Viewpoints

Wed
22
Aug

Letter to the Editor: Democracy is alive in Peru - in jeopardy from Progressives in the U.S.

To the Editor:

I look forward to the dinner Mr. Hill is going to provide me! Hope I do not have to wait three or four years.

Mr. Hill would do well to take a close look at what is happening in Peru right now.  What happened in 1992 is history. Fujimori went to prison for his excesses. I was there. I repeat, democracy is alive and well there.

I wonder why Mr. Hill did not mention Chile in his examples of how outsiders destroy democracy. Salvador Allende did so in Chile for a while, imposing Communism on the country until he was overthrown by a military coup. Chile is now being proclaimed as the best run country in South America, because of democracy and capitalism.

Wed
15
Aug

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that current debate about what constitutes real news or fake news convinces me that my chosen profession, journalism, has undergone a major change since my university education.

A major factor in that thinking is that I know Jim Acosta’s name.

I should not.

He is the CNN White House correspondent.

And as such he frequently reports on his beat to his network news shows. Which is as it should be. But I don’t spend a lot of time watching the evening news on that channel, and yet his name is perhaps best known of all network beat reporters.

Why?

Because his open antagonism to the current administration plays out in Shakespearean tragedy at every White House news conference. As a result, he often not only gets air time on his own network but his name is repeated on others as well.

A journalist should never allow that to happen.

Wed
15
Aug

Letter to the Editor: Missing the point

To the Editor:

Mr. Engle missed the point of the book How Democracies Die and my letters. The book examines the manner in which democracies around the globe have transformed into authoritarian states.  Neither the authors nor I said Trump was Hitler.  The book points out Hitler was a member of the political fringe when he was asked by the President of Germany to form a government as Chancellor, combining his extreme right wing party with more moderate conservatives in order to break a political stalemate.  Once   Hitler was brought into power, he used his position to turn the country to totalitarianism. Trump was also viewed by the Republican Party as an outsider who was unfit to lead the country.  Mitt Romney, for example, in March 2016 in a speech at the Hinckley Institute of Politics saw Trump as a danger to the party and the country, calling him a “fraud” and “having neither the temperament nor the judgment to be president”.

Wed
08
Aug

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that Nature and Nature’s creatures are much more active in warm weather than in cold, especially in this area which is on the migration route for many of them.

Those of us who have lived here for many years are familiar with sights and sounds of local residents and most of the temporary visitors.

But there are exceptions.

One recent night, before midnight, during one of my frequent nighttime sleep interruptions, I heard a creature making a very loud and totally unrecognizable sound. I have no idea what it was. I tried to look out the window but could see nothing, nor even very accurately divine the exact location.

I had recently watched a segment on TV about “howler” monkeys, and there was a little bit of that in the howl. But unless it was a zoo escapee, there are no monkeys in northeast Iowa.

Wed
08
Aug

Word for Word 8/8/18

Msgr. Ed Lechtenberg
Msgr. Ed Lechtenberg

Please meditate on 1 Kings 19:4-8, Ephesians 4:30-5:2, John 6:41-51.

In these scriptures, we hear about bread-food. We hear at least in the Gospel, about people who are grumbling, actually the word used today is murmuring, as in, “The people started to murmur in protest because He claimed, “I am the bread that came down from Heaven.”

Jesus confronts the murmuring head-on. He says, “Stop your murmuring.”

Jesus is a lot like us, isn’t he? He doesn’t like grumbling, murmuring or whining any more  than we do. All three of these words are onomatopoetic (good to remember this word for crossword puzzles). The word sounds like the meaning of the word. Grumble, grumble, grumble. Mur-mur-mur-mur-mur. Whiiinne, whiinne, whiinne.

All very unpleasant sounds, aren’t they?

Is that any way to behave toward God? Making unpleasant sounds? You don’t do that, do you?

Wed
08
Aug

Letter to the Editor: The real danger is Progressives comparing President Trump to Hitler

To the Editor:

Mr. Hill claims in his Letter to the Editor dated August 1 that his original letter contained pure fact from the book “How Democracies Die.” Wrong. He claims that the authors of the book are respected scholars and diligent researchers who carefully documented all the points in their book. They may be.

I repeat, Democracy did not die in Peru. Surely it did in Venezuela at the hand of an outsider in the form of a military coup followed by a sham election to install communism. I doubt that either of the authors or any of their researchers ever spent a minute in Peru or Venezuela. They twisted facts to meet their own objective.

Wed
08
Aug

Letter to the Editor: Thanks, but no thanks

To the Editor:

Thank you, Mr. President.

On behalf of corn, wheat and soybean farmers across America, I thank you for this 12 billion dollar, one-time bailout.

Your tariffs on soybeans and pork have caused financial loss to soybeans, wheat and corn amounting to 13 billion dollars in June, 2018 alone.* That is one billion dollars more than the “bailout”. And that is only June.

According to University of Illinois and Ohio State University research, China’s 25% tariff on soybeans could cost Illinois midsize farms 87% of their income, and a $500,000.00 loss in net worth, per operation.* That’s per farm family.

Kalena Bruce, a fifth generation Missouri rancher, states that hogs are down 20% and lean hog futures by 14%.

Wed
01
Aug

And then I wrote...

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that as this is being written, forecasters were saying northeast Iowa could have a high temperature in the low 70s later this week, the last full week of July.

We were due for some relief from the heat, and can probably expect a return to heat and humidity sometime in August.

The thought of atmospheric conditions was perhaps partly prompted by the news of those widespread fires in Yosemite National Park.

I have not heard how that fire started, but it brought back memories.

Wed
01
Aug

Word for Word 8/1/18


Noah’s Ark and Creation Museum ... A group of Waukon area residents visited Noah’s Ark and Creation Museum in Williamstown, Kentucky as part of a chartered bus tour. Built to Biblical dimensions at 510 feet long, 85 feet wide and 51 feet high with three decks, Noah’s Ark and Creation Museum is pictured behind the group during their July 24 visit. Submitted photo.

The Ark Encounter and the Door

As I am returning home from a trip to visit Noah’s Ark and the Creation Museum in northwestern Kentucky, I’m pondering the fact that I’ll probably never be quite the same. It’s like going to Israel and seeing and experiencing the land where Jesus walked and the places you read about in the Bible. It makes the Bible, even though you believe in it, come to life in a new way.

Wed
01
Aug

Letter to the Editor: The danger is real

To the Editor:

I am responding to Mr. Engle’s letter (July 18) criticizing my earlier letter (July 5). I am afraid Mr. Engle has fallen down the rabbit hole into the post truth world of Donald Trump where shutting your eyes tight, putting your fingers into your ears, and yelling as loud as you can “It is not true” will make any unpleasant elements of reality disappear. Sadly, the real world does not operate that way.

The authors of the book How Democracies Die are respected scholars and diligent researchers who carefully documented all the points they make in their book. In my brief letter I did not have space to cite all the supporting evidence for their arguments, which is substantial.  All the statements I made in my letter are correct.

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