Viewpoints

To the Editor:

When it comes to Mr. Engle and Mr. Quandahl, they fail to even mention that they are members of the party of insurrection that could be guilty of sedition - which, if found guilty, is a form of treason - for the Capitol riot and the attempt to overthrow this country of democracy. If they want to live in a country run by dictators, they can easily move to Russia, China or North Korea, all three of which are run by killer dictators.

Why did the ex-president want to stay in office? I think he dreamed of being like Putin, a dictator. Just face what even you gentlemen should know, the better man won. How many times do you have to be told that I think your party is guilty of an attempted coup?

Pat Ward
Waterville
 

To the Editor:

I just came from the meeting put on by the hospital explaining the proposed City to County conversion. I recommend everyone in Allamakee County go to one of these. It was informative and easy to understand.

Each of us needs to do whatever we can to make sure we have our local hospital. If we have an emergency, we want immediate help and we want to be able to take advantage of the services we have right here.

Get the facts and vote in November. The question is on the ballot. I’m voting for County.

Carolyn Adam
Waukon
 

To the Editor:

It is obvious from the letter to the editor of August 31, 2022 from Ann Klees from Waterville that she has been drinking the “Kool-Aid” being distributed by the “more progressive party” in Washington and promoted by the main stream media.

Ms. Klees promotes the wonders of the Inflation Reduction Act claiming among other things that spending $300 billion to curb climate change is somehow going to make an impact. Scientists have already noted the proposals set forth for these expenditures will, at most, result in about one-tenth of one degree in temperature change.

Moreover, she and the “more progressive party” ignore the July 19, 2022 article published by NASA stating that climate changes that occur are a result of the changes in the earth’s solar orbit and not because of SUVs and fossil fuel.

To the Editor:

Who is the worst person in our world right now? I think it is Putin, who is a war criminal.

Is Joe Biden competent? Most of his own party have abandoned Biden, only 21% say they would vote for him again. Biden opened the borders and invited in lots of undesirable people who will try to harm us for years, and leaving Afghanistan was a disaster. He closed down our pipeline and made us buy oil from our enemies, which resulted in much higher fuel prices.

Inflation is out of hand, the supply chain is broken, there’s a big labor shortage, and now more bad news. Biden is going to add 87,000 IRS agents, and I think they will be unsuccessful college people that no one else wants to hire. They will harm small and big business. Regular working people can’t cheat, they have the withholding tax and Social Security taken out of their check.

To the Editor:

This letter is for those of you who do not vote, who don’t really care about “politics” and pay no attention to any of it. Please read on.

What happens in Washington, or in Des Moines, matters to you. It affects your own lives, your health, your rights and your finances.

The more progressive party in Washington has recently voted in some pretty cool stuff. These are some highlights from the Inflation Reduction Act:

Now, corporations making over a billion dollars will have to pay taxes - 15%, not 0%, and when they buy back their own stock, a 1% excise tax. Contrary to the opposing party lies, the more progressive party did not add taxes to everyday Americans.

Senior citizens on Medicare will have a lower cap on out-of-pocket expenses and Medicare will be able to negotiate some drug prices with those billionaire pharmaceutical companies.

To the Editor:

COVID and high food prices have finally done us in. It’s with regrets that I am announcing that Waukon Community Meals is ending. Our final meal will be Monday, August 29 from 5-7 p.m. at the First Presbyterian Church.

There is no way that I can adequately thank everyone who made this possible. The initial committee members, the Allamakee Ministerial Association, the Lions Club, the First Presbyterian Church and others bought into my idea of creating community meals in 2014. The Allamakee County Dairymen faithfully provided milk and ice cream monthly.

Once we had our plan in place, businesses, banks, organizations, medical and dental groups and individuals all opened their wallets to get us off to a great start.  Others committed to monthly giving.

To the Editor:

In response to the August 10 letter regarding “the handicapped” sidewalks:

The Iowa Department of Transportation designed and funded the project, since the sidewalks are located in the State right of way. The plans also required numerous trees to be removed and none are allowed to be replanted in the boulevards.

Allen Lyon
Waukon
 

For your meditation: Isaiah 66:18-21; Hebrews 12:5-7, 11-13; Luke 13:22-30

God is speaking to you and me, let’s listen.

I hope this doesn’t sound too much like a geography lesson, but I sometimes get caught up in trivial details and I’m afraid that happened to me when I sat down to write this “Word for Word” column.

But where the heck are Tarshish, Put, Lud, Mosoch, Tubal and Javan? Have you even heard of these places before? Are they even real places?

Well, they are real places. We’ll get back to them. The reading from Isaiah is from the very end of the book of Isaiah. The time in history being talked about is at the very end of the Babylonian captivity. By this time the Israelites have been scattered “all over the world,” which means all over the world that they know. In other words, all over the Mediterranean Sea Basin.

To the Editor:

Anyone who has viewed the public hearings conducted by the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack to overthrow the outcome of the most secure election in our country’s history could only conclude that Mr. Pat Ward is correct in his assessment of Donald Trump’s behavior, while Mr. Lowell Engle’s defense is misguided.

What makes the Committee’s activities so powerful and persuasive to any fair-minded American is that the majority of evidence presented has come from members of Trump’s own party who supported his election and served in his administration. These include his Attorney General William Barr and his White House counsel Pat Cipollone.

The picture they paint is one of Trump and his acolytes trying to orchestrate the overthrow of the duly-elected President. The findings include:

To the Editor:

According to an article in The Standard dated August 3, 2022 (page 7, column 5) dealing with the Crazy Days of August 5 and 6, it is my opinion that the City is now accepting the responsibility and liability for the sloping sidewalks.

I have not read the Americans with Disabilities Act, but when I see that Act referenced in the same sentence with sloping sidewalks, it gives me pause. When merchants get a permit from the City to use the flat portion of the sidewalk to hawk their wares, or wears, and relegate the slope to the disabled, that does not appear to me to be the spirit of the referenced act.

Someone once said that every idea is not a good idea, nor is every idea a bad idea. But sloping sidewalks were never a good idea! Parking meters are long gone, but when they were installed, they were on flat sidewalks!

Respectfully,
Herb Larkin
Waukon