Viewpoints

To the Editor:

Congratulations to the 2017 Waukon football team, and we thank you for the beautiful trophy and for the many Friday nights you entertained your fans. You made all of us very proud of how you played the game. You were always playing together.

You set the bar pretty high for next year’s team. We are sure they can meet the challenges and we will all be there to cheer you on. Again, thanks for a good season.

Your fans from Elon,
Arlyn “Butch” and Lois Fossum
Waterville
 

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that the news media have a tendency to draw out a story ad infinitum.

Recent charges by women of sexual improprieties against a couple of prominent men have resulted in formation of an organization called, I think, “Me Too!” It’s for women who have similar charges against men, and the result has been a steady growth in the number of accusers and accused.

The fact that those things have happened comes, I am sure, as no surprise to anyone familiar with the world of the important in relationship to the less important.

To the Editor:

I am against the closing of the Waterville Elementary School. The reasons for closing Waterville Elementary have been eloquently expressed in print by the Allamakee Community School Board.

However, some of the facts and figures presented by the school board do not seem to add up. For instance, even if the Waterville students do take 30-40 field trips per year, some of the trips are paid for by entities other than the school district. Therefore, I question the amount the board quoted in print.

When discussions were held regarding moving the Waterville sixth graders to Waukon, a school board member is on record as stating the move was not going to result in the closure of Waterville Elementary. Really?

To the Editor:

Mental Illnesses have long had a place among the most controversial topics in society, from causations to treatments to public policy and perceptions. Half of all adults have experienced a mental illness at some point during their lives, and the most common form of mental illness—”depression”—is even the leading cause of disability in the United States. From popular culture to face-eating cannibalism to mass shootings, mental illness permeates mass media like no other time in history.

From 5000 B.C., the time of the first known treatment of mental illness, people have been searching for reasons to explain why mental illness exists. In early societies, it was speculated that demonic possession was the explanation for mental illnesses, and many cultures still believe that mental illness reflects a wrong doing on the part of the family or individual.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that “they” say REM sleep is important for health, and REM sleep is determined by whether or not the sleeper dreams. Well, my sleep is often interrupted, but I do dream a lot, and sometimes the dream is more like a nightmare.

Witness Saturday night after Iowa’s disappointing football loss to Purdue. Not only did Iowa lose, Purdue beat them like a drum ... maybe even that big drum the Purdue band features.

Things looked hopeful for Iowa after they defeated THE Ohio State a couple weeks earlier.

Iowa State won again.

And I read a story that noted that Iowa State’s new president heads the state’s largest public university.

So in my nightmare, the school at Ames was being referred to as THE Iowa State University, and the school in Iowa City was simply labeled Iowa University, just as Ohio University is treated in that state.

Purdue was not considered to be a very good team.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I have often heard radio and TV announcers refer to something happening in Waukon, “way up there in northeast Iowa,” or print media reading Waukon, “in extreme northeast Iowa.” It is almost as though we don’t exist for the rest of Iowa.

So, after RAGBRAI put us on the map this summer, it is nice to see Waukon getting attention on the sports pages for its football team making the state finals.

By the time you read this, you will know if the result was the championship or runner-up. Either is quite rare for the school. We did have a state championship girls’ basketball team in recent years, and I can remember a runner-up finish for the softball team several years earlier. There were the successes of the boys’ cross country teams, but only “major” sports seem to get the attention.

It’s nice to be noticed for pleasant things.

To the Editor:

Forty-plus years ago, a Superintendent of McGregor (Mar-Mac) Schools went on to become Iowa’s Superintendent of Schools. His well-known agenda was that of closing Iowa’s smaller schools and making them move to central locations. Then on to mergers and more centralization. This has been the agenda for over 40 years. Progress.

I recently received a district-wide mailer, generated by a “committee” or “task force”, with many charts and graphs; all trying to close our Waterville Elementary. Progress.

Let’s have our “committee/task force” drag up stats on the drug addiction problem facing our “centralized” schools over the last 40 years! Is that also progress?

We are trying to replace quality education with economic education, for what reason? Progress?

Mark E. Young
Waterville
 

To the Editor:

I attended the public forum for the potential Waterville school closing being discussed to hear what the school board would share in the way of facts. I left with a couple of items of concern I wish to comment on.

A board member represented they receive a lot of “heat” for the disparity in costs per student between the Waterville and Waukon operations and the same taxpaying parents don’t think it’s right that their Waukon attendee children get less from their tax dollars. It would seem a great misnomer that any taxpayer expects a proportionate direct benefit from taxes paid, that is not how the system works.

To the Editor:

I have been an educator for 34 years and never in all  my experiences have I  witnessed such a remarkable celebration of Veterans Day as I did Friday (November 10) at New Albin  Elementary School. The day was coordinated by fifth grade teacher Ms.  Masek and lead teacher  Ms. Thomas.

Each grade level from third grade and up performed, including a power point, choral and instrumental performances featuring  patriotic-themed songs, and war history. The entire school sang a song dedicated to honoring veterans. A “Quilt of Honor” was presented to a World War II veteran, Vern Meiners.

The day was completed by a 21-gun salute performed by the New Albin V.F.W. with a perfect rendition of “Taps” performed by a student, Joe Sullivan, and by retired instrumental teacher Jane Remmen. What a day.

To the Editor:

In the July 12 issue of The Standard newspaper, a lady wrote an article giving credit to Planned Parenthood for all the good it has done providing a variety of services for many people. She, however, failed to comment on the unconscionable horrors of the numerous variety of abortion procedures that are performed, 3,600 times every day resulting in a murdered child. See Exodus, Chapter 20, Verse 13: “You shall not murder.” His laws are treated with contempt and indifference.

In 1973, the U.S. Supreme Court decided to legalize human baby abortions, Roe vs. Wade, beginning with Baby Doe. The Supreme Court is comprised of nine highly educated judges of supposedly greater intelligence than most all of the inhabitants of the U.S. They couldn’t decide when conception takes place in a woman’s womb, apparently refusing to research the subject.