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Biography

Mayor Bill Gluba was born in Davenport in 1942. He attended Catholic schools in Davenport as a child, and he entered St. Ambrose College (now St. Ambrose University) in 1960. At St. Ambrose, he learned about the social activism of the Catholic Church and became involved with the Civil Rights Movement through the Davenport Catholic Interracial Council. He was chairman of Charles Toney's campaign for Davenport alderman in 1964. Gluba worked his way though college as a young man, building Interstate 80, and later worked at Farmall in Illinois. He earned a Master's degree from the University of Iowa, and he lectured at St. Ambrose in the late 1960s. He has had a career as a real estate agent and public servant. He served one term as a member of the Iowa House of Representatives and one term as a member of the Iowa State Senate. He has also served as a member of the Scott County Board of Supervisors, and in 2009 he was elected Mayor of Davenport.

Transcript

Interview: Bill Gluba
Students: Maria Naert
Address: Davenport City Hall, 226 W. 4th Street, Davenport, IA
Organization: St. Ambrose student group
Age: approximately 66 (born in 1942)
Location: Davenport, IA
Date of Interview: April 22, 2008

Transcription of Bill Gluba December 4, 2009

Maria Naert: We’re here with Mayor Bill Gluba today. Today is April 22.

Bill Gluba: Born and raised in Davenport. My mother came over here from Galway, Ireland and my grandfather emigrated here from Poland. So I’m a first generation Irishman and a second generation Polish. Went to Sacred Heart Grade School, St. Ambrose Academy, and Assumption High School. Graduated 1960. Went to St. Ambrose College at the time, from 1960 to 1964. Got my BA degree there in history and political science. Went on to get my master’s degree at the University of Iowa in political science, state and local government. Actually, lectured a semester at St. Ambrose in about 1967. Since then, I served in the Iowa General Assembly as a state representative for two years and four years as a state senator. And then later came back and was a county board of supervisor member and served as chairman of country board. Just been active in politics all my life. Was elected Mayor of Davenport in January. I’m also co-chair of the Obama for President Campaign in Scott County. And will be chairman of the first district of Democrats for Obama this Saturday when we meet in Dubuque.

Maria Naert: Great.

Bill Gluba: I’m married to wife Trish who is from Silvis, Illinois. We have five children, daughter, who is the oldest, Deb in Chicago; she graduated from Assumption High School, local schools, Holy Family. Four sons, all of which either finished Iowa, one is finishing the Milwaukee Institute of Art Design. We have now three grandchildren.

Maria Naert: Great. Great, great. How about, you said you went to St. Ambrose. How was the education, how was it different then? It was a smaller school then.

Bill Gluba: Well, St. Ambrose as you know was a diocesan college back then. It was founded in about 1882 as a diocesan college to train priests mostly. Then some laymen went and it grew and it grew. When I went there it was a great liberal arts college. I think we probably had about 600 students or eight, back then. A lot of kids from Chicago. I thought excellent faculty. A lot of Ph.Ds. A lot of gentlemen priests and laymen who served in the Second World War, were considered sort of the greatest generation. Brokaw, Tom Brokaw wrote his book about the greatest generation. Many of the faculty members I had back then were part of that. For example, Father Bill O’Connor served as a naval officer, Dr. Mathew M. McMahon who was head of the political science department, Ph.D., served in the Second World War and they came back and got the G.I. Bill of Rights and became professors, and teachers, and scholars.

Maria Naert: So you first met him as a student?

Bill Gluba: Pardon?

Maria Naert: You first met him when you were a student?

Bill Gluba: Yes. Father, you’ve got to realize back then St. Ambrose had a sort of natural moral law tradition. A lot of the priests graduated from Catholic University of America. And sort of at the time set the Thomistic natural moral law philosophy. That’s what permeated St. Ambrose back in the, I guess, ’40s, ’50s, ’60s. And by that I mean they believed in St. Thomas Aquinas’s teachings and natural moral law principles and right reason. Things that I am not sure they hear about any more today, but they were committed to that. There were several of them that sort of permeated St. Ambrose whether it be in the sociology department, the history department, the political science department, the sociology department. This thing about right reason and we have a responsibility for our brothers and sisters and we’re all, should be promoting the common good. You know, practicing the principles of the Gospel here on earth. And that sort of natural moral law thinking came out of these faculty members and it influenced quite a generation of people.

Maria Naert: It was pretty much of the blossoming of a very rich time. Just the beginning of it.

Bill Gluba: I think so. The pope’s encyclicals Rerum Novarum and Pope Leo’s encyclicals prior to that about the right of labor to organize. Again this was a working class college, of mostly working class kids. First, second generation Irish, who had a chance, Germans, to get an education. And those priests remembered their background and their upbringing. They were very highly principled in natural moral law thinking. And we got that very heavily in school. They taught the encyclicals. When I was at St. Ambrose, a senior, we had a class in political science in the social encyclicals of the Catholic Church. Which are your social teachings in the Catholic Church. And that’s something that left an impression on many of us, including the whole issue of the Civil Rights Movement. These were the institution, the lion, the key people at the college back then. Father Griffin who was head of the seminary department, a real scholar and intellectual, he and Father Ed O’Connor in philosophy department, Father Bill in the sociology department. Then somewhere along the line back in about 1949, in came Dr. Matthew M. McMahon, Ph.D, layman. He was a layman who served in the service and graduated I think it was from Catholic and Yale, a very, very scholarly intellectual person. I think the brightest I have ever met in my years of having gone to St. Ambrose and graduated and on to the University of Iowa, did not find anybody keener with a better mind. But those four people, in their day pretty much set the tone of the Civil Rights Movement, educated a lot of other priests, such as Father Jack Smith who served as a priest for many years, Father Marvin Mottet whom you may have met.

Maria Naert: Yeah.

Bill Gluba: They were all products of these handful of priests and academics at St. Ambrose back in the ’40s and ’50s mostly I guess it would be. And they’re the ones that carried forth the tradition of justice, and civil rights and peace that flowed out of the college.

Maria Naert: Did O’Connor have any programs that students were involved in?

Bill Gluba: Yes, he did. Before my time, for example, Father Bill and his sociology class went down and did a study of Cook’s Point, which was where the poor Mexican families lived. They found out that there was one cold water spigot for the entire community. I can remember driving through there as a small child, when I was seven, eight, six, seven, eight. It was kind of neat; it didn’t dawn on me that people living in boxcars and tarpaper shacks, you know, that that was real poverty. As a kid, you didn’t identify that, just kind of neat, living in boxcars. Well it really wasn’t, but Father Bill went down there and exposed how the minority community, the Hispanics, Latinos, Mexicans at the time, were treated and discriminated against by the Anglos. I mean they were pushed off down there, shunned off, their inadequate housing, inadequate other services, and he exposed that as a sociologist and his students did. I mean that’s what St. Ambrose students ought to be doing today only up to date current things. He got them involved and that exposed us to the city of one of our unfortunate periods in the city’s history and then when they put the highway through Cook’s Point, the city assimilated, the Hispanics got assimilated throughout Davenport, Bettendorf. You know, today most of them are older, but their kids are a lot of professionals, lawyers, doctors, teachers. They’ve risen themselves out of that background principally through education. And then Father Bill also started the Civil Rights Movement in this area as far as it being led by, they called it the Davenport Catholic Interracial Council, and he formed that. They had Charles Toney, he was a black welder from Deere and Company, just basically a welder, laborer, became chairman of the Civil Rights Group, the Catholic Interracial Council, and they further educated the people when they picketed, and demonstrated, and brought issues of housing to the city.

Maria Naert: And then the Grape Boycott was part of that, too.

Bill Gluba: That was part of it. The Grape Boycott, yes as a student, I can remember that, Cesar Chavez. But that was all a part of that tradition, but the empathy, the movement was started by these priests and laymen, a few teachers at St. Ambrose. St. Ambrose had a tremendous tradition of social justice back then and they weren’t popular. I mean, let me give you a couple examples. I remember Father, I think it was Father Sheppard who use to be Dean of Manor, one of them, Father Taylor, I can’t remember, we had a lot of kids from Chicago there and they were in the old dorms and I remember one night, and I was an off campus student, but I’d hang out with some of them and a lot of times the students typically would complain about the physical structures of St. Ambrose, we didn’t have all the nice new buildings they have today and I think it was Father Taylor or one of them said, “Well the reason we don’t is because of guys like Father Bill O’Connor, as long as they’re around, they’re radicals, the business community of Davenport is never going to support the college until those people are gone.” Well, they didn’t . And Father Bill also was a laborer priest; he was the one that help organize the labor unions in this area and they tried to run him over, one of them, it was, where it was [JI] Case or across the river, because he was a radical, liberal priest. But justice, and encyclicals, Pope Leo and all them talked about the right to labor and organize and he not only preached it, he helped do it. And he and that handful of faculty members provided the intellectual underpinnings of the civil rights and labor movement in this area to their credit. And all they were really doing was echoing the moral philosophy of the Catholic Church back then and the encyclicals and the Popes and others so they were right on target for what they tried to do and did do. And they influenced a lot of students.

Maria Naert: Well, personally, how did you get involved?

Bill Gluba: Well, I was pretty conservative, just typical high school kid, didn’t know really much about anything coming out of school and I had Father Marv Mottet who used to preach all this civil rights and activism, but didn’t really hit a chord. But, one faculty member, mostly Dr. Matthew M. McMahon who was a Ph.D, head of the Political Science Department, had such an influence on me we named one of our sons after him; he was godfather. But, he sort of gave us the spark, provided the idealism and the direction of what this country should be all about, what Catholic social teachings are all about and, you know, I became president of the Young Democrats. I was an activist back then and got elected as a sophomore, it was the largest club, I made it on campus. We gave money to people who ran, Harold Hughes who was an outstanding United States Senator, made a contribution to him, had him come on campus, got involved in a number of other political campaigns. I ran the campaign for Charles Toney who was a civil rights activist, black, welder and the fourth ward of Davenport, we almost elected him running against three white guys. So I learned a lot about pragmatic, grassroots politics. And then I participated in the historic march on Washington with Martin Luther King on August 28, 1963.

Maria Naert: Can you tell me about that?

Bill Gluba: Well, it was a historic day. I mean I remember there was five of us from Davenport mostly under the instigation of people like Father Marv Mottet, Father Jack Smith and I was picketing here locally and all that and five of us including Carol Gross who was from around here and some other folks drove all the way out, it was like a nineteen hour drive from Davenport to Washington D.C. We got there and I just remember all these buses, they had used buses as walls basically for security and other purposes and there were people from all over the country, all colors, all denominations, labor was heavily represented: AFL, CIO, Walter Ruether and the United Auto Workers and there were over 400,000 people assembled on the mall of Washington D.C. And it was just a historic movement, I mean day. I mean, not often do people have a chance to become a part of history but we certainly were and we felt it. And that’s the day Martin Luther King gave his great speech “I Have a Dream” and that stuck with me to this day. It was just a day of sharing, I mean black, white all together, commitment to justice and decency. You know my mother used to tell me “Oh, don’t, be careful, they’ll get you.” She was always worried as any other mother would because there were some killings later, the Chaney boys down in Mississippi, I think, that got killed and buried you know, by the people down there, the racists. You know, she came out of a tradition in Ireland of being discriminated against and the power structure always keeping the Irish down. I guess that’s just kind of in my blood and felt I had to fight back you know, felt it and it was clear the blacks in this community were greatly discriminated against. It was our culture, that’s the way we were brought up. And I would have been as bad as the rest of them except, I think, history and education and having gotten some good direction from some top faculty and great people, exciting young minds may help make a difference in my life.

Maria Naert: Did you see this discrimination in Davenport like, let’s see, Mr. Toney, did he give any, did you know him well enough that …?

Bill Gluba: Yes I did. It was Chuck, Charles Toney and Bill Cribbs, you probably met. Bill, he and Charles were barbers. They had their own barbershop down there on 8th and Gaines or whatever, Scott. You know, I know Bill Cribbs, who was an outstanding football player, couldn’t become a police officer. They claimed he wasn’t, had heart problems or some nonsense, but back then they just didn’t want blacks on the police department. We didn’t get blacks on the police department ’till well into the early 1970s or something, but sure that was discrimination. It was less obvious here than it would be in the South, but it was clearly here. Blacks pretty much concentrated, Afro Americans, in one little part of Davenport around Ripley Street and south around 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th Street around the poorer area there and a few other pockets. There were other more aggressive forms, housing, it was clearly discrimination and rental and housing and everything else.

Maria Naert: Do you know of anything that was happening at the Arsenal at that time?

Bill Gluba: The Arsenal had some blacks but none of them were, none of the institutions really went out and had the number and aggressively recruited blacks. A few got elected or got appointed to jobs or got jobs, but overall there was an unwritten rule, kind of, that the blacks would be the last hired, first fired. And they weren’t involved much in the labor movement. And all these unions were not that great either at welcoming minorities and of course there were very few executives of any caliber any assigned responsibility. That’s just the way it was back then. We had racism up, now that’s a major change I think and now we got Barack Obama running for President of the United States. I didn’t think I’d ever live to see the day where we would have a black candidate, Afro-American, an excellent chance. I hope he probably will be elected President of the United States. So there has been fundamental change, but it didn’t come about easy. I mean there has been pressure and picketing and struggles and the struggles have gone on and we can never let up from the fight ’cause it’s still there. And it may not be as outward as it used to be but there’s still racism in this country. You know my generation, and before, were sort of just brought up that way and that’s just the way it was.

Maria Naert: Now someone had mentioned that, hopefully this rings a bell to you, the Irish at Court Hill?

Bill Gluba: Cork Hill, yes.

Maria Naert: I don’t know a lot about that.

Bill Gluba: Well, Cork Hill is over on Sacred Heart Cathedral. You got to keep in mind, a lot of people immigrated from Ireland and Germany to the Quad Cities and Davenport. They were clannish and they all stuck together, the Irish, the Germans were on the west end around St. Mary’s. And the Irish more or less congested, congregated around Cork Hill which was, the Cathedral was up there and goes back. They used to have an area down there called the patch, cabbage patch, you know the Irish, ate a lot of cabbage and, you know, today considered poor. But people were all about the same then, you didn’t know you were poor, you just didn’t have much. But you know they got by. And that still is, an old Irish family still down there today, but that’s where most of the Irish sort of settled in Davenport.

Maria Naert: Okay.

Bill Gluba: I lived across the street from Cork Hill Park, it’s Park now. But when I grew up it was a garbage dump. We used to go there on Saturdays and kill rats. When they’d pushed the garbage over, it’d catch on fire, but that wasn’t all our activities, but, you know, it’s history now, it’s Park. You know it’s changed mostly, again it’s a poorer area so a lot of minorities and poor people, low income people. It’s the older part of Davenport, it’s constantly, people trying to better themselves as best they can, but significant amount of crime and other problems because of poverty and ignorance and neglect. People have risen out of that, at least a lot, mostly through education. Again, education is the key element. That’s what separates, that’s what gives people a chance to pull themselves out at least most of the time it has. It’s slowing down today because we’re in a world economy and these kids have to go so deeply in debt to even get an education. It’s horrendous what my generation of politicians have done starting pretty much with Reagan. We’ve made it almost impossible for kids to go to college and back after the Second War, we paid people, the greatest generation, we paid your grandfathers and people to go to college ’cause we can see the importance of investing in young people. Today we’ve almost abandoned them, you’re kind of on your own and that’s not right and hopefully that will change.

Maria Naert: Let’s see, could you talk a little bit more, I know you kind of mentioned it when you were talking about St. Ambrose, but the Kennedy Administration, kind of how things were on a national level down to Davenport South? I know you mentioned it when you were talking about St. Ambrose.

Bill Gluba: Well the Kennedy Administration were obviously Irish Catholic. St. Ambrose is heavily Irish Catholic. They were exciting people. There was so much pride. An Irish immigrant, second generation got elected, was running for president of the United States. I remember when John Kennedy came to Davenport. It was about October of 1960, before he got elected. I saw him, downtown Davenport on Second and Main Street. I was just a collegian Democrat and just getting into college and I was just watching and interested in the whole thing. And I went to work that night. But to follow his rise made young people proud. And it made you feel good and that anybody can make it. Of course he was Irish Catholic and that made it extra exciting. And the faculty at St. Ambrose were open and receptive to him, obviously a lot of Catholic faculty there. He was just a hero for our generation. So that led to a lot more involvement with politics, more inspiration, and more enthusiasm. You know, John Kennedy at his inaugural said it so well. I will never forget the words. It says it’s really what Catholic Social Philosophy and Theology is all about. He said, “With a good conscience our only sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love. Asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth, God’s work must truly be our own.” If you listen to his words it says it all for anybody, regardless of your field of expertise, your job or your work. We’re really here for a purpose and it’s higher than all of us. It’s an idealistic thought for the future and what we should be doing right here, trying to make a difference in the lives of people. That was really what the social philosophy of St. Ambrose University College was all about. Those teachers gave their lives to try to make life better for everyone else. Whether they be working labor workers, factory workers, civil rights, minorities, peace. One of the chief priests in the peace movement was Father Jack Smith, who dedicated his later years. He was a history professor. I had him for several classes, History of the United States from the Beginning to 1865 and from 1865 on. His commitment was to peace and justice. And he left a tremendous influence on people. What he said was right. They resisted the war in Viet Nam and pointed out the failures. Here we are repeating ourselves with this insane war in Iraq. We’re still killing people; we haven’t really learned. But I would like to see more students protesting the war. I tried to figure out why it was they were so much activists in the ’60s and today they are kind of docile and complacent. I guess part of this is they’re just busy working. The cost of college is so high; they just maybe don’t have the time. It wasn’t that expensive. You could work in the summer and pay your tuition. That’s not the case today. But a lot of it is the influence of the faculty. The faculty back then influenced students greatly. There was a mission and there was a purpose and a reason you were there. It wasn’t just to look out for yourself and make money. Though a lot of them went on to do that. But it was to try to change the world and try to make a difference in society and live up to the Gospels and the higher calling of mankind and the common good.
Barack Obama has brought huge numbers of young people. That’s one of the exciting things about this presidential year. People your age are saying, “We’ve had enough. We’re going to fight back. We’re going to make a difference. We’re going to get involved. We’re going to change the world.” He echoes that message all the time. That’s why I am a strong supporter of Barack Obama. I haven’t seen that much excitement among young people, and all ages now actually, since Bobby Kennedy. And I helped in his campaign years ago. I am glad to see that idealism has been reignited because change mostly comes about when young people demand it and take the leadership role and push and push. The older ones can give it some direction, but it’s your future and the next generation, and got to constantly look to, to change things. It’s an exciting year, this 2008. I see some great things coming. Hopefully, we can change the world in keeping with the encyclicals and the social gospel of the Catholic Church and a number of other progressive issues.

Maria Naert: I think a lot of it requires going back to the traditions of the past. Recovering a lot.

Bill Gluba: A lot of it is going back and remembering our roots. It may be different people, but now, you know, the whole immigration issue. They are immigrants coming in from Central America, Latin American, for a job. Sometimes people today forget they were all immigrants. My mother was an immigrant, my grandfather was an immigrant. They weren’t very well thought of when they first came over here, a lot of them. You know poor white shanties, Irish trash, there was a lot of negatives you know. But they worked their way out of that, mostly because of education; there were more jobs. But, I’m an optimist. I think things are going to work out, if we keep working at it and get away from materialism and it’s all about me and me and greed and the individual. Reagan unfortunately set a terrible tone. Ronald Reagan when he says, “Are you better off today than you were four years ago? “ Well it should be is society better off today. Not me. It’s not about me. It should be about society, about the common good. Our Declaration of Independence calls upon us, the creator of the Constitution, “A more perfect union” says that, “We are endowed by our Creator with certain inalienable rights.” We should be working to perfect it, “To make a more perfect union.” That’s things like health care, end of wars, and jobs, and economic growth and development of underdeveloped countries. Sharing the world’s resources and addressing the whole issue of the environment. That’s social commitment. Gospels talked about that we’re supposed to be stewards of the world, but our generation has done a very poor job. We’re destroying the world. Hopefully your generation, next generation, we’re starting to correct it, but will keep our feet to the coal fire to make us change our policies and recognize we’re in it, a global situation. We all are responsible for our actions or lack of actions. There’s been progress. I mean, I think of smoking. When I grew up, everybody smoked. I played around I smoked when I was six or eight years old. You pick cigarettes up out in front of church and save them and go smoke them, but, never got addicted to it. But, they gave cigarettes out like candy to service people. And we had a whole generation, clearly both my father, father-in-law; they were all addicted to smoking and my mother-in-law, and they died of cancer as a result of it. Then we got people all over at Veteran’s Hospital who have got drug, lung cancer and emphysema from puffing on cigarettes. Well thank God there has been a change. Your generation, hardly anyone smokes. It’s like you don’t do that in polite society today, but it has been slow changing, the same thing with the Civil Rights Movement. I’ve seen great progress. We wouldn’t think about using the “N-word” like they used to a just a matter of course of rhetoric years ago. Civil Rights Movement, the Women’s Movement, major, major fundamental social change in this country has come about in the last, you know, during my generation.

Maria Naert: 1970’s, I believe.

Bill Gluba: Yeah, and that didn’t happen easily. So we’re making progress. Whether we’re gonna make it fast enough time will tell.

Maria Naert: How about, could you describe, could you go back, could you describe a few of your jobs right out of college, your experiences? Where did you go right after you graduated?

Bill Gluba: Well, I worked my way through college. I was told when I was 16, I had to be 18 to get a job on construction and work on Interstate 80. There was a time I remember when you could go out to interstates. They were building the interstate highway system. If you looked strong and physically strong and tough looking, they’d hire you. I got hired as a laborer and I was making more money per hour than my dad was on building Interstate 80, worked six days, sometimes seven days a week, 10 hours a day. It was hard, dirty work, but made good money for a short period of time. I did that for two or three summers. But, back then you could work your way through college. You could almost make enough during the summer to pay the bills. Now, it’s impossible. That’s something society and the powers that be have really cheated this generation. Requiring dumping all this debt on them, it’s immoral, it is wrong, and it’s a blemish on our whole generation of political leaders, who are taking advantage of young people, by not providing them with the funds necessary for an education. But anyway, first job. I worked at the Heart Association in Illinois, Heart Association. I worked at Farmall which was a factory across the river. We made tractors when I was in graduate school, just got married and needed a job. And tried to do both, drive back and forth to Iowa City. Farmall got me into the union movement, UAW, learned about nions. Actually, I learned about them when I was in the laborers’ union when I was out on Interstate 80. But, you know the symbolism. There is another symbol that’s just depressing. Farmall is right across from the Rock Island Arsenal. If you looked across that bay the arsenal was growing, during the Viet Nam War, the ’60s, it was up to almost 8,000 people. Meanwhile, Farmall, where we made tractors, was dying off and it closed in 1978. So, what’s the teachings of the Catholic Church and the gospels? We are supposed to be turning our swords into plow shares? We were doing just the opposite. Closing places like Farmall that made tractors and plow shares and expanding the military industrial complex. Which, Dwight D. Eisenhower warned us was going to be the cause of the ruination of this country, the military become so powerful, that it basically runs everything. So that was sort of a tragic period. You know, and I used say we should have a University over on the arsenal as well as the military. We still should. We ought to have a research University there on Arsenal Island and maybe someday that’ll come to pass. We need that in the Midwest, this area anyway. But other jobs, I ran for mayor when I was twenty-seven. Best thing ever happened that I didn’t get elected, because I probably wouldn’t know what to do with it. Next year I ran for legislature, got elected as state representative and then state senator and kept active in politics. But, I’ve always had to do something else. Politics has never really paid the bills. It hardly pays anything and I was making $5500 a year at the legislature, when most people were making $27,000, you know, at a regular job. So I’ve always had to do something else. And I’ve sold real estate. I got a real estate license in ’71. Why? I enjoy selling houses, but people don’t want to hire you when you are controversial. And I was a bit controversial. I said what was on my mind, questioned authority. Most companies want you stupid and docile. You can get involved in the Cub Scouts and the Girl Scouts, which are safe little things, but don’t take on the system. I was trained and taught and encouraged to always question authority and to take on the system when they’re wrong and try to make it right, better. I’ll never back down from that, because that was the best education that I ever got, was at St. Ambrose.

Maria Naert: You said you ran for mayor when you were twenty-seven?

Bill Gluba: Yes.

Maria Naert: Yeah, How did you gain the steam to go out so fast like that?

Bill Gluba: Well, I was all involved in the Civil Rights Movement, and Young Democrats, and politics, going to all the rallies, helping other candidates, so I majored in political science. Had that instilled in me the desire to make a difference and try to change the world. Look out for the average person, the common person. You know the common good as opposed to the special interest and the corporate greed and so it was just a natural outgrowth. I was in the union movement and I was working and used to be a member of the local political action committee at Farmall, just a natural migration into or transition into active elective politics. Thought I could do more good there by being a legislator, state representative, state senator. You can affect the lives of a lot more people in a positive or negative way. I think for the most part we’ve tried to do it in a positive way. We voted against capital punishment reinstitution in Iowa. One of the few states; I think only thirteen still don’t have that. That’s part of the gospel of the Catholic Church social teachings you know, created the Iowa Housing Finance Authority to help people to get into a decent housing. Fought for low income people all my life while I was in the legislature; tried to look out for the underdog. I mean, corporate America, and the rich, and the powerful they’re all well represented and always will be ’cause politics today is so much about money. You know. He who pays the piper calls the tune. That’s one of the problems with Congress today, which is a totally separate issue is we got the best Congress money can buy. That’s why nothing gets done. The only interest they look out for, for the most part, are for those who will pay the big PAC checks and contribute to their campaigns. I don’t care whether they’re Democrat or Republican. They are all on loan, one degree or another. Democrats are by in large better in terms of trying to occasionally look out for people, but not a whole hellofalot has happened. We still don’t have health care for 42 million people. We got 37 million in poverty. We got a war raging and they should pull the plug on it. But overall their philosophy, at least philosophically, is more in line with my philosophy and I think the philosophy and teachings of the Catholic Church, the best social traditions we’ve had that go back to the encyclicals and the gospels.

Maria Naert: What would you say are your most rewarding contributions? That you, yourself personally or in a group at St. Ambrose with O’Connor that you have given to society?

Bill Gluba: Well, I think probably just the effort of trying to change things, being involved in the Civil Rights Movement, as far as, and not giving up the spark, the fire in the belly, trying to make a difference by helping to elect other people. Not quitting, not giving up not turning this over to corporate America totally. As far as specifics, when I was in the Iowa Legislature, I and Representative Cusack, who’s a good friend of mine and graduate of St. Ambrose, we sponsored and I came up with this idea for the Iowa Housing Finance Authority. Which provides money now for housing; like Marycrest Campus was renovated under that program, St. Katherine, St. Mark’s was renovated. The Crescent Macaroni made into lofts. It’s a big deal. I also co-sponsored, years ago, legislation to provide the tax on cans and stuff, two cents back then. Dealt with a lot of other, we had nursing home reform. I’ve always thought that people that were shunned from society, hidden away from society, like senior citizens and old people were usually the ones that were the worst off. Nobody represents them. They can’t contribute. They didn’t do anything except become old. The laws on the books in Iowa having nursing home reform and accounting, accountability was due to my efforts. Adoption reform, I have maintained my position on pro-life. I’m a pro-life Democrat. I’ve not ever changed on that or backed down, ’cause I think life begins at conception. I was in the legislature when Roe versus Wade came down. We would have ruled against that. We would have not passed abortion in Iowa. It would have lost about nine to three, but the Supreme Court took that authority away from us. And so I think that human life begins at conception. I’m not going to back down from that and nobody has proven me other time. I think someday, maybe when I’m long gone, society’s gonna look back at this period of abortion on demand as a very barbaric period in our history. We used to burn witches at the stake because we didn’t consider them human. We didn’t consider blacks human. We considered them chattel. This is part of it. It may take a while, but I think someday we are going to be proving that we should have listened. But you know, that’s not the way it is today. But I’m hoping things will change in time, maybe they won’t. But we should try. So commitment, and a deep seated commitment I think to social and economic justice, to try to put into practice those encyclicals, and those teachings, and those natural moral law principles that were instilled in me as a student by people like Father Bill, and Father Ed, and Dr. Matthew McMahon, and others. That’s hopefully a little contribution. Probably not enough, there’s a lot more to do, there always will be, but at least we’re trying to make this country be a more perfect union, which is what the Constitution says we should do.