Source: Star Tribune
On June 8, 2003 Star Tribune reported that "at the Maharishi School of the Age of Enlightenment [in Maharishi Vedic City, Iowa] -- the K-12 system built by the meditators -- principal Alan Colby said that finding the utopian ideal of Vedic City in Iowa is not really that surprising. 'There's a history in Iowa of similar things happening before,' he said. 'You have a town of German Orthodox Jews. You have the Amana Colonies. Iowans are pretty tolerant. Of course, the big thing in Iowa is having a neat lawn. If you have a neat lawn, you're OK.' With 3,000 meditators settled in and around Fairfield, most people who aren't meditators have a friend or relative or co-worker who is, Colby said. Prejudice is not much of a problem, he and others told me."