It had been a long time since I’d seen my friend, K.C., and I wanted to ask him a question.

I found him in the John and Mary Pappajohn Sculpture Park standing between artist Tony Smith’s two installations, sculptures called “Marriage” and “Willy.”

Both are black, angular, steel sculptures. They are said to “combine abstract geometric forms with human characteristics.” To me, they look more like puzzle pieces for a three-dimensional game of Tetris.

“I’m confused,” I said as I approached him.

“What else is new?” K.C. replied.

“You have to admit that our governor, Kim Reynolds, has done some pretty strange things this year,” I said.

“It’s not just this year,” he said. “She’s been over the edge for some time. It’s just that folks are finally starting to notice.

“What she’s done to public schools is unconscionable,” K.C. said. “She systematically starved them for years with funding that was below the cost of living. Now, she’s taken tax dollars from them to fund private schools that have no accountability.

“As a result,” he continued, “an educational system that was once among the nation’s best is sinking out of sight, and young families are moving out of Iowa.

“She’s doing the same thing with nursing homes and health care, especially in rural areas. All the while, she’s sitting on a ton of federal money that could be used to help Iowans.

“She won’t spend it,” K.C. said, “because she wants to use it to finance more tax cuts.”

“She says she wants to eliminate Iowa’s income tax,” I said.

“Instead of using it to pay for stuff we need now,” K.C. said.

“Meanwhile, Iowa’s economy continues the downward slide it’s been on for the past three years,” he added.

“That’s what I’m confused about,” I said. “Why won’t she spend money the U.S. Department of Agriculture has set aside to feed children from low-income families during the summer months when they can’t get free school lunches?

“This summer, she turned down $29 million of food aid,” I said, “and replaced it with $900,000 of state money that won’t even buy $900,000 of food after you factor in the costs for setting up a new program.”

“It makes no sense,” K.C. agreed. “How could it?

“Her rationale,” I said, “was the USDA money would be distributed on debit cards that families could use to buy their own food, and she doesn’t trust low-income families to buy healthy food.”

“So, she set herself up as the sheriff of food distribution?” K.C. asked.

“Pretty much,” I said.

“That’s odd coming from a woman who wants parents to choose which schools their kids can go to without providing any requirements for non-public schools,” he said.

“It gets worse,” I said, “when you realize that Iowa’s nonprofit food pantries are reporting record levels of need this summer.

“Did I mention that Reynolds wants to double down on her plan for next summer and basically do the same thing?”

“What’s her problem?” K.C. asked. “Doesn’t she believe in capitalism? It sounds to me like she wants the government to control the economy and do all the planning. Isn’t central planning what communists do?

“When did Kim Reynolds become a communist?” he asked.

“She’s not,” I said. “But apparently she can’t see the contradiction in what she’s doing.”

“Sounds to me like the wiring in her brain is like the shape of these Tony Smith sculptures,” K.C. said. “It winds around and doubles back but never makes a connection with reality.”