Second week of the year and I already miss a Monday update, not a great start. I don't believe I specified a day, just trying for once a week. This entry looks back at a couple news stories from Iowa last week.
For eleven days in August, the Iowa State Fair is the largest single event in the state. It has been ranked as one of the top fairs in the country and it draws visitors from far and wide. There are several things to do at the fair, but one of the more popular is food. At the Iowa State Fair, you can anything you want, or not want, on a stick: hot dogs, corn dogs, chicken, fried Twinkies, fried Oreos, and my favorite, chocolate covered cheesecake. The list goes on, with new menu items added every year.
Last week Tuesday, the fair board announced that this year they would be switching to a ticket system to purchase food. Instead of using cash, you would have to purchase 50¢ tickets to buy food. Therefore, a $4.00 item would now be an eight ticket purchase. With food booths all over the fair grounds, you would need to carry dozens of these tickets to get through the day. Families would likely need a trailer to fill everyone's lunch needs, let alone extra snacks.
Not surprisingly, the decision received quite a bit of negative feedback from fair patrons and owners of food booths. Twelve hours after the news release, one news station had over 700 comments on Facebook, none positive. Some people said they would buy less food, others would skip the fair completely. Less than 48 hours after the announcement of the change, the board reversed its decision.
With enough people reacting to a decision, it will get changed to favor the main push. I wonder how long it's going to be until we see more of this type of pressure at the state and federal government levels for things like healthcare, and possibly basic principles like freedom of speech. It has happened in the past, so future events may follow. We will see what the next week brings.
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