Iowa should secede from the United States of America

I like South Dakota a lot. I hosted and introduced Tom Daschle when he spoke here at Iowa State University in the fall of 2005. As states we do have much in common, which is why I challenge you to explain why we must suffer the burden of other states. The flower of Iowa is often plucked by the nation, and drawn into the coasts to run the businesses and infrastructure of the country. Yet, consistently we are mocked as being hicks from the Midwest. A recent example would be how Chuck Grassly was received after correctly pointing out why Rudy Guiliani did poorly in the state of Iowa. As our states, with better education, and better managed state governments receive little or no benefit from being members of the United States, you wish to suggest that out of the kindness of our hearts we should contribute our tax dollars towards a government that will squander the funds on whatever individuals representing states in the bottom ten for education think would be best to spend it on? While the Senate exists to offer us an even forum, the Senate has absolutely zero say over the budget. Worse yet, the rest of the nation does not recognize the significance of our contribution to the country. The previous contender for this accused us of growing potatoes. To many individuals on the coast, the Midwest is either Ohio or Idaho, states which most Midwesterners do not consider to be in the Midwest. In the 1850s when Iowa became a state the federal government stood for much more than it does now, and was actually a cooperative national government that was beneficial to join. It was not a massive beast, saddled with debt and with an infrastructure that is nearly impossible to audit. Reforms that are required to ensure that the nation state can make it through the next thirty years and the times of troubles that are fast approaching are not being undertaken, often due to their daunting size. Policies are undertaken without regard for the future, and opportunities in states such as South Dakota and Iowa are not widely explored. In both of our states, the opportunity for wind energy has been largely ignored. The concept of Ethanol as a fuel alternative is being pushed, but not by forces with long term continuity in mind. Both Iowa, and especially South Dakota have a finite supply of river and ground water, which if we were to attempt to turn our food stuffs into such large quantities of fuel will be quickly depleted, leaving both of our states arid. As land which was formerly pasture, or fallow is converted into fields of corn, and soybeans to push this new industry, the top soil of both of our states will be depleted in a time of the rising cost of nitrate based fertilizers derived from fossil fuels. Why are these ethanol derived policies being pursued? Farms in Iowa have become more of an "Agribusiness" than a family endeavor. While small family farms are often corporations, several agribusinesses are doing their best to reduce the once proud and independent Iowa farmer to being little more than a serf that works the land. As corporations push families off of the land, the farmer which was once a steward of the land, and interested in the future of the land as the future of the family is replaced by shareholders and CEOs with little or no regard for the future beyond what is profitable that quarter, and to them Ethanol seems like a good way to place pressure on the market, and cause the price of corn to rise. A consequence of this, of course, is that people in Mexico starve, but that the resources of the State of Iowa are being exploited by non-Iowans and Iowa sees little or no benefit as the corporation removes the profit from the economy of Iowa, where family farmers once supported our lively small towns that dot the state and dumps them into the coasts, and into the stock portfolios of the already wealthy. And you are asking that by virtue, we stand and deliver? That we not only continue to consent to be a part of a government which no longer has our best interests at heart, but attempt to help that government and that nation carry on because it is a duty? When Iowa became a state, we did not sign on to support poor policy decisions with the fruits of our labor, and more accurate with the fruits of labor which has not yet been done, by Iowans and South Dakotans who have not yet even been born. Read through the list of grievances on the Declaration of Independence. There is no chance that our forefathers would suffer the indecencies that have been placed upon us by our Federal Government, which has managed to fulfill many of the threats that our very same forefathers cautioned against.