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Morality and History in Keokuk, Iowa 1832 to 1932:

Updated: Sep 16, 2022

Independent Study by Charles Cogan, MA, RC Northfield, MN


I like the tone and voice you strike and it’s great to have more people know about the [Keokuk Peace] letter project, the way it appealed to a sense of honor and peace, and how the references to Native people was still participating unwittingly in the ideological erasure of Native people. Michael D. McNally, Carleton College, Northfield, MN; leading US scholar and author of, "Defend the Sacred: Native American Religious Freedom beyond the First Amendment, 2020."


Charlie Cogan, 2022:This paper is an attempt to wrestle with the fact that we all have inherent biases and when we are unaware of these biases our decision-making is impaired. The example I am exploring is the case of the Rotary Club of Keokuk, Iowa, and its “Peace Pipe Letters” of the period from 1931-32 and the subsequent rediscovery of those same letters in 2016 when the letters were made the subject of intensive study on the topic of nationalism, a topic that was equally relevant in 1932 in Europe and 2016 in Europe and the United States."

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Comments

The question that confronts us today is the same as in 1931-32: Do our leaders have the capacity to reach beyond their grasp, to challenge us to seek the higher angels of nature, to choose "Be informed! Be informed!" rather than "Be afraid! Be afraid!" In the end, however, we know that world peace is too important to be left in the hands of our leaders. Peace starts in our own back yards when we speak our for understanding when their is disharmony, food security where there is hunger, health care where there is disease, education where there is illiteracy, conservation where there is environmental harm, sustainable development where there is poverty ... and when we write letters across border to build goodwill and better friendships. - William Tubbs (2019)

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