Viewpoints

To the Editor:

The Trump administration continues its drive to turn America into an authoritarian dystopia. Among the latest assaults on freedom of the press is Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s order that requires reporters to pledge not to gather or use any information that has not been formally authorized for release or risk losing their credentials to cover the military.

As a spokesman for the Freedom of the Press Foundation put it: “This policy operates as a prior restraint on publication which is considered the most serious of First Amendment violations.” And yet, nary a peep from Senators Grassley and Ernst or Representative Hinson, who all swore an oath to protect the Constitution.

Thomas Hill
Lansing/Cedar Falls
 

To the Editor:

The facts are stark: 90% of murders and 98% of mass shootings are committed by men. Across time, location, culture, and political perspective, gender is the most consistent predictor of deadly violence.

Men themselves are not the problem. But the way society defines and promotes manhood is. Too often, masculinity is equated with dominance, aggression, entitlement, emotional suppression, and other factors that can lead to harmful behavior. These messages shape behavior and, in extreme cases, contribute to deadly outcomes.

To the Editor:

If you are in the 90% of Americans, and you are, (there’s only one billionaire and 73,129 millionaires in Iowa), then you know how to budget, how to choose one necessity over another. Just remember who got us there, and it wasn’t the Democrats.

Have you felt left out, disregarded, maybe heard you are all going to die? Do you really think the kowtowers to the gilded king even care what happens to you? Have you seen or heard from our politicians in person?

The Republican politicians have chosen party over people. Allamakee County has the highest Medicaid membership in Iowa. The “Big Beautiful Bill” cuts access to Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies, fewer hungry families can receive SNAP, our health system - nay, our health - is in jeopardy.

Our public schools are floundering, while the elite send their kids to private schools, paid, in part, by your tax dollars.

To the Editor:

My husband, Roger, and I went to a celebration of Veterans Saturday, September 13 at AJ’s Steakhouse in Waukon. We attended to claim plaques for our sons who are veterans and couldn’t be in attendance.  Roger, as a Marine, received his about a year ago.

This celebration is the brainchild of Jerry Halverson, who emceed the event and has been instrumental in finding Veterans all over the Midwest to honor them. What an impressive time it was, seeing Veterans of all ages receiving an honor bestowed on them for their service to our great country.

Attendees were able to purchase food and beverages as well as participate in an auction, the proceeds of which went to Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waukon.

If you are a Veteran or know of one who hasn’t been specifically honored, please contact Jerry Halverson in Waukon at 563-568-5275. Jerry is planning another event Saturday, November 8.

Becky Engelhardt
Postville
 

To the Editor:

As we citizens watched many of our services being threatened in the past several months, we decided it was time to write this letter.

What are we concerned for? Here is a list of eight areas being threatened:
1. No cancer research.
2. No Social Security.
3. No disaster relief.
4. No clean energy.
5. No free lunch.
6. No Medicare.
7. No Medicaid.
8. No SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program).

Have our Iowa legislators representing us in Washington, D.C. supported getting rid of these services? How do we feel about this? Sad and shocked.

What can we do? Write letters or call our Iowa legislators - our Senators and Representatives. Here is a phone number to reach them: 888-754-9086. Let’s do this; they represent us.

How can we stand by and let our kids, grandkids and great-grandkids suffer if these services are gone? Hoping if we care, we can change this.

To the Editor:

According to Wikipedia, “a tariff or import tax is a duty imposed by a national government… and is paid by the importer.”

Seems pretty straightforward. Who is an importer? The importer is a business or a person in a foreign country who wants to sell goods or services to a business or someone in the United States. The business or person who is buying the good or service is the customer.

Let’s have an example. Right now, the U.S. tariff on Chinese goods is 57.6%.

To the Editor:

This is a story about my dad. Chris Ronnfeldt was born June 8, 1904. When he was a baby, his family moved from Nebraska to South Dakota.

When Chris was four years old, he ran in front of a sickle mower cutting off his leg just below his knee. He spent a whole year in the Sioux Falls hospital recovering. At that time, his family was not able to visit him much because they were busy at home. He was all alone being cared for by the nurses at the hospital.

He was resilient learning to make the most of his situation. He accepted his condition and he didn’t give up. He was fitted with a “wooden leg” so he could walk.

To the Editor:

If anyone wonders whether the childhood vaccination schedule still matters, a quiet walk through Allamakee County’s older cemeteries answers that question.

Postville Cemetery’s alphabetical roll includes entry after entry labeled “Infant,” “Baby Daughter,” and “Baby Son.” Oakland (Waukon) and St. Mary’s/Lycurgus show the same heartbreaking pattern - tiny markers and brief lives, many from the 1800s and early 1900s. These are not abstractions; they’re families from our own towns who buried children under the age of five before modern vaccines existed.

Our county’s transcribed death register from 1893 even lists a three-year-old lost to malignant scarlet fever with kidney complications - an illness we now prevent or blunt with routine immunization and antibiotics. Those stones and lines in the ledger are the price our great-grandparents paid for diseases we can now avoid. (Source: iowagravestones.org+2iowagravestones.org+2IAGenWeb)

In late July, some of the youth from our congregation packed up their bags for a four-day trip to Spokane, WA along with over 250 others for our church body’s national youth convention. The convention was filled with worship services, presentations, a theme park, river tubing, and more.

After an encouraging and exciting trip, we headed home Sunday evening. Yet, due to thunderstorms and tornadoes near Minneapolis, our flight was delayed for an hour and then, once we approached our destination, we had to remain in the air for another hour for the weather to clear up. Finally, the pilot said we were going to attempt to land. He warned us that there might be some turbulence. He was right!

To the Editor:

I get a kick out of some of these letters to the editor. They can’t see any further than their nose. Look down the road as far as you can see.

If we don’t get this deficit paid off, just think of the interest we are paying, which all goes down the drain. I don’t know who we have to pay; I heard China, and if it’s them and they take over this country, women will survive, for a while. Men will be stood up against the wall.

Now, about SNAP. I heard a woman could not buy dog food with SNAP, so she bought it hamburger. I’ll bet that dog was happy.

Here is something to think about. There is a war brewing, or a recession, or both. You could see this coming, it’s been brewing since the last one.

Another thing, the Earth’s surface is shifting away from the equator 16 feet a day. What did the Earth weigh in the 1800s, and what does it weigh today with all the buildings and all the roads with eight lanes?

Remember, God is watching.