July - September 2006

Iowa CCI welcomes Lapham

By Christy A. Bockheim
Editor

Lewis Lapham

DES MOINES, Iowa – “Democracy allies itself with change. It assumes a ceaseless making and remaking of laws and customs…Without dissent, you don’t have an argument. Without argument, you don’t have democracy,” Lewis Lapham, former editor of Harper’s magazine, told a sold out crowd at Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement’s (CCI) annual convention, held July 14-15 in Des Moines. Family farmers, community residents and others from across the state of Iowa joined CCI to celebrate more than 30 years of fighting for democracy and winning on issues important to all Americans.

More than 500 CCI members and supporters from across the state gathered to hear Lapham’s speech, titled “Democracy is dissent.”

“The real meaning of democracy is in the act of it, the sense of community in finding a larger self in the community,” Lapham told the Des Moines Register on July 11. “Dissent, and strong dissent, is implicit in a democracy. Democracy implies friction and argument…Unless people are prepared to express these thoughts, the interest and habit of dissent withers like a muscle that doesn’t get used.”

“CCI has built itself on the belief that everyday people need to be involved in creating change and demanding democracy’s promise,” said Barb Kalbach, CCI member and family farmer from Dexter, Iowa.

The convention also featured workshops with expert guest speakers on topics that everyday Iowans care about most, such as factory farms and the environment, worker health and safety, and the true cost of American health care. The next CCI conference is scheduled for July 13-14, 2007.