Viewpoints

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that a situation in Minneapolis recently seems to be a perfect example of what can go wrong when leadership decides to make diversity a goal rather than a naturally occurring event.

I had heard and read about the incident in which a rookie cop in the passenger seat of a police car shot across in front of the officer who was driving, and hit and killed an Australian woman who had approached the squad car in her pajamas. She came to greet the officers because she was the one who had called in a neighborhood disturbance.

I did not give it much thought until a TV show I was watching cut to a news conference being conducted by the female mayor of Minneapolis. She barely got started before being interrupted by the audience.

To the Editor:

I find myself writing again not to convince Mr. Quandahl to change his beliefs or voting habits; rather, I wish to ensure any impressionable readers are not swayed by his alternate facts. I have many thoughts so please excuse me if I transition from topic to topic sporadically.

Firstly, I write as a progressive member of the Green Party, but seeing as my only choice to resist the current administration is to join corporatist Democrats I suppose I’ll defend progressives as a whole. Progressives are not takers. I want other people to have access to the things to which I have access. I want other people to have access to healthcare. I want other people to have access to education, to housing, to food.

To the Editor:

“I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.”

“Indivisible, liberty, justice” can only be true when America is “one nation under God.” Without God is chaos and division. Just read and think on Genesis 1-4 to understand a lot. And compare 1 John 3:12, Jude 1:11, Hebrews 11:4 if you think Cain gets away with murder, even if he did build a great city.

Without God, man can not provide liberty and justice. God is the Originator of both liberty and justice, and a whole lot of other truth. God and the Holy Bible are “American values and ideals” greater than any I read in the Northeast Iowa Indivisible Chapter letter in the July 5, 2017 edition.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that I was contacted about possibly being considered for a recognition of valor for my military service. I declined because the word “valor” does not describe that service. The dictionary definition of valor implies having met danger with firmness or personal bravery.

Neither describes anything that applied to what I call my 42-month vacation at the expense of the Navy!

by Hugh E. Conway

Games 4

Here are two more circle games with song and verse that were played and enjoyed by the children and teachers at many of the rural Wexford Schools. These games were often played by the younger children included “All around the mulberry bush” and “Pop goes the weasel.”

All around the mulberry bush. This game was designed to help teach children cleanliness and good manners.

The game begins with children holding hands and dancing around in a circle singing the chorus.

Here we go round the mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush,
The mulberry bush.
Here we go round the mulberry bush
So early in the morning. (Chorus)

When the children reach the action verse; each child stands and perform the appropriate action.

This is the way we wash our face,
Wash our face,
Wash our face.
This is the way we wash our face
So early in the morning.

To the Editor:

I don’t think you hear this often enough, so I want to say “Thank You.” Thank you for donating your time to make the Allamakee County Fair as great as it is each year. Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedules to attend meetings and conferences, for spending weeknights and weekends completing fairground maintenance and beautification projects, and for taking your own vacation time from work to make fair week run so smoothly.

I think the Allamakee County Fair is amazing, but the hardworking people behind the scenes are what amaze me the most.

Each member of the board brings so much to the table, and the community is so thankful for your skills. From the board member who is mechanically inclined to the board member who takes care of the phone calls and paperwork, without you our fair would not be the amazing community event that it is.

To the Editor:

Are you disgusted with the way our country is going? Our Congressmen have put us trillions of dollars in debt. Our country has been mismanaged for a long time. The post office and Amtrak railroad run by the government have lost money for years, and the government wants to run our healthcare.

We have been going downhill financially and morally ever since the 1960s when President Johnson produced the so-called Great Society. He also passed a law that forbid priests and ministers to be active in politics or they would lose their tax exemption. His Great Society program put more people on the government dole, thinking they would vote Democrat.

I call that criminal and it’s starting to backfire on the Democrats as people wise up - they want work, not hand-outs. Do you ever think our Congressmen would ask, “What mistakes are we making right now that could make things increasingly intolerable for our children?”?

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... that Iowa has experienced its first Fourth of July with legal fireworks sales in a long time, and the results seem mixed. There were a few fires, and a few city councils received enough complaints to maybe reconsider previous actions.

I don’t even know if fireworks were legal in Waukon. There was something in a news story, but since I was not involved, it did not register. I do know I heard fewer fireworks this year than in many past years, when they were not allowed to be sold. It was as if those inclined to purchase them decided that if it was legal, it wasn’t fun anymore!

Were fireworks legal in Iowa in the days of my youth? I don’t know. I know the kids in the neighborhood in which we lived in those days, just west of the Waukon Greenhouse, had firecrackers. That would have been in about 1943 or 1944.

by Dick Schilling, "Editor Emeritus"

... part two, or three, of why English is a difficult language to learn.

The radio ad was for a restaurant featuring vegetarian meatballs. Imagine learning what vegetables are and what meat means, and try putting them together so it makes sense.

It’s like the phrase jumbo shrimp. Jumbo meaning large and shrimp meaning small, right?

And say you are driving an Allamakee County road and you see groups of wild creatures. There are lots of deer. But lots of turkeys. Why the “s” for the turkey numbers but not the deer? Or the “s” for foxes but no “s” for moose, the latter not seen in Allamakee.

Who made the rules?

Still on the subject of outdoor things, have you noticed the fireflies? They seem extremely bright this year. As if you could put a couple in a jar, as we used to when we were children, and read a book by their light. Which we did not do as children.

To the Editor:

In the very near future, the Senate will likely vote on a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act that would also unravel the Medicaid program and bar Planned Parenthood from participating in Medicaid for one year. As a Family Planning Program Administrator, I am writing to urge Senator Joni Ernst and Senator Charles Grassley to stand on the side of public health and block this dangerous proposal.

This effort, which happened behind closed doors by 13 male Senate Republicans, will devastate access to publicly funded family planning care that an estimated 641 women and men in the most recent year have come to rely on here in Decorah for contraceptive services, cancer screenings, STD services and other preventive care. If this bill were to be enacted, health centers would be forced to scale back services, or even close, and an untold number of our patients would lose access to essential care they need.