Postville, Iowa

I only live 7 miles from Postville so, naturally, I have listened to my fair share of opinions regarding the ICE raid back in May. As with a great many things, the issue has so many layers you can find yourself in support of "pieces" of the matter and yet there are other pieces that are tough to consider as black and white issues. So, my opinion on it is like looking at a heart monitor - up on this point and down on that point.

I stopped in Postville yesterday - at a little grocery store that also wears the hat of "meeting place" for alot of local folks. It was apparent as I drove into town there were many new people "around". If you have not been to Postville there always appears to be a number of people with varying ethnic backgrounds wandering about. (In fairness, I suppose wandering to me - could very well be quite purposeful to them.) Anyway, I asked the check- out lady of 10 years about this and she gave me a very unpleasant look and said, "Yes....I'm afraid there are alot of new one's here now and nobody knows what to think....."

As a side note, the imports of Postville tend to keep to themselves and a cross section of them claim they are not trying to be aloof. "Chatting and mingling with others" has no relative purpose in their larger life mission and life goal. Their purpose is very clear to them and they choose not be distracted from this path. And, I believe this is true. However, I can see where it would be very difficult to unite a community with so many different tunes being played in the same orchestra.

Postville continues to struggle to find harmony with legal, ethnic, prejudice and basic morality issues on any given day. The ICE raid certainly brought the sand to the surface you might say, but I struggle to see where it is all really going. One ethnicity runs the plant in Postville while many differing ethnicity's do the work. Each has their own separate agenda and each may be breaking their own differing set of laws in the name of their own differing larger agenda. The ICE raid only shook up one beach of sand. There are a few more beaches that could use a good cleansing tide.

The lady at the check-out told me there is a rally planned for Sunday in Postville with people attending from all over the country. I hope this can be a positive undertaking for the town, but I suspect it will be agenda's running side by side again and not intertwined for the greater good.

I found an article about the rally Sunday on the JTA (Global news for Jewish People). Give it a read.
http://jta.org/cgi-bin/iowa/news/article/2008072120080721agrirally.html