Viewpoints

Kingdom Life Byte # 12

Today I’d like to share about three spiritual certainties. The dictionary defines a certainty as, without a doubt, definitely, a firm, settled belief in the truth of something. The first certainty is “Life is short.” Psalm 39:4-6 “Lord, make me to know my end. And what is the measure of my days, that I may know how frail I am. Certainly every man at his best state is but vapor. Surely every man walks about like a shadow.” And Psalm 90:10 and 12, “The days of our lives are 70 years, and if by reason of strength they are 80 years. So teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom.”

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that Kermit the Frog insisted it wasn’t easy being green, and I am finding out it isn’t easy being a sports fan without Internet access.

In advance I had noticed that the Masters golf tournament would be on TV all four days, so I looked forward to seeing how Iowan Zach Johnson would do. He did not do well, and in fact missed the cut and so missed the final two days.

The Chicago Cubs opened the season on the west coast, which is good news for the players because it was cold and nasty in the middle of the nation. I did not see any of those first five games when the Cubs won four of them. They were televised on two stations which my basic cable service does not offer, plus with the time difference they did not start until 8:30 or 9 p.m., which means it would be midnight before they were over, and that’s well past my bedtime.

To the Editor:

Wake up, Waukon and all towns in the USA. We need a recipe to improve our town, like most towns. We are concerned citizens and want to make our town the best it can be.
Let’s put together a program to promote a better town. Let’s form a group of leaders that meet once every month to discuss and analyze the situation and needs. That group would be our sheriff, our chief of police, all church ministers and priests, leading business men, school superintendent, mayor, Chamber of Commerce, etc. They would let it be known that we support our police and sheriff departments 100 percent.

If you come to our town with the intent of selling drugs, especially to our youth, and you get caught, you will be arrested, placed in our new jail, and fed bread and water. When you get out, you’ll high-tail it out of town and never even think of selling drugs here - that’s a promise.

To the Editor:

Anyone reading this can likely cite tragic examples that have proven to be societal challenges due to inadequate and ineffective mental health services throughout Iowa. In the last several years, shootings in the United States have tended to have at least one of two common themes: access to guns, and individuals, usually men, who have untreated mental health issues.

We commend the Iowa General Assembly for its efforts to address the patchwork of mental health services offered for the past 100 years, starting in 2013 with a complete redesign of the mental health system. However, it is now time to complete that work by providing our counties and mental health/disability services regions with sustained and permanent funding. This is the only way the state of Iowa can meet the underlying goal of the redesign process: to provide access to an expanded level of quality services to all Iowans at an affordable and consistent cost throughout each region.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

...that reading about the nesting and hatching with the eagle family at the Decorah hatchery site had me anthropomorphizing about how the late Red Skelton might have done one of his Gertrude and Heathcliff routines. They were seagulls as I recall, but could just as well have been eagles, I suppose.
Red might have started with Mom and Dad returning to the nest site, which had been blown down by a storm last year:

To the Editor:

Pardon us, please, but you all are being a bit presumptuous with your claim that the County Board of Supervisors is not appropriately representing the people of Allamakee County. There are many concerned and proud citizens of Allamakee County who believe that Board is representing them responsibly.

A major responsibility of the Supervisors is economic development. The Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center is an excellent project.  Not only will it be an attraction for tourists and help them spend money here, money that will support local businesses, money that will include taxes that will support all of us in our state and county, but it will also provide us, the adults and children of Allamakee, an excellent way to come to a better understanding of the treasures of the natural environment in which we live.

To the Editor:

There is a medical cannabis bill that is currently stalled in the Ways and Means Committee in the Iowa House. This bill (HF2384) would resolve some but not all of the issues surrounding the CBD Bill that passed in 2014 which allowed Iowans to posses cannabidoil and use it for the treatment of intractable epilepsy with approval from a neurologist and the Department of Health.

Unfortunately, the bill didn’t allow Iowans a means to legally purchase the oil within Iowa. HF2384 would allow for the growth, manufacture and dispensing of the oil to those who have doctor’s orders. This oil is literally a life saver for the many toddlers, children and adults who are medically complex.

To the Editor:

My wife and I recently moved to Lansing because we wanted to be near the great Mississippi River. It’s a fantastic attraction - the eagles, the barge tows, small town friendly people.

When we heard that a new Driftless Area Education and Visitors Center was being built south of town, we were thrilled. It seems that most people we’ve talked to are in support of the project.

But we hear there are some who make up an “anti-group,” as one local merchant describes it. That’s unfortunate because the center will be such a plus for the community - the children learning from the center’s nature programs, the merchants from the business it will draw regionally, as well as nationally.

To the Editor:

In case you all haven’t noticed we have a serious problem here in rural hometown Iowa.  It’s called accessibility.

If Main Streets really do Matter, take a look around your town.  Folks in our rural communities do get older and choose to live in rural areas because they don’t want to struggle with traffic and other urban nightmares.  Does that mean they should have to struggle with getting where they may want or need to go?

Many of our towns in Northeast Iowa do not have public transportation available, and that’s a whole other issue.  There are also a lot of us who have a ‘hitch-in-their-get-along’ that would like to get out of a vehicle and go into our amazing small-town shops or restaurants.  I can tell you from personal experience, folks with physical disabilities in our area are for the most part unhappily limited to accessing discount stores and fast-food places.

To the Editor:

I read the article “Area legislators field numerous concerns as public sounds off about issues at local legislative forum” in your March 23 edition about concerns regarding school funding.

I think all Iowans agree that quality education is key to a prosperous community.

It concerns me that Allamakee schools are not receiving the funding they need to provide quality education to students in our district. As a Waukon High School alumna, I can empathize with students whose learning experience is impeded because of budget cuts. It is not the student’s fault that enrollment is declining in our rural district.

That’s why I’m asking my district’s legislators to push this issue at the capitol. Students across Iowa should receive a quality, funded education, regardless of their zip code.

Sincerely,

Samantha Manning
St. Paul, MN