Viewpoints

To the Editor:

I wanted to make sure the residents in your area are aware, that this very minute, members of our state senate are trying to sneak in a new tax on forest lands. This bill has already passed the House. Very few people even know this is happening.

Currently, forest land is not taxed, as a way to encourage landowners to keep trees and not turn that land into crop land. The program has been in place since 1906, and has helped saved countless acres of woodlands.

I do not want to make myself the bad guy here, but facts need to be exposed here. If forest lands are going to be taxed, I will have no choice but to begin harvesting and logging trees on my land. This means cutting down 100-year-old oak trees just to raise money so I am able to pay this tax.

To the Editor:

The Iowa Environmental Council has submitted a Safe Drinking Water Act petition to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). A cry for help for well owners in NE Iowa drinking unsafe water.

In 1988 the Driftless counties in NE Iowa were just beginning to feel the effects of industrialized agriculture’s voracious appetite to feed emerging ethanol and CAFO industries. Corn-bean and continuous-corn cropping practices exploded.  But in 1988 Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and other Iowa scientists were not yet muzzled. That’s when the study “Ground-Water Contamination and Land Management in the Karst Area of Northeastern Iowa” was published. The first paragraph of the abstract states:

“A statistical analysis of existing northeast Iowa water-quality data showed that systematic nonpoint contamination of ground-water quality was occurring in regional carbonate aquifers… Agricultural practices were judged to be the source of the contaminants.”

To the Editor:

There are some topics that are difficult to discuss. One of those topics is sexual assault. April is nationally recognized as Sexual Assault Awareness Month and provides an opportunity for us to embrace uncomfortable conversations to support victims of this crime.

Every 68 seconds, an American is sexually assaulted. Nationwide, 81% of women and 43% of men have reported experiencing some form of sexual assault and/or harassment in their lifetime. More than 736 million women and girls have experienced intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence worldwide. Sexual assault can happen to anyone, anywhere - from famous movie actors to college students.

EASTER PEOPLE

Easter arrives at a wonderful time of year. The earth is coming back to life after winter, crocuses are popping up from the thawing ground and we get a sense of new life abounding. Delight and awe are in the air.

In the church Easter season, we celebrate that new life is also coming to us! Christ is risen and he promises to raise us up as well.

Pope John Paul II once wrote: “We do not pretend that life is all beauty. We are aware of darkness and sin, of poverty and pain. But we know Jesus has conquered sin and passed through his own pain to the glory of the Resurrection. And we live in the light of his Paschal Mystery - the mystery of his Death and Resurrection. ‘We are an Easter People and Alleluia is our song!’”

Indeed, we are Easter People. Even in the midst of our struggles, we hold fast to our hope in the resurrection. We can experience joy today in changing times because our joy is rooted in God’s unchanging love.

In a few days we are celebrating Easter which is the oldest Christian feast day and most important day and season of the church year. We shall rejoice in our Risen Savior! The resurrection of Jesus is recorded in the four Gospels and written about throughout the New Testament. St. Paul wrote extensively about the resurrection and penned that without the Resurrection, “then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith … and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 17a).

Is our Faith vain? Absolutely not! Because our hope and trust is in the Lord. The hope of Jesus’ resurrection does not deny sin, suffering, hardships or loss; it acknowledges and overcomes them! Darkness and death do not have the final word. God does! Jesus is proof of this. He brings hope to fruition; Jesus plants in our hearts the conviction that God is able to make everything work for good, since even from the empty tomb near Calvary he brings life.

To the Editor:

I have lived in the southwest quadrant of the town for the last eight years. Up until the last two years, traffic over here was doing OK.

However, these last two years have seen a major increase in speeding, running stop signs, doing the so-called California stop, and semis or heavy trucks on streets that were not designed to support them.

I would also like to say - last but not least, I will just throw this one in there - I know on the corner of 2nd Street and Main Street there are two signs on Main Street - one facing east and one facing west - that say, “yield to pedestrians at crosswalks”. I have been at those crosswalks in my mobility chair waiting to cross when, on two separate occasions, I have seen a sheriff’s deputy and a Waukon police officer not yield but then had the nerve to wave at me.

The True Meaning of Easter

Several years ago, I had a conversation with an inmate at the prison in Prairie du Chien, WI concerning Easter. It was amazing to me to find out that he had no idea what Palm Sunday and Easter were all about! He was sixty-five years old, grew up in the United States and no one had ever told him. 

This whole exchange made me wonder just how many people don’t know the significance of these two holidays.  For many, it just means that they get a long weekend.  What a tragedy.

To the Editor:

Black Hawk Bridge in Lansing is vital connecting Iowa to Wisconsin where over 2,000 vehicles cross on a daily basis. The bridge allows workers to get to their jobs, Iowans to access La Crosse’s hospitals and clinics, and tourists to visit Allamakee’s beautiful Driftless Area.

The excellent reporting in The Standard has kept us informed about the bridge’s history (built in 1931), its lifespan, the cost and structural problems leading to its recent closure. Fortunately, the new bridge is being built alongside the old bridge so we do not face years of bridge closures.

The new Black Hawk Bridge will cost $140 million. Your first reaction may be, “That’s a lot of money and who is going to pay the bill?” Eighty percent of the money is paid by the federal government’s Infrastructure & Jobs Investment Act.  The states of Wisconsin and Iowa will pay 20%.

Faith Alone

In the last couple of issues, we have talked about some of the main tenants of Confessional Lutheranism as taught in the Lutheran Reformation. So far, we’ve talked about the two important teachings: Grace Alone and Scripture Alone. The Bible teaches that a sinner is saved by grace alone through faith alone for Jesus’ sake, a truth revealed to us in Scripture alone.

To the Editor:

The Alabama Supreme Court has ruled that frozen embryos created through in vitro fertilization (IVF) are considered children under state law and are subject to the wrongful death of a minor law, if one is destroyed. Ridiculous, you say? We have a U.S. Representative who must not think so as she was a sponsor for the Life At Conception Act along with 124 other members of her political party.

That party has become a patriarchal theocracy. They seek to control a woman’s body. They intend to control our reproductive freedom, our right to abortion, IVF, and soon, contraception. The U.S. Supreme Court is deciding the legality for the distribution of mifepristone, often known as the morning after pill. This is frequently given to women who have been raped, though not in Iowa, as Attorney General Brenna Bird does not believe in it.