Viewpoints

To the Editor:

Iowa’s governor and most of the state legislators whose political party controls all three branches of Iowa’s government are advocating to take tax dollars from public schools and give them to private schools, including for-profit schools (Senate Study Bill 3080).  They cloak this legislation as school choice, vouchers and scholarships.

Don’t be fooled. Iowa already has school choice through open enrollment. This is about giving a blank check to private schools without requiring any oversight, accountability or financial disclosure. Taking money away from public schools is wrong, bad for our children, bad for public education, and bad for our communities.

To the Editor:

I enjoy reading the Word for Word column each week. It is interesting and enlightening to glean insights from area ministers, pastors and priests.

Rev. VanderVelden’s entry in the February 9, 2022 edition of The Standard gave me a new perspective on the Big Bang theory. While I hold to a more conservative, six-day account of creation, I respect and appreciate Rev. VanderVelden’s view and how he arrived at it. What I do find unsettling in his article, however, is when he questions whether the stories in Genesis “entirely represent fact”.

To the Editor:

I am writing this letter to encourage those young or old to attend the Barn Dance being held at the Fairgrounds this Friday, February 25 from 7-11 p.m. The Allamakee County Fair Board is having this Barn Dance, and this is a great chance to learn how to dance, how to learn to step to the beat of music.

Line dancing does not require a partner, so if you have no partner feel free to have others help teach you to dance. I have taught ballroom dancing since 1962 (when I came to Waukon to teach) in Adult Education through NICC. I taught the two-step, polka and waltz in Adult Education Dance classes in Lansing, Postville, Decorah, Calmar, Guttenberg, West Union, and many times in Waukon.

This Barn Dance is a perfect opportunity to begin to learn to dance; come give it a try. The exercise and joy of dancing is great. It can become a great lifetime hobby and an enjoyable exercise.

To the Editor:

I have always been an advocate of wind and solar energy. However, the conversion to a carbon free energy economy means the replacement of fossil fuels with electricity. This represents many issues that are beyond partisan politics. It seems that reality differs from conventional wisdom.

First of all, this will require an estimated increase in the production of electricity in the U.S. by a factor of two to four times it is today. Electricity is hard and expensive to transport over long distances. It is also difficult to stockpile in cases of emergency. Then, there are hard to electrify economic sectors such as fueling trucks, ships, airplanes, and heavy vehicles.

The Geo-political ramifications are also enormous. There are approximately 800 million people in the world who do not have access to any energy services. If developing countries focus on the need for growth, it is set to clash with the idea of net zero carbon production.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.” (John 1:1-3)

Some years ago, on a family vacation to Chicago, we visited the Field Museum of National History. Most captivating for me during our visit was a detailed, special exhibit on the Big Bang Theory, science’s leading hypothesis for how the universe began.

Simply put, the Big Bang Theory suggests that the universe as we know it started at an infinitely hot, dense, single point that exploded in a nanosecond some 13.8 billion years ago. That enormous blast created all the chemical elements now composing the universe. The conflagration also triggered a warp-speed cosmic expansion that continues today.

To the Editor:

The editorial page citations on whether humans are the main cause of climate change should include the observations of writers like Peter Brennen who, in “The Ends Of The World”, notes that past extinctions have “frightening echoes in our own world - which is undergoing changes not seen for tens of millions, or even hundreds of millions, of years.”

To the Editor:

In response to the January 19, 2022 letter to the editor by Gary M. Stewart, it does not take much to discern that this gentleman is a disciple of the demise of the earth due to man-made climate change and that it is going to come really, really quick - “The Earth doesn’t have time for this,” as he ended his letter to the editor. His cognitive dissonance began immediately when he began his letter to the editor with, “He (that’s me) revisits and recycles a litany of repeatedly and thoroughly debunked climate change denial claims.”

To the Editor:

During the Governor’s 2022 Condition of the State address, a $1,000 bonus was unveiled for teachers who worked through the pandemic. This is a great first step. However, it was not mentioned that the funds paying for these bonuses came from the American Rescue Plan created by President Biden but only voted for by one of Iowa’s four U.S. Representatives.

The bonus is a good start, but should be followed with permanent measures to reward our teachers. Restoring collective bargaining, increasing the raises to more than the cost of living, providing art and music funding, and reducing class sizes are a few measures that would help all teachers. Teachers need higher salaries overall, not just a one-time bonus.

To the Editor:

There are no quick-fix ways for how to get sober fast, and there is not one simple formula for staying sober either. Whether you are looking to get sober or maintain your current state of sobriety, there are definite obstacles that must be overcome for your greatest chance at success, and they are as follows:

Get Honest With Yourself: In the depths of addiction, lying to yourself about the severity of the problem is very common. And of course, accepting the fact that you have a problem is the first step to getting the help and treatment that you need.

Have An Open Mind: You may be able to get sober without an open mind, but an open mind is necessary for lasting recovery. For those new to recovery, sobriety is a scary thought. It is an entirely new world. Literally, everything has changed around you, and it is this feeling that can often spiral people into relapse.

submitted by Allamakee County Attorney Anthony Gericke

COVID
In 2020 and 2021 our office, like almost every institution across the country, had to deal with the COVID virus and the ensuing fall-out it created. After Governor Reynolds signed an order prohibiting gatherings of more than ten people, the Iowa Supreme Court suspended most in-person court services beginning on March 17, 2020 to limit in-person services in order to mitigate the spread of the virus.

Many restrictions were put in place and many government buildings were closed. Our court system in the state of Iowa, however, did not shut down.