One of my favorite steps in assembling each issue of dsm is choosing the big quote that follows the table of contents. We usually go for something short and sharp, like the one on page 8, but several lines always stick with me.
Consider this one, from a leader of the congregation that built Iowa’s newest mosque, with a minaret that towers over the farm fields near Granger: “They said we could build it as tall as we wanted, which told us a lot about our neighbors.”
That one sentence, from a man who fled a war in the Balkans in the 1990s and found a new home here, speaks volumes about Iowa’s best instincts. It’s part of our live-and-let-live culture. It’s right there on the state flag: “Our liberties we prize, and our rights we will maintain.”
But sometimes we need reminders, which leads us to another quote for page 8, from one of this year’s LGBTQ Legacy Leaders: “We are just human beings, and we want the same rights. We don’t want more. We just want to be treated like everybody else.” Each of this year’s honorees is living out loud so others can, too.
And then there’s this: “Sharing my experience isn’t just a choice; it’s a necessity.” Four Iowans who’ve faced down cancer opened up to us to share hard-won wisdom and encourage folks to get tested — to live and let live.
Cancer has touched all of us somehow. I’ve survived it. So has my mom, twice. My dad did not, and we miss him every day. He was an Iowa historian and loved to tell stories about Iowans who quietly made history without much fuss or fanfare.
If he could read this issue, he’d point out that Iowa now has the country’s newest mosque and its oldest, which opened in Cedar Rapids in 1934. Both remind us of who we are — and who we can be.
