Viewpoints

To the Editor:

Allamakee County received nearly $2.7 million as part of its allocation of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds through the American Rescue Plan, and the County should use a portion of that funding to create a countywide commercial building facade improvement program.

A facade is an exterior, public-facing side of a building, which typically means the front, but can also include the side if the building is on the corner of a block. An improvement program would allow building owners to do a variety of work, including but not limited to painting, removing siding, replacing windows, updating awnings, tuckpointing and restoring historic features.

To the Editor:

The letter from David M. Johnson is a stroll down Memory Lane. He revisits and recycles a litany of repeatedly and thoroughly debunked climate change denial claims.

Robust documentation of global warming does not rely strictly upon any one organization, such as NASA, or any one scientific method. I will offer only three specific red flags in Mr. Johnson’s letter.

First, the RSS data cited by Mr. Johnson underwent a major correction of technical distortions, and data published 10/1/2017 in the Journal of Climate revealed that since 1998, global warming had occurred at a rate 140% faster (2.4 times as fast). Mr. Johnson has ignored this.

To the Editor:

The traditional idea of a young adult going off to residential college to explore academics and choose a career isn’t always appropriate for current circumstances. Instead, high school students should explore potential careers to make an informed choice about the post-high school education or training that is most fitting for their goals.

Focusing on potential careers before specific college choices provides several benefits:

When we consider the nativity scene, we see that everyone that gathered to worship the Christ child had a special messenger sent to tell them of Christ’s birth.  Mary received a visit from the angel Gabriel; Joseph heard from God in dreams. The shepherds’ quiet night was interrupted by a host of angels, and the wise men heard the message from a silent star. Though each heard in a different way, they all responded to God’s message.

There were others in the Christmas story who heard the message, but did not find a place beside these faithful worshipers.

Herod heard the message from the religious elite of Jerusalem. But he received it as any pagan king might - with fear and hatred. His mind could understand that God’s promise would be born in Bethlehem, but his heart was so full of a desire for power and fear for his throne that he could not accept the blessing of God’s king of love and salvation.

To the Editor:

In response to the Leslie Sand Letter to the Editor in the December 29 edition of The Standard, there were several issues in that letter about climate change that should be addressed.  First, the mention of NASA and their release of information that claims that there is a rapid increase in warming, faster than caused by natural cycles.

NASA has been notorious on their climate change “adjustments” of climate temperatures. Both UAH (University of Alabama at Huntsville satellite data) and RSS (Remote Sensing Systems satellite measurements) have shown no appreciable, dramatic increases or fluctuation in global temps, basically a two decade or more of no temperature increases to cause alarm. “NASA’s temperature trends are “almost 20 times larger than the satellites,” noted physicist Lubos Motl.

To the Editor:

Thank you for your article on the bottle deposit bill. We need to do something.

A couple things to add.

1. I called the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and they explained to me that if a store sells you the product, by law they are required to redeem them. Also by law, a redemption center has to have hours open to the public. The problem is that no one will step up and enforce it.
2. Postville is a long way to go to redeem the bottle deposit, especially at the cost of gas these days.
3. Prairie du Chien is an option, as Wisconsin doesn’t have a bottle bill and we can then just recycle, like Wisconsin and Minnesota.
4. The best thing, I think, is to do away with the bottle bill completely. We can recycle, like other states.

To check out further information, call the DNR at 515-725-8200.

Thank you very much.

Harold Miller
Waukon

To the Editor:

Our earth has been warmer than it is now, so why worry? Past warming was caused by either well-understood variations in earth’s orbit around the sun and/or wobbles in earth’s tilt, or by emissions of carbon dioxide and methane, usually from widespread volcanism.

Today’s temperature rise comes at a time when the cycles in earth’s orbit and tilt should not be warming earth, and there is no widespread volcanism. Scientists of all sorts have considered all these possibilities and agree that man’s activities, since the industrial revolution, are causing the warming. They are more certain of this than they were that cigarettes can cause lung cancer.

To the Editor:

There are a lot of myths surrounding depression, the two most common being that depression is triggered by a negative life event, and that people who are depressed should find something that makes them happy so they can “snap out of it.” Neither misconception accurately portrays the condition, and both feed into its stigmatization.

Depression is a serious medical condition that, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, affects approximately eight percent of the U.S. population over age 12. Although there is effective treatment available, less  than 35 percent of those living with depression seek professional help.

Individuals may be reluctant to get help for a variety of reasons - maybe they think they can overcome depression on their own, or they believe that no one will understand how they feel.

To the Editor:

Snow’s turned to slush, and water to ice; Santa forgot to check the list twice.

Sugars are high, and the temperature’s low; “Kids, go out and shovel the snow!”

The carolers sing out of key; The shopping lists’ end I cannot see.

The reindeer are on a break; Santa’s on a diet for his own sake.

The cookies are stale, hard as a rock; Over an open fire I must hang this big sock.

We cut down a tree and dress its corpse in lights; As we await Santa through the sleepless days and nights.

The holly is decked in the halls all askew; Santa’s retired, now they need someone new.

The elves are all sick, in bed with a cold; “Sorry, we don’t have Christmas lights, the last one’s been sold.”

It’s Christmas Eve now and I’m finally done; I’ve got the presents wrapped for everyone.

And as I lay down in bed and turn out the light; I can hear Santa yell, “Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!”

To the editor:

The height of hypocrisy is Republicans proclaiming their allegiance to the constitution and democracy but failing to embrace the most fundamental democratic principle of acceptance of election results and the peaceful transfer of power. Republicans continue to peddle the big lies of a stolen election and election fraud. They turn a blind eye to the attempted coup of our government. They have dismissed the violence of attackers of police guarding the capitol. Meanwhile, Republicans are passing voter suppression bills in Iowa and other states. How anti-democratic.