COMMON GROUND: CHARLOTTE’S WEB
You never have to look very far to find a little bit of magic| Christie Vilsack
You never have to look very far to find a little bit of magic| Christie Vilsack
“We can return violence with violence, we can return hate with hate, and that’s the problem with political violence, it metastasizes, because we can always point the finger at the other side and at some point, we have to find an off-ramp or it is going to get much, much worse.”| christievilsack.substack.com
Kathy Carpenter is sharp as a tack, which isn’t a given because she is legally blind and navigates the halls of the Harmony Skilled Nursing Facility in West Des Moines in a motorized wheelchair.| Christie Vilsack
I once talked with a US senator from a major agricultural state who didn’t know the difference between field corn and sweet corn.| christievilsack.substack.com
I got to know Bri Dennison when she started helping me figure out how to post Common Ground, my Substack contribution to the Iowa Writer’s Collaborative.| Christie Vilsack
Every year I meet Melinda Shepp Huisinga at the Mt.| christievilsack.substack.com
How are a state fair parade, my last high school dance, and President Barack Obama connected?| Christie Vilsack
Fifteen years ago, I stood in the grocery line in Iowa behind a woman who was trying to buy juice using her WIC allowance.| christievilsack.substack.com
According to the Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey conducted in 2023, and required every 5 years by Iowa Code, 46% of Iowa farmland is owned by women.| Christie Vilsack
Apollo 11 landed on the moon July 20, 56 years ago this week.| christievilsack.substack.com
Louise Lex, 95 years-old, retired this week from her job working for the citizens of Iowa at the Department of Public Health.| Christie Vilsack
I like to share the reactions, spoken and written, I’ve received from readers since I started writing Common Ground.| christievilsack.substack.com
My first day as a New York nanny in mid-June 1971 was the beginning of my return to Iowa, even though I didn’t know it at the time.| christievilsack.substack.com
When I walked into her nail salon in Winterset last Friday, Amy (Xuan) Tran gave me a big hug, tears running down her cheeks.| christievilsack.substack.com
We all own the American flag.| christievilsack.substack.com
“We can’t lose one more thing,” said DeeAnn Bierstedt emphatically, as I sat around a table with library advocates in Fenton, Iowa, population 250ish, in Kossuth County.| christievilsack.substack.com
There are a few things you should know about the President of Grandview College in Des Moines, Iowa.| Christie Vilsack
