ââLife is goodâ in Iowaâs Washington, but the candidates keep raising alarms.â
This is an extraordinary article in the Washington Post about Washington, IA, which is less than 30 miles from Fairfield. I have never read an article quite like it. Amazing. Superradiance, anyone? WASHINGTON, Iowa â" It is the final day of his best year at work, and Keith Lazar, 62, settles into his corner office at the community bank. He eats a doughnut with a fork and turns on an instrumental CD titled âRelaxation.â Outside his office window, the town square is bustling with proof of his impact during the past 12 months: trucks financed by his loans, restaurants expanding because of his savings advice and small businesses created with his support. The first customer of the day arrives at 8:20 a.m., 40 minutes before the bank is scheduled to open. Itâs a hog farmer wearing overalls and work boots, another longtime customer enjoying a record year. He wants to apply for a loan so he can expand his operation again. Lazar opens the door and waves him inside. âHiya, Keith,â the farmer says. âHowâs it going?â âCouldnât be better,â Lazar says. âLife is good.â Life is good. It has become Lazarâs default greeting, the motto he inscribed on the wall of his kitchen and printed on T-shirts to distribute at family gatherings. What could be better at the beginning of 2012 in this other city called Washington, a rural town of 7,200 surrounded by the corn and soybean fields of eastern Iowa? This is the Washington with a 4 percent unemployment rate, with record-breaking hog and cattle production, with a new high school and a $6 million library, with a newspaper that doesnât bother to print a crime blotter, with heated sidewalks in front of the bank so customers never have to walk in the snow. Complete article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/life-is-good-in-iowas-washington-but-the-candidates-keep-raising-alarms/2012/01/01/gIQAjgluUP_story_2.html
