T-R PHOTO BY LANA BRADSTREAM Author and screenwriter Peter Hedges leads the What’s Eating Iowans Listening Tour in the Marshalltown Public Library on Wednesday. He is a RAGBRAI participant and took the opportunity to bring the tour to Marshalltown.

The reasons for Iowa residents to feel discouraged are varied, but they were given the opportunity to make their voices heard.

The What’s Eating Iowans Listening Tour was held late Wednesday afternoon at the Marshalltown Public Library. The purpose of the tour is to listen to Iowans talk about kitchen-table issues that are bothering them. More than 20 residents and RAGBRAI participants gathered in one of the newly remodeled conference rooms in the library to speak with author Peter Hedges.

“The purpose of today is a listening session,” he said. “We are living in a great, protracted moment of ‘ow’ in my view. For you, maybe it’s all wonderful, but I can’t imagine you are here in this library at this time if you feel like we are crushing it right now.”

The tour stop was organized by Iowans for Decency, a new grassroots organization focusing on the protection of democracy with decency, integrity and truth. Hedges, the author of the novel “What’s Eating Gilbert Grape” and the screenwriter on its subsequent film adaptation, is one of the co-founders of the organization and led the discussion, giving all attendees the opportunity to speak.

A RAGBRAI participant, Hedges said he reached a point in the ride where he thought he was going to quit, but he had supportive friends who helped him along the way.

“I bought into the individualist ‘You pull yourself up by your bootstraps,'” he said. “It’s the biggest lie. Anything any of us does – there’s been so much help, so much impediment. Yesterday, I could not go on. I said I would try for 10 miles and these two guys flanked me. Then the 10 miles turned into 20 miles. . . . I kept going because I had people with me. That’s my way to introduce Iowans for Decency.”

Hedges said the group is formed of members of both major political parties, along with independents. Not everyone agrees all the time, but are concerned with the state and the trajectory of the country. The formation of the organization and the RAGBRAI ride were examples.

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together,” he said.

Hedges asked attendees to introduce themselves, share where they attended high school and a short sentence about a moment or person which irrevocably altered them. Participants hailed from West Des Moines, Dubuque, Pleasant Valley and as far as California and their life-changing moments ranged from medical diagnoses to helping people vote in the 1980s, from a parent telling them they were too fat for a piece of pie to clearly seeing the Big Dipper for the first time in a night sky free of light pollution.

The previously-mentioned protracted moment is impacting everyone, Hedges said, even if they have different views. He asked attendees what they were experiencing.

“We’re not going to move the needle in this room today,” Hedges said. “But we may introduce the possibility of ways forward that could ultimately move needles.”

He started the conversation by asking attendees how they are doing. Met with silence, Hedges, a West Des Moines native who has written three novels, eight plays and eight screenplays, opted to answer first by saying he had been humbled by RAGBRAI and witnessing a culture of how people treat one another.

“I’m wondering how the real world can be more like RAGBRAI,” he said.

People stated they were angry or frustrated or concerned with many issues, such as the disenchantment of members of Congress and conflicting news reports of the same subject. Liz Fleming of Des Moines said she felt tired from everything that has occurred during the last 10 years, but seeing signs of change — such as the Marshalltown tour stop — helps sustain her.

“What does it mean to be decent?” Hedges asked.

Respectful, kind, treating people the way they want to be treated, understanding others perspectives, being quick to forgive others, stepping up when someone needs something, being honest and giving people grace were some provided answers.

Hedges then asked what recent examples represent indecency, and he provided the first answer by citing the actions of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The war in Iran, cutting funding intended to aid people, the “weird, juvenile discourse,” exonerating Jan. 6 protestors and overlooked opportunities to help others were some responses.

Attendees were then asked to think about what they want to say in 25 years regarding what they did during this time, and if they will leave evidence of their future claim.

“I contend the answer to that question will tell you where you need to put your energy,” he said. “Write your own story, your own ending, your legacy. I believe one of my legacies is that in a moment of darkness, I reached out to two friends who reached back, and we kept interlacing and reaching out to each other. Collectively, we went further and did more than I could ever do on my own. I came to understand that real power is shared power. The capacity to make real change is collectively done.”

Hedges ended the discussion by asking everyone what they want the country to look like in 25 years. Women earning salaries which are equal to men, cancer research is either funded or no longer necessary, safe schools, respect for America across the world and not worrying about the impacts of drinking or bathing in Iowa water were some of the answers.

“Here’s the deal – if we can’t imagine it, we can’t make it. It will not be made,” he said. “. . . And they win. Who are ‘they?’ Whoever doesn’t want us to have fair, equitable, caring, loving communities, who want to pit us against each other.”

According to Hedges, the Marshalltown crowd was the biggest group of the week along the What’s Eating Iowans tour.

Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.