Herb Strentz was dean of the Drake School of Journalism from 1975 to 1988 and professor there until retirement in 2004. He was executive secretary of the Iowa Freedom of Information Council from its founding in 1976 to 2000.

To help get a grip on the turmoil of the day, please repeat after me:

“At long last, sir,” [At long last, sir]
“Have you left no sense of decency?” [Have you left no sense of decency?]

As many readers know, that was the question Joseph Welch asked of Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin at a Senate hearing on June 9, 1954.

His pointed question was overdue. It was Welch—an Iowan born in Primghar, and a graduate of Grinnell College—who finally held a U.S. senator accountable for fomenting fear of Communism into a time of national divisiveness and hatred. McCarthyism fed on the lies and innuendo heaped upon those McCarthy and his supporters deemed un-American.