Dear People from Other States:

I understand why you may not like Iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses. I can respect the arguments for modifying the process. A civilized debate about this is important and should continue, as far as I'm concerned.

What I do not appreciate are the baseless attacks on my state. PLEASE stop calling us idiots standing in corners who are unqualified to select candidates. Anyone who would make such a statement is clearly not any more qualified to stand in the corner of a school gymnasium than I am. When exactly did our little purple state become a haven for the uneducated? And when did the rest of the country become so thoroughly uneducated about Iowa, for that matter? Iowans, for the most part, think independently and critically and are motivated by the same things the rest of the country's population is motivated by. One defining difference may be that Iowans are exceedingly humble; indeed this attribute is both a blessing and a curse (a curse in that it makes others quite convinced that there is definitely nothing special about us). So while as an Iowan I may be somewhat humble and maybe a little behind on the fashion trends, last time I checked my body was not covered in scales nor were there antennae protruding from my scalp.

National Public Radio interviewed a woman from Clinton, Iowa, who went to see every candidate, Republican and Democratic, before deciding to support John Edwards in the Iowa Caucus. How can you question her commitment to researching her decision? Iowans read the candidates' books; we attend their presentations and share meals with them; we ask them questions; and we take (well, sometimes we let it roll to answering machine...) their hundreds upon hundreds (upon hundreds) of phone calls. The amount of time, energy, and mental anguish I devoted to the process of deciding whom to support in the caucus this year deserves a little more respect than people calling me an ignorant hick. I have stood in rooms in which I could barely move my arms, praying the entire time that I didn't have a claustrophobic panic attack, to hear candidates. I have sat in 100 degree heat and stood in below zero wind chills. On the same NPR program, I heard about a man who got special permission from the hospital to discharge his ailing 87-year-old wife for the evening so she could caucus for Hillary Clinton. We are not playing around out here; while you may not like our choices, you should respect our dedication to the process. It's there. Trust me.

Sometimes I wonder if those critics on the coasts understand how much information we're armed with in the decision-making process. Perhaps they think we're making our selections based on watching the same talking head television programs or reading the newspapers that are their only source of candidate information. Learning about the candidates is an intensive experience in Iowa.

As I was walking into a post-caucus party last night, an older black gentleman put his arm around me, a younger white woman, and told me simply how proud he was to be an Iowan.

So on a Friday morning in my little corner of the hayseed metropolis, I, too, am proud to be an Iowan. PROUD, I tell you.

How's that for humble?

On to New Hampshire!