Viewpoints

To the Editor:

Decades of failed mental health policies have placed law enforcement on the front line of mental health crisis response and turned jails and prisons into the new asylums. Deinstitutionalization, treatment laws demanding a person become violent before intervention, discriminatory Federal Medicaid funding policies and the prolonged failure by states to fund their mental health systems drive those in need of care into the criminal justice and corrections systems, rather than into the public health system where they belong.

To the Editor:

As I sit down to write this, my heart weighs very heavily tonight. Today staff, residents and families learned that the Postville Good Samaritan Society nursing home will be closing its doors in the middle of November.

A corporation, Sanford Health Care, has decided that the bottom dollar and profit is more important than the lives of those who work or live there. Tonight residents are wondering where they will live and spend whatever days they have left, leaving behind memories of those they have become close to and shared many happy times with. Staff are stressing over what they will do for a job to support themselves and their own families, walking away from a “family” they were part of at the Postville Good Sam.

“You’d fit right in!”

Recently, I have been going around the community to introduce myself and share information about our church and the Good News about Jesus who has won forgiveness and life for all people with His death on the cross. It reminded me of a story I heard about a pastor who went to visit a man one day. He knocked on the door and invited the man to come to church. The man shook his head and said, “I will never go to church. It’s full of hypocrites!” The preacher replied, “Well, you’d fit right in!”

This humorous story brings up an important question: who is church for? Is it just for nice people or those who need help? Who needs church? Perhaps the better question is - who needs Jesus? This answer is clear - we all do!

To the Editor:

Information literacy is crucial to democracy.

In his most recent letter to the editor, Lowell Engle cites a July 19, 2022 NASA article that claims climate changes are a result of “the changes in the earth’s solar orbit and not because of SUVs and fossil fuel.”

In the time it took you to read that sentence, you could also fact check it. Reuters reports and NASA submits that this claim, popular on social media, has long been debunked. The Milankovitch Cycles, Earth’s shifting of position relative to the sun over geological time, are not responsible for climate change.

“A spokesperson for NASA similarly told Reuters that the scientists are ‘confident Earth’s recent warming is primarily due to human activities - specifically, the direct input of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into Earth’s atmosphere from burning fossil fuels or other anthropogenic activities.’ ”

To the Editor:

Trump took over the party that has a long history of giving taxpayer money to big corporations and the extremely wealthy. At the same time, they condemn people who need a hand up as they struggle to make a living and raise a family.

In 2017 this conservative MAGA party passed tax break legislation signed into law by Trump which basically handed out trillions of dollars to big companies and to wealthy individuals.

Fast forward to 2020 when Trump and conservative Senators and Representatives passed a stimulus bill which ended up being a bonanza for the rich and big companies. This tax break cost us taxpayers $135 billion.

Check it out. Go to the Pro Publica website and look at how much Donald Trump and Iowa’s MAGA Senators and Representatives gave to big companies. Look at other individuals who abused the program.

To the Editor:

When it comes to Mr. Engle and Mr. Quandahl, they fail to even mention that they are members of the party of insurrection that could be guilty of sedition - which, if found guilty, is a form of treason - for the Capitol riot and the attempt to overthrow this country of democracy. If they want to live in a country run by dictators, they can easily move to Russia, China or North Korea, all three of which are run by killer dictators.

Why did the ex-president want to stay in office? I think he dreamed of being like Putin, a dictator. Just face what even you gentlemen should know, the better man won. How many times do you have to be told that I think your party is guilty of an attempted coup?

Pat Ward
Waterville
 

To the Editor:

I just came from the meeting put on by the hospital explaining the proposed City to County conversion. I recommend everyone in Allamakee County go to one of these. It was informative and easy to understand.

Each of us needs to do whatever we can to make sure we have our local hospital. If we have an emergency, we want immediate help and we want to be able to take advantage of the services we have right here.

Get the facts and vote in November. The question is on the ballot. I’m voting for County.

Carolyn Adam
Waukon
 

To the Editor:

It is obvious from the letter to the editor of August 31, 2022 from Ann Klees from Waterville that she has been drinking the “Kool-Aid” being distributed by the “more progressive party” in Washington and promoted by the main stream media.

Ms. Klees promotes the wonders of the Inflation Reduction Act claiming among other things that spending $300 billion to curb climate change is somehow going to make an impact. Scientists have already noted the proposals set forth for these expenditures will, at most, result in about one-tenth of one degree in temperature change.

Moreover, she and the “more progressive party” ignore the July 19, 2022 article published by NASA stating that climate changes that occur are a result of the changes in the earth’s solar orbit and not because of SUVs and fossil fuel.

To the Editor:

Who is the worst person in our world right now? I think it is Putin, who is a war criminal.

Is Joe Biden competent? Most of his own party have abandoned Biden, only 21% say they would vote for him again. Biden opened the borders and invited in lots of undesirable people who will try to harm us for years, and leaving Afghanistan was a disaster. He closed down our pipeline and made us buy oil from our enemies, which resulted in much higher fuel prices.

Inflation is out of hand, the supply chain is broken, there’s a big labor shortage, and now more bad news. Biden is going to add 87,000 IRS agents, and I think they will be unsuccessful college people that no one else wants to hire. They will harm small and big business. Regular working people can’t cheat, they have the withholding tax and Social Security taken out of their check.

To the Editor:

This letter is for those of you who do not vote, who don’t really care about “politics” and pay no attention to any of it. Please read on.

What happens in Washington, or in Des Moines, matters to you. It affects your own lives, your health, your rights and your finances.

The more progressive party in Washington has recently voted in some pretty cool stuff. These are some highlights from the Inflation Reduction Act:

Now, corporations making over a billion dollars will have to pay taxes - 15%, not 0%, and when they buy back their own stock, a 1% excise tax. Contrary to the opposing party lies, the more progressive party did not add taxes to everyday Americans.

Senior citizens on Medicare will have a lower cap on out-of-pocket expenses and Medicare will be able to negotiate some drug prices with those billionaire pharmaceutical companies.