Viewpoints

To the Editor:

Spring is here, farmers are getting ready for the planting season, and prices on fertilizer and fuel are skyrocketing due to the Iran War and the closing of the Strait of Hormuz. They are already under stress from seed and chemical costs rising every year, and now this.

How much more can the American farmer take from this administration? Tariffs causing loss of trading partners and sales of grains, support for other countries by buying their beef to compete with American ranchers, allowing mergers among big ag companies, further decreasing competition, and now this war.

Sure, price of fuels may come down in the future, but that doesn’t help for right now, when farmers need to buy fuel and fertilizer. They may only be 1% of the population, but they feed all the rest of us, and we will lose more of them to bankruptcy and despair.

To the Editor:

Mr. Lowell Engle in a letter to the editor (March 11) challenged the veracity of my assertions in my letter to the editor (February 25) regarding ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) and the Trump administration. Mr. Engle must not be following the news, otherwise he would have seen the truth of my comments with his own eyes.

Shortly after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good, Vice President JD Vance declared ICE agents are “protected by absolute immunity.” Stephen Miller, White House Deputy Chief of Staff and a major architect of Trump’s immigration policy, also asserted, “To all ICE officers, you have federal immunity in the conduct of your duties.” As constitutional law scholars pointed out, both Vance and Miller are wrong. Federal agents cannot break state or federal law with impunity.

To the Editor:

I have lived in Minneapolis for decades, though I’m always proud to say that I was born and raised in Waukon, Iowa. My current location has unfortunately provided a front row seat to the workings of federal immigration officials over the past few months. I take issue with Lowell Engle’s assertion that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) agents “are doing the job they are required to do.” Permit me to tell you one story.

Alberto, age 31, came to the USA from Mexico a few years ago on a work VISA.  Working as a roofer, he had been sending money home for his disabled daughter and his father. And I’d like to point out that Alberto was not “taking jobs away from American citizens” - as I write this, there are 195 roofing positions available in Minneapolis, and that’s on just the first employment clearinghouse I checked.

To the Editor:

I sent this message to the six members of the U.S. Congressional Delegation from the state of Iowa March 10, 2026. The casual way the words ‘boots on the ground’ and ‘draft’ are communicated in reporting strikes terror in me.

Combatants for a worthy war are daughters, sons, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law and grandchildren.  When senators and representatives believe completely in a war, they can willingly offer their dear ones. The dear ones of every senator, representative and billionaire would be offered up to a worthy war effort.

When a regime believes citizens are less than human, it is easy to speak about boots on the ground and a draft. When the current service men and women are used up, the draft is the next step to supply combatants for a vanity war.

May the U.S. Congressional Delegation be mindful of the way they think, speak and vote.

Elaine St. Clair
Decorah
 

To the Editor:

If you love skyrocketing costs, high inflation, tax cuts for billionaires, and blowing up billions of dollars in bombs, reach out and thank President Trump and his party’s representatives and senators who control the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate. In particular, thank our U.S. Representative who has been a loyal Trump puppet.

Representatives in congress had the authority to block the tariffs and stop costs from spiraling, but they did nothing. Trump’s tariffs cost everyday Iowans billions of dollars. We’ve spent more on groceries, clothes, school supplies, household goods, and building materials. Farmers have lost revenue and markets, and small businesses struggle.

The Supreme Court ruled that Trump’s tariffs are illegal, but it is unlikely ordinary people will see a refund. Big corporations with deep pockets for high powered lawyers undoubtedly will.

To the Editor:

In his letter to the editor in the February 25, 2026 edition of this newspaper, Thomas Hill asserts that  “America has become a lawless state”. The assertion is totally false.

He asserts that ICE has been transformed into a “paramilitary” organization “answerable only to Trump”.  He gives no specific evidence to prove this assertion, claiming only that ICE agents “jump out of unmarked cars, stop, assault, arrest, and sometimes kill individuals all without probable cause”.  He fails to give any proof of that assertion and expects the readers to believe it just because he makes the claim. At no time has ICE aver claimed that they have “absolute immunity”.

To the Editor:

Make no mistake; America has become an authoritarian country. The Trump administration no longer follows the constitution and the rule of law.

ICE has been transformed into a paramilitary answerable only to Trump. Masked men jump out of unmarked cars, stop, assault, arrest, and sometimes kill individuals all without probable cause. When ICE’s actions are challenged, the government lies about the behavior despite clear evidence to the contrary and refuses to investigate, claiming they have “absolute immunity.”

Ash Wednesday: Remembering Who We Are

Today is Ash Wednesday. Christians around the world will pause in the middle of an ordinary week to do something very strange: receive a smudged cross of ashes on their foreheads and hear the words, “Remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

I remember my first Ash Wednesday as a pastor. I was serving at a church with an elementary school, and that day we placed ashes on the foreheads of children during chapel. Speaking those words over so many precious, little faces was jarring. I didn’t like thinking that even they would one day return to dust.

To the Editor:

Last week the Senate Republicans passed the education bill out of committee, now going to the House for debate. In it, there is a 1.75% increase for public education. Inflation is 2.7%. Now the bill has to go to the House.

What does this mean?  This means that for another year, schools are going to have to do with less. If a school district gives raises just equal to inflation, there will be less for every other expense. Since other expenses (utilities, technology, paper, etc) have also risen 2.7%, something will have to be cut.

Starting teacher pay in Iowa for 2023-2024, was almost at the bottom (46th out of 51). Then the state mandated that over two years starting pay should increase to $50,000 but the state did not increase the per student allotment. Thus, even though pay for first-time teachers has increased, other expenses must be drastically cut, or class size has to be increased.

To the Editor:

Every American now faces a clear choice: upholding democracy and freedom under our 250-year-old U.S. Constitution or succumbing to an authoritarianism characterized by a loss of individual freedoms and a white Christian nationalist agenda. It is my hope that clear-minded Republicans, Democrats, and Independents alike will join together to oppose this direct attack by the current federal government on the people of the United States.

Furthermore, we must commit to working collectively to repair the deep damages inflicted by this administration as we look ahead toward a more just and peaceful future.

The choice is yours, America: Democracy or Dictatorship. For the love of all things good, please make the right choice.

Sincerely,
Shirley Vermace
Decorah