Loebsack visits with students at L-S high school

SULLY — Friday might have been the first time students at Lynnville-Sully High School had a chance to meet Congressman Dave Loebsack, D-Iowa,  but their superintendent Shane Ehresman has known Loebsack for years.

As a student at Cornell College, he studied under Loebsack and on Friday afternoon as he introduced his former professor to students in social studies teacher Mike Parkinson’s class, he told gave them two pieces of advice he learned as Loebsack’s student.

“Be very open-minded, but also be very critical of sources,” Ehresman told the assembled students.

Parkinson knew many of his students had never met one of their U.S. representatives, and he invited Loebsack to come and speak at the high school to give students a chance to connect with someone who represents them in Washington. Putting a face to a name helps students understand what congressmen like Loebsack do, and Parkinson hopes students will see how important it is to connect with their representatives. Even Parkinson had to admit he was surprised when he reached out and Loebsack agreed to visit the school.

“We just reached out to him and he was available, we worked our lessons around it,” Parkinson said. “I just thought that it would be an awesome way for our students to get involved.”

For Loebsack, the visit represented another chance to meet with constituents, even if many of them aren’t old enough to vote yet. After a short introduction, Loebsack fielded a variety of questions from students about his career, current issues and his daily routines. Students didn’t shy away from the issues, and Loebsack fielded questions about upcoming health care legislation, the FCC’s net neutrality ruling and the looming tax cut bill that’s dominating headlines across the country. Loebsack urged the students to stay engaged and keep the faith, even though he admitted the country has become more divided than ever before.

“If you lose faith in our political system as a whole, that’s where I get worried,” Loebsack said. “That’s when we have real problems in this country, we need these institutions, we need to keep our political system.”

A typical day for Loebsack starts early, whether or not he’s in Washington. The congressman told students that he usually wakes up early enough to go work out and that his day is often filled with meetings, sometimes with constituents, but often they include committee hearing meetings and other events. Loebsack got a laugh from students when he told them he’s walked so much in the past year that his Fitbit exercise tracker broke.

“It’s a lot of meetings, a lot of engagement with people from my district,” Loebsack said. “You have to have a lot of energy to do this job, there’s no question about that.”

When he’s in Iowa, Loebsack tries to spend as much time as possible visiting with constituents. He told students on Friday that since June of this year he’s hosted more than 30 “coffees with your congressman,” open forums where residents can meet and talk with Loebsack in a relaxed setting. Loebsack hosts the coffees throughout his district, and he invited students to come visit with him the next time he’s in the area.

Junior Shiloh Cunningham said she wasn’t aware that Loebsack hosted events where residents had a chance to meet up and ask questions, and she was surprised to find out how “laid back and approachable” the congressman was. It didn’t hurt that he also knew Ehresman as well.

“He just came in with a friendly smile, the way he talked, he knew our superintendent,” Cunningham said. “It gave me a new perspective, I didn’t know I could go to a meeting with him in our county.”

Caleb Barnett, a junior, echoed Cunningham’s sentiments. Barnett said he’s never met a congressman before and he wasn’t sure what to expect, but Loebsack “just kind of seemed like a regular guy.”

“I thought it was really cool, to talk to someone who actually represents you in Congress,” Barnett said.

Contact David Dolmage at 641-792-3121 ext. 6532 or ddolmage@newtondailynews.com