Viewpoints

To the Editor:

For too long, higher education in Iowa has drifted from its core mission: preparing a highly skilled workforce and anchoring talent in our communities. This next legislative session, we have a clear opportunity to bring reform by allowing community colleges to offer a limited number of bachelor’s degrees supporting students going into high demand fields.

Many Iowa students don’t lack ambition or ability; they lack access. In rural Iowa, the nearest university may be hours away. Working adults and parents can’t uproot their lives for distant campuses, leaving hardworking Iowans shut out of completing their degree. Rural Iowa deserves better.

To the Editor:

President Donald Trump has given the farmers a Christmas present - a promise of $12 billion of bailout payments for the disruption of markets, which caused significant ag losses. However, these bailouts are like taking someone’s Ford truck worth easily $60,000, wrecking it, and then giving the owner a token payment, but not fixing the truck.

While $12 billion sounds like a lot of money, it doesn’t compare to the $20 billion (plus $5 billion more down the road) that Trump gave to Argentina’s president. Who is more important - farmers or a foreign government?

There is no buyout for livestock producers who are also hit with lower prices due to Trump’s tariffs, especially hog producers. The livestock producers won’t even receive a token payment, just a wrecked truck.

To the Editor:

Have you noticed the coffee prices these days? From May of 2024 to July of this year coffee prices climbed 33%. There have been recent extended droughts in both Brazil and Viet Nam, the two biggest world-wide coffee producers. But the administration’s 50% tariffs on Brazil’s exports have added much more to U.S. costs.

Drug costs grew by 10.2% in 2024 and are expected to grow another 9-11% this year. Those not on Medicare or Medicaid are bearing the brunt of these increases.

Anyone going to the grocery store these days has seen the cost of groceries climb higher and higher.  People are having to change to cheaper brands of products, cheaper meats and cut back on non-essentials.

To the Editor:

In small communities across our state, news travels fast - and sometimes not in the most helpful way.

Recently there have been several long term care facilities that have made the news. While it’s important that situations are handled properly and that accountability exists, I also think it’s just as important to remember something else:

There are so many good, hardworking people in these buildings who show up every single day with compassion, patience, and genuine care for the residents who call it home. Not every story makes the news - like the quiet kindnesses, the laughs during morning care, the extra time spent comforting someone who’s lonely, or the staff who go above and beyond without ever asking for recognition.

One incident doesn’t define an entire team or the countless positive moments that happen there every day.

Thanksgiving has often struck me as an odd holiday. I don’t mean that it’s odd that we gather with family and overeat - Americans do that on Christmas and the 4th of July, too. It’s odd that the American spirit has not found a way to commercialize this holiday.

Christmas is a multi-billion dollar bonanza, the 4th of July is a booming spectacle of spending, and even Easter now requires a full shopping basket of candy eggs and bunny decorations. But somehow only the supermarket has found a way to capitalize on Thanksgiving.

Why is this, I have wondered? Is it because Americans are universally a thankful, content people? Hardly! We have our share of grumpy, greedy people, longing for the next something. Or are we unthankful because we think that our own hard work is the reason for our blessings? We would pat ourselves on the back if only society wouldn’t think of us as completely self-centered.

To the Editor:

Bless Israel. Here are some Bible verses that tell us to bless and pray for the Jews and Israel:
Numbers 24:9 - Good News Translation:
9 “The nation is like a mighty lion; When it is sleeping, no one dares wake it. Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed, And whoever curses Israel will be cursed.”
Genesis 12:3 - Good News Translation:
3 “I will bless those who bless you, But I will curse those who curse you. And through you I will bless all the nations.”
Psalm 122:6 is a verse that says, “Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: they shall prosper that love thee.” Jesus was a Jew so this should be easy to understand. May God bless you all.

Dick Kistler
Waukon
 

The Lord Provides 

Paul writes in Philippians 2, “And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus.” How true this is! Not only has our good God granted us salvation in Christ Jesus through the forgiveness of sins that He won for us on the cross, but He also cares and supplies all our daily needs as well.  

We are surrounded by God’s gracious care - through the people, tools, and opportunities that He gives to take care of us. While it’s easy for us to forget, we know that God is always at work taking care of us. I was reminded of this when we welcomed a healthy baby girl this past July.

To the Editor:

To the citizens of Allamakee County. For 40 years the Allamakee County Bar Association had been providing a service, free of charge, where someone could learn whether their law question was something requiring an attorney or not.

I am sad to announce that the Allamakee County Legal Advice Clinic has been temporarily shut down. As President of the Allamakee County Bar Association, I have been advised by the Clerk of Court that we can no longer use the services of the clerk’s office to set appointments and hold client conferences for this free service.

Previously, there were ads/articles in the local newspaper that indicated this service was available.  One could call the clerk’s office and they would set an appointment on a Monday, two weeks per month, for citizens to speak with a volunteer attorney.

I hope that the service did provide some help to the community over the last 40 years. Presently, the program is temporary shutdown.

To the Editor:

I heard one older lady say, “We fed our kids. Why can’t people feed their kids today?”

I thought about that and did some research. Wages are up, but prices are up, too. I decided to compare 1975 purchasing power to today’s purchasing power.

Purchasing power is measured by the Consumer Price Index, which is the price of a basket of similar goods that has been tracked over time. What $1 bought in 1975, now sells for roughly $6.02. If a family made $10,000 in 1975, that same family needs over $60,000 to buy the same goods.

Minimum wage in 1975 was $2.10/hour.  In order to buy the same goods today, one would need $12.60/hour, but today’s minimum wage is $7.25. This means that someone living on minimum wage today can only buy 58% of what someone living on minimum wage in 1975 could buy.

To the Editor:

November 1, over 250,000  Iowans lost Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, putting healthy food out of reach for families already struggling to make ends meet. SNAP isn’t a handout; it’s a lifeline for children, people with disabilities, seniors, and hardworking families trying to feed themselves while paying rent, utilities, and other essential bills. With the cost of groceries soaring, stopping food aid results in people going hungry.

In the richest country in the world, children are going to bed with empty bellies. Allowing hunger to exist is a moral failure and the result of intentional policy decisions made by politicians.