Read about how The Real MainStream is reworking itself to better serve Iowa and Illinois. Whenever I run across one of my keepsake copies of the first 13 editions of The Real MainStream, published before the current worldwide pandemic, I feel awash in memories and sensations. “We’ll never give up the handshake!” joked a customer and I in early March. Mere days later, he and dozens of others in our circulation area announced they were saying “no” to not only handshakes, but all in-store traffic for a few months. Back…
At least 50,000 words written in thirty days. Such is the insanity I undertake every November, along with hundreds of thousands of people from around the world. November was NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and according to NaNoWriMo.org, over 400,000 people participated last year in over 655 regions on six continents. I was one of them. I have participated in NaNoWriMo since November 2015. That first year, I was enormously pregnant with my youngest, who was born eight days after NaNo finished. But I actually won. I wrote those 50,000…
“I am so honored to call Ames my hometown, and touched by its latest commitment to be an inclusive community.”
“When I grow up, I want to be a girl.” Genevieve Carter (not her real name) is, in many ways, a typical nine-year-old third-grader. She loves gymnastics and math, and is the embodiment of childhood enthusiasm. Her thick brown hair falls below her shoulders, and her bright smile frequently lights up her face. She is also transgender. “She used to say she wanted to be a builder,” her mom, Louisa, says. “Then she started saying she wanted to be a girl when she grew up.” This was three years ago,…
“Consent is many conversations, not just one.” Especially when teaching children how to say “no.”
Mission Statement The Real MainStream (TRM) covers news, culture and opinion from a progressive perspective focused on truth, fairness, compassion and building better future relationships. TRM aims to inspire useful discussion and historic action for a more compassionate, collaborative Iowa that does better for everyone, especially marginalized groups like women, people of color, LGBTQ people, seniors, people of different belief systems, and people with conditions or diseases, or who are differently abled. How to Engage Take out a Classified Ad — for Personals, Employment, Housing, Services, Products & Goods, or…
