Searching for the good in a bad week
...wondering how patient Americans will be about these tariffs
It’s not easy to see the good in a week that sucks. We lost a member of our family who is like no other. And a stranger threatened to make the week ever more tragic.
(Grammy at the young age of 95 with my wife Emily.)
Grammy
We called Lorena MacGregor “Grammy.” Everyone did. Grammy was the best unexpected gift I got for marrying Emily. She wasn’t a grandma; she was Grammy.
Grammy passed away last Sunday night, four months shy of her 106th birthday. Remarkable.
She lost her dad before she was born, got married and had two daughters, filled a sanctuary with song for decades, worked at a preschool until her mid-70s, and helped mentor kids well into her 90s. Her recipes were incredible (ooh, that strawberry pie!), her sense of humor was magical, and her heart was pure gold.
I’m so blessed to have shared the past two decades getting to appreciate what her family members have treasured their whole lives.
I’m trying to focus on that this weekend.
The Crash
I’m also trying not to think of “what if” for what happened the evening before Grammy died. My son, Hayden, was driving us back from his baseball tournament in Marion, Iowa.
Unbeknownst to us, a man a state trooper later told us was driving the other direction on Interstate 80 in Jasper County apparently passed out, lost control, and spun into the guardrail.
A piece of debris flew across the median and smashed into our front bumper of our vehicle as we drove by. Somehow my 14.5-year-old son kept his composure, even as the power steering got disabled from the impact. He pulled off on the next exit until a deputy came by to help us. He, his little sister Lyla and I were not hurt.
(My SUV minus the front chunk that ended up on Interstate 80.)
Later as I read the crash report, I was pissed. This wasn’t a teenager driving recklessly on the interstate that day. The report showed that the driver was 61, full of pills without a prescription, and without a valid driver’s license or insurance.
Had that debris that flew toward us after he passed out landed one foot higher, it could have shattered the windshield in front of my novice son’s line of sight.
The trooper reminded me how lucky we were. I need to remember that. I hope the other driver does, too.
Another Possible Challenger
J.D. Scholten burst onto the political scene seven years ago as a little-known former professional baseball play from northwest Iowa. Thanks to his relentless R.V. “Sue City Sue” that he drove all over Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, he almost delivered one of the biggest shockers of my time in Iowa when he, a Democrat, almost caught longtime conservative Congressman Steve King on election night, 2018.
Scholten is in his second term as a state representative and told me that he is now considering a run against two-term Republican Senator Joni Ernst in 2026.
Find out what factors into his final decision by watching our conversation on “Inside Iowa Politics.”
Check out the latest work by other members of the Iowa Writers Collaborative here.
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