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The mental health crisis calls I dread — and why I keep answering them

Columnists

Since my husband and I went public with our family’s story about our son’s severe mental illness, my phone, inbox, and social media messages have been full. People reach out constantly — some looking for help for themselves, others desperate to find treatment for a loved one. They come from every corner of Iowa, and beyond. Some ask if they can share my contact information with a friend, neighbor, a coworker in crisis or even a constituent. My answer is always yes. I do my best to respond, though I can’t always keep up. I try — because I know how much it means to have someone ...

My Rob Reiner story

Columnists

I have a story about Rob Reiner. But it doesn’t take place in L.A. or on a movie set. It was here in Iowa. In 2004, I was working as a writer and editor for the Times-Republican in Marshalltown. It was my first job out of college, and definitely not the kind of job where you expect to ...

America’s partisan hypocrisy: Hunter Biden’s crimes vs. Trump’s business conflicts

Columnists

Roughly 43% of U.S. adults identify themselves as politically independent. However, according to Gallup polling, only around 7-12% of Americans are considered “truly” independent, which means they do not lean toward either the Democratic or Republican Party. This small group of genuine independent voters is most likely the ones who see issues from both sides, such as the Hunter Biden-Ukraine business dealings versus the Trump family business conflict situation. Let’s explore the selective outrage and partisan hypocrisy that have been going on since 2014 and the ensuing partisan ...

Living in Lockdown USA

Columnists

“Just FYI if you’re seeing the news right now, I’m totally safe,” a son enrolled at Brown University texted me. “I’ve been home for a few hours now and wasn’t there when stuff started to happen. Seems to be some crazy shooting near brown.” What?! I turned on CNN and saw the quaint streets of Providence’s College Hill — lined with front porches — pulsing under emergency lights that washed the cold night sky an eerie red. Nothing like this ever happens around here. Brown was put in lockdown, and so were those of us living a few blocks away on Providence’s East ...

There is no room for silencing dissenters

Columnists

What makes freedom of speech so difficult to understand and accept? That question came up at Sunday’s discussion at the Des Moines Valley Friends Meeting. The Friends invited me to speak at the gathering that coincided with the 50th anniversary of the Dec. 15, 1975 bombing of the Friends meeting house and the adjacent American Friends Service Committee building at 42nd Street and Grand Avenue in Des Moines. Police never located the bomber so no criminal charges were filed. Consensus remains that someone planted the explosives who disliked the Quakers’ and AFSC’s opposition to ...

Protecting immigrant crime victims and witnesses makes us all safer

Columnists

In the course of my 32-year law enforcement career, I came to understand community safety as the reason law enforcement work truly matters. That may seem obvious, but at this moment, it’s worth looking at why it’s so important — and what community safety really means. I became a police officer thinking I knew what the job was. I learned quickly that it was much different from what I expected. Early in my career, I had the opportunity to work as an investigator. I had two years on the job. I thought I was going to be investigating the kind of cases you see immortalized in ...