Viewpoints

To the Editor:
Hello! I am a fourth grade student in North Carolina. In fourth grade, we do state reports and I have chosen your state! I am very excited to learn more about the great state of Iowa as I work on my report.
I am writing to you to ask you to please publish the letter below in your Letters to the Editor section of your newspaper. It enhances my learning about the state when I hear from actual people who live in and love their state!
Thank you for considering helping me with this project!

Sincerely,
Elena Walker

Please meditate on the following scriptures: Isaiah 50:4-7; Philippians 2:6-11; Luke 22:14-23.
What is victory? What is defeat? What makes somebody a winner? And somebody else a loser?
One day, not too long ago, I went to a semi-pro basketball game and I saw a big, tough basketball player come off the floor and in anger shove a manager who was offering him a towel, back up against the bench and over on his behind. I was disgusted. The big, tough basketball player was not a winner. He was a pitiful loser.
Outward appearances do not tell the story. The biggest person, or the person with the biggest mouth, is not necessarily the winner, even though he may look like it at the moment.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

Editor’s Note: The following was originally published in the March 13 issue of The Witness and was submitted to The Standard by Bob Hager of Dorchester. It is being reprinted here with the permission of Witness Editor, Dan Russo.

To the Editor:
Bill #2345 has passed through the Iowa House of Representatives.  It seems the intent of this bill is to assure that gasoline taxes collected at Iowa pumps are spent as intended, for our roads and bridges. In part, it says:
“An act requiring annual reports by county engineers on the use of road tax fund moneys to replace or repair structurally deficient bridges under county jurisdiction.  The engineer of each county shall certify and file a report detailing the manner in which moneys received by the county from the road use tax fund were used to replace or repair structurally deficient bridges under county jurisdiction.”

To the Editor:
In the last few weeks I’ve heard a lot with respect to the Driftless Area Education and Visitor Center currently being built south of Lansing. I’ve attended a Board of Supervisors meeting when the project was discussed to make sure I had both sides of the issue.
Though I support the project in theory, I disagree with the implementation of it without having the necessary funding secured, and I have no confidence in the project’s ability to generate the necessary revenue, year after year, to fund itself.

The congregation I serve is blessed with a sizable number of children and youth who participate in the life and ministry of our church. Twenty to 25 of them regularly participate in Christian education activities Wednesday nights, and many in that lively group worship regularly with their families Sundays.
Over the years, I’ve often heard parents express anxiety about bringing their children to church. Their concern usually goes something like this:
“My kids only go to church because I make them go. It’s bad enough when they are going to  Sunday school where they get to have fun, but when they’re just sitting in church on Sundays and they don’t get anything out of it, it seems rather pointless to make them go.”
I get that. I really do.
Not every Sunday at our house includes our three kids jumping out of bed and leaping with joy at the thought of going to church.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

To the Editor:
Your “Editor Emeritus,” Dick Schilling, made a serious error in his effort to smear Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders by writing, “Sanders calls himself a democratic socialist, which is what the Nazi party in Germany called itself.”
In fact, the Nazis called themselves the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei (NSDAP), the National Socialist German Workers Party or National Socialists in English, known as Nazis world-wide.

David Anderson
Waukon
 

To the Editor:
Taxes! How much is enough or too much? It seems that every time we turn around we’re subtly and incrementally taxed a little more. So many of our elected officials and representatives seem addicted and callused to using OPM (Other People’s Money).
To appreciate the great extent of governmental debt is nearly unfathomable.  There’s no place better or more fitting to start acting with conscience and fiscal responsibility than right here at home. Whether it’s balancing our own checkbooks or monitoring our county’s spending, it’s our duty and right as taxpaying citizens to speak up.