Viewpoints

Wed
20
May

Letter to the Editor: Can we find a solution for discarded cans?

To the Editor:

Look at all the nickel cans. The ditches are full of nickel cans. I can’t understand why people throw these nickel cans away. There are all kinds of cans and plastic bottles thrown away.

I was born in the early 1930s and money was hard to come by. We would make fish hooks out of safety pins. Now, all you have to do is pick up cans and you could buy ten years’ worth of fish hooks. Maybe we should raise the reimbursement to ten cents?

Last year I went fishing at the mouth of the discharge water of the power plant in Lansing. I got two fish, picked up a pail full of cans and plastic bottles, plus my pockets were full.

Last year, I parked over by Bloody Run in the casino parking lot. I couldn’t believe all the cans and bottles along the riprapped bank. At 87 years old, there is no way I could pick them all up. Now the casino has all kinds of containers to put trash in. Maybe somebody could come up with a better idea than ten cents a can.

Wed
20
May

Letter to the Editor: Can society end drug addiction?

To the Editor:

Drug addiction is not well understood in modern society. A better approach to the way we view both drugs and drug addicts would go a long way to improving treatment outcomes. It could also change treatment options themselves. A more welcoming and understanding attitude throughout society is necessary for a serious reform on the way we approach drug addiction treatment.

First of all, the way society treats drug addicts is so judgmental and closed minded that it is no small surprise addicts have trouble keeping clean sometimes. In our society, once a person suffers from drug addiction, they are painted with a tarred brush. They will face judgment and suspicion for the rest of their lives. It is a heavy burden that follows recovering addicts as they try to get on with their lives, making that job much more difficult. It’s hard to get a job or secure stable living with a dark cloud of suspicion.

Wed
13
May

Word for Word 5/13/20

Rev. Tim Rupert
Rev. Tim Rupert

Grace holds a central place in a life of faith. For my faith tradition, talk of grace begins of course with God’s grace. God giving us love, blessing, help, healing. God doing this freely, with great care for us. Grace is about receiving. Receiving needed support, needed relief, needed compassion. This aspect of grace reminds us that we are people who need help and grace in life, in all manner of ways. We receive grace from God, and we receive grace from other people. So during this time of pandemic and uncertainty, I’d encourage all who are being offered help, offered grace, to receive it. Welcome a friendly word or an offer of support. Take advantage of food pantry supplies and other forms of assistance. In whatever ways you’re being offered grace now, receive it as a gift. Accepting grace, accepting help can be difficult for us. But it is vital and life-giving. So open yourself up to grace. Be kind enough to yourself to receive it.

Wed
13
May

Letter to the Editor: Practice social distancing, vote absentee!

To the Editor:

I believe that by now, all registered voters in Iowa have received an absentee voter request form in the mail. Please consider using it, and not just because of COVID-19.

Voting from home allows you to carefully consider the candidates and any referenda that may be on the ballot. It assures that whatever happens on election day, your vote is already in.

If you haven’t gotten the mailing yet, you might want to call the Auditor’s office and make sure you are registered, or, if you know you’re not registered, get that done. You don’t want to miss out on choosing our politicians!

You may be one of those people who are skeptical about the privacy of absentee ballots. Let me assure you, as someone who has been on the Absentee Board, on and off, since Billy Roe, Jr. was Auditor, that your ballot is sacred and secret.

Wed
13
May

Letter to the Editor: Voting is important!

To the Editor:

It’s time to make our voices heard on June 2. How fortunate we are in these unpredictable, frightening, isolating times to still be able to vote safely!

All we need to do is call the Allamakee County Auditor’s Office at 563-568-3522 by May 22 and request an application for an absentee ballot. It will come by mail relatively quickly. It gives us the power to help choose candidates for U.S. Senator, Iowa State Representative and Allamakee County Supervisor, among others. It must be returned by mail or hand-delivered to the courthouse by June 1.

If you choose to vote absentee in person, or at the polls on the the actual voting day (June 2), the Auditor’s Office will give you instructions.

Wed
06
May

Word for Word 5/6/20

Rev. Ron Pederson
Rev. Ron Pederson

God’s Cure For Diseases
 
Every Fall a new flu shot is available at drug stores and clinics. It is never 100% effective but it greatly reduces your chances of getting the flu.  God has also blessed us with many vaccines through the years that are 100% effective.  There is a vaccine for polio, chicken pox, the measles, the mumps and many other diseases.

But what about Covid 19? Will there finally be a cure for that? Of course no one knows the answer to that question. I think it fair to say that most of the experts believe there will be a cure eventually. And how long will it take?  Dr Fauci said that it will likely take a year to a year and a half to develope a vaccine for Covid 19. No one knows for sure.

Wed
06
May

Letter to the Editor: Are we really all in this together?

To the Editor:

“We’re all in this together.”

Are we? Are we really all in this together? I wonder if the way we think about deer and chronic wasting disease is the same way we’ve come to think about the coronavirus?

The human animals are about to “open” up again. As early as today in some states we are going to gather together, despite professional recommendations. And, not unlike the deer, as a result of our desire to be together we put each other at serious risk.

Very little attention is being paid to the fact that our most vulnerable people will likely pay the ultimate price in a war that they cannot win. They are the statistics for Veterans Services, the Homeless, Nursing Homes, the Department of Human Services, etc. They are the numbers that aren’t added in. They are the bodies inside unmarked boxes on the battlefield. And, they are as silent in death as what they heard in life.

Wed
29
Apr

Word for Word 4/29/20

Rev. Laura Gentry
Rev. Laura Gentry

When’s the last time you had a good laugh?

In the midst of this pandemic, laughter is probably the last thing on your mind. Our world has been hit hard by the coronavirus, even here in our corner of Northeast Iowa. We probably feel more like crying or screaming than laughing.

And yet it is the Easter season - traditionally a time of great joy. Christians everywhere celebrate the good news that Christ is risen.

Now it didn’t look like good news at first. As we commemorated on Good Friday, Jesus died and was sealed into a tomb. Had the forces of evil triumphed? No, they hadn’t. For suddenly Christ arose. Like the punchline of a joke, the surprise of his resurrection makes us laugh with delight.

That’s why Christians throughout history have observed this holy time with humor.

Wed
22
Apr

Word for Word 4/22/20

Fr. Mark Osterhaus
Fr. Mark Osterhaus

As we all mark the first month since our schools have closed and many of our businesses have had to shut down, we have all had to adjust our daily routines. These adjustments pale in comparison to the suffering of those who have lost family members, those who wonder if they are infected, or to the anxiety experienced by those who have lost their jobs and income.

Wed
22
Apr

Letter to the Editor: COVID-19 shutdown

To the Editor:

As we face the COVID-19 pandemic and struggle with the country’s shutdown, we must not let ourselves become too impatient to return to normal. It might help us to revisit an earlier epidemic.

One of the world’s worst pandemics occurred in 1918 with an influenza virus. It killed anywhere from 40 or 50 million to 100 million worldwide. According to John Barry’s The Great Influenza, probably 675,000 deaths in the U.S. were due to the influenza.

The first major outbreak started in an army camp in Funston, KS in March 1918. Infected soldiers moving from camp to camp spread the disease and 30 of the largest cities near the camps also suffered outbreaks that spring.

The first wave of the influenza was not particularly lethal. Of the 1,185 men hospitalized in Camp Funston, only 38 died. But as the virus adapted to humans, the second wave became more dangerous in the late summer and fall.

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