Viewpoints

To the Editor:

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) declined to approve the initial construction permit for the hog confinement for Riecks View Farms because, according to an article reprinted in The Standard, they wanted to build the confinement buildings in a “region of porous, shallow bedrock in steep terrain overlooking two streams with naturally reproducing trout”. The amount of pigs would produce an estimated amount of manure at 5.8 million gallons in a year’s time.

Now the Reicks’ have changed their permit to a lesser amount of pigs, but on the same site. What is wrong with this picture? Who in their right mind would, in such a sensitive area, even consider their permit, let alone okay it?

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I have been preaching that as one ages, habit is a good thing. For example, taking prescription drugs at the same time every day. In my case, that also means doing a load of laundry every Sunday, something started when that was usually my only entire day off from work.

And since Monday is the day for trash collection in my section of the city, I have made a habit of setting out the containers every Sunday afternoon.

Along about sundown Sunday, it dawned on me that Monday was the Memorial Day holiday, so the trash collectors would not be coming. But I was not going to go back out and collect the stuff, so it stayed out. And the neighbors probably concluded that the old boy has finally lost it!

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that the late Ogden Nash, one of my favorite authors, wrote something which I often recall when 1 try to remember something from last month, last year, last century, whatever. The wording probably isn’t exact, but it goes something like: How confusing is memory’s lamp. One day a bachelor, and the next a gramp.

When the first recent warm day appeared, I opened my front porch jokingly called a three seasons porch, but really barely a two seasons porch most years. That’s one of the reasons it serves mostly as a book storage area these days. As I did so, I seemed to think it was a bit late this year, but a check of my food (and selected other things) diary showed it wasn’t until the Memorial Day weekend last year.

To the Editor:

May was Mental Health Awareness month. It is a little known or talked about fact that most hospitalizations for mental health concerns and suicides do not occur during the holidays, but during the spring months. There are all sorts of theories as to why that is. One of the most widely accepted is that individuals who are depressed get just enough energy with the change to spring weather they either choose to slug through deeper puddles of isolation and despair, or attempt to complete suicide.

I have my own theory. It’s all about hats. A person can either hide under or make a statement with a hat. For cripes sake, the Kentucky Derby TV coverage was more about the hats than horses!

Hats may become a ritual or necessity. All winter long, it’s about grabbing a hat before braving the cold cruel world. Spring rains typically require some sort of headgear or umbrella. Remember those plastic rain bonnets and babushkas?

by Rev. Lynn Groe

Lighten Up Already!

Matthew 11:28  - Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest..

These days, it seems that all of us are much too serious! People are frustrated and uptight about virtually everything – from being five minutes late, to having someone else show up five minutes late. From being stuck in traffic to seeing someone look at us wrong or say the wrong thing; from paying bills, waiting in line, overcooking a meal, or even making an honest mistake – you name it, we all lose perspective over the simplest and silliest of things in our life. Did you ever stop to think that a hundred years from now, even one year from now, perhaps even next week – no one will even care! 

To the Editor:

How desperate can Waukon be for entertainment and pleasure when it must reenact the worst carnage of war ever fought in North America - the Civil War? The Civil War accounted for at least 529,332 military deaths plus thousands of civilians. Don’t you know war is hell on earth!

War is not pretty ladies dressed in fancy costumes and soldiers clad in clean, pressed uniforms. War is mutilated bodies of young men, husbands and fathers, injured or dying in a muddy field of battle while weeping widows, mothers, fathers and children struggle to understand.

Why don’t you show the realities of war? It is not entertainment and games. War is not the answer and never will be.

Respectfully submitted,

Peter W. Bieber
Waukon
 

To the Editor:

A “shout out” to the Mental Health Awareness Team (MHAT) of North Fayette Valley High School. It would be impossible to calculate the amount of time and emotion that the team of young adults put into its efforts providing support for mental health concerns while struggling through adolescence and going to school.

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. Those of us involved in mental health awareness efforts, and/or who have lived experiences of mental health issues, wore the color green for the MHAT North Fayette Valley school assembly Friday, May 6.

The moving presentation involved speakers, members of the community and students stepping forward to present on the reality of their experiences. On behalf of North Fayette Valley’s MHA Team, senior Krista Moellers also presented the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Northeast Iowa with a generous donation they raised through events the team sponsored throughout the school year.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that my paternal grandmother, whose parents emigrated from middle Europe, knew the weather folk wisdom of that area. They were not “blessed” with today’s modern forecasting system.

She always cited the effect of the weather just before the ides of May, the 12th, 13th and 14th, as predicting how the summer’s weather would be. They were called the “ice days” because they could be rather cold days. They were the predictors for June, July and August, respectively.

If that holds true this year, we are not in for a warm summer season. All three were less than ideal spring days. In fact, that Sunday morning, there was widespread frost. I didn’t think much about it. The flowers seemed to have survived. But Monday morning when I went to cut the sparse asparagus my patch is producing, I found several spears which were soft and wilting, apparently affected by that frost.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... about a couple of “natural” things I recently observed.

Those who have had occasion to travel Waukon’s 11th Ave. S.W., south of the park, the past several months have observed the effort to dredge silt and deepen the pond;

One day during the first full week of May as I was heading west from the highway along the quarry, I noticed a pair of geese and at least four very young goslings on the shoulder on the quarry side of the road; I could only assume this is the same pair that has raised families there for the past several years, since geese mate for life and live long lives. But the difference this year, is there was no pond! I know water is necessary for the eventual training in safety measures and flight, but can the little ones get along without the pond? I did notice a few days later that the pond was being filled again, so maybe a crisis was averted.

To the Editor:

One of the most serious threats to our youth may be lurking right in your medicine cabinet. The nonmedical use of prescription and over-the-counter drugs is becoming more of a serious health problem in the United States and in northeast Iowa. The Iowa Governor’s Office states that almost one in four (24%) of Iowa middle school and high school students do not know that using prescription drugs, not prescribed to them, puts them at harm. Every single day in the United States, 2,500 youth ages 12-17 abuse a pain reliever for the first time, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.