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Our inner self

Often, I watch people because they are so demonstrative in what they do. Who doesn’t want to watch some tiny person dancing in their dad’s hip-high galoshes, so unaware of what others think of what they are doing. They are zoned out following the tune in their head. It may only be a picture you see once in a lifetime. Her little arms and legs are choreographed to how she feels the music in her head. When our granddaughter was three, she attended a wedding with us. When it came time to dance we were treated to her version of how three-year-olds should move. We were so enamored by ...

Weak enforcement leads to dirty water

According to a recent news story, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency just gave a slap-on-the-wrist fine to a big cattle feedlot in northwest Iowa for “unauthorized wastewater discharges” that occurred over three consecutive days in March 2021. That seems like the wrong thing to do. The fine could’ve been $205,335 — up to $68,445 a day for three straight days of manure discharges. But instead, EPA went with a $20,000 fine because the feedlot has a “limited ability to pay a civil penalty.” My question is: if it’s short on cash to pay for its environmental violations, ...

Do not miss the next ‘Stop the Bleed’ training!

On Oct. 16, 2025, a dear friend and I attended the “Stop the Bleed” training at the Marshalltown library. By the way, we have a wonderful library here as acknowledged by a visiting friend from out of town who has visited many libraries. The program was given by an ER doctor and a female ambulance driver. We had a nice size group attending and all of us were glad we were there. We learned quick action things to do to help save a life — also reminded of staying on the phone with a 911 operator until they have all the info needed and they tell you you can hang up. Our two ...

Garbage service discussion

The proposal to mandate all garbage to be picked up on the same day in a designated area of town would cause congestion as this puts multiple trucks in the same neighborhood on the same days. As stated by several individuals who have many years of experience in the business of hauling garbage, the current system works and people are happy with it. The individuals that leave their containers out for multiple days or garbage sitting loose in their yards need to be addressed with the offending people not making unnecessary changes to the current system.

A new chapter

Starting Jan. 1, a new Mayor (myself), a new Councilor with a seasoned veteran returning will be seated along with a returning Councilor that the residents saw the wisdom to re-elect. I am going to miss the smarts of Barry Kell, he was definitely an asset on the Council helping jump-start our progress in Marshalltown that you see today. But his kids are only young once. Our intrepid Mayor Joel Greer will be able to slide into a private life again. Joel has led us through a tornado, a derecho, a pandemic with a steady hand on the wheel. Kudos sir. To put it mildly, I am “wound up” ...

Atheism is Illogical

Atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of God. Atheists have a naturalistic worldview as there is no supernatural creator; humans resulted from chance random chemical accidents. They believe truth must be proved by science and reason; they believe religion ignores science and reason. (Science itself has no compassion for applying solutions in virtuous ways, it must come from someplace beyond science.) Naturalism believes the world is driven by environmental causes, actions and decisions are simply DNA-driven chemical responses in the brain; this means no one is really responsible ...