump is president, now I can treat women however I want.” Misogyny not only exists with disturbed adult men, but also immature teenagers.

Imagine being one of the immigrant and international college students or faculty and staff at Iowa State University, the University of Iowa or UNI, after Iowa Board of Regents President Bruce Rastetter declared your institution will not be a sanctuary campus to protect you.

Residents of Cedar Falls and Waterloo recall the Islamophobia and xenophobic attitude demonstrated on Oct. 13 when their Masjid Al-Noor Islamic Center was vandalized with paint spraying of the word 'Trump.”

Where are the 'Iowa Nice” values among the leaders of Iowa Department of Human Services, West Des Moines Police and Walnut Creek High School who ignored Natalie Jasmine Finn's needs, as she was being deprived of food, clothing, shelter, health care or supervision? Natalie's eight month plea for assistance yielded no response and resulted in the 16 year old's death due malnutrition, emaciation caused by neglect, starvation and eventual cardiac arrest on Oct. 24.

These examples just scratch the surface but are prima-facie evidence that many Iowans have lost their basic human dignity. Maybe we should change Iowa's motto to: Iowa COD (Compulsive Outrage Disorder).

Our words and actions should be a model for our family and friends. Please join me in resolving that in 2017, we will go back to Iowa Nice.

' Steve Corbin of Cedar Falls is a guest columnist contributor to 59 newspapers in Iowa, California, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota and Wisconsin. Comments: Steven.B.Corbin@gmail.com