I met with an officer last week and we had a long philosophical discussion about policing in America. The discussion kicked off with a statement of despair, “Everyone hates us!” It is getting harder to argue against this concern. It is also becoming more difficult to promote law enforcement ...
We recognize that many are hurting and angry in the face of dual challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic, and now the scourge of social injustice. Our condolences and prayers go out to those that have lost their lives, too early, due to injustice. And also to those working to ensure the public ...
It became evident early in the coronavirus virus pandemic that older adults and those with certain medical conditions are at higher risk for complications and death, and that nursing home residents are particularly vulnerable. The Iowa Veterans Home has been able to limit the impact on our ...
America feels like it’s falling apart. That’s because it is. There are two ways to achieve unity in any group. The first is to set up a few serious standards of conduct, policed with the absolute minimum of compulsion, and then allow freedom in all other matters. This was the founding ...
It’s worth a road trip to see. Located in Traer, north of Tama, the Winding Stairs is an Iowa Historic Site. Thousands of feet have worn the iron steps smooth. Not just any ordinary winding stairs, it boasts a catwalk at the summit leading to the second floor of what used to be the newspaper ...
I grew up biracial in a small, conservative town. Still, after living for years in Austin, moving back to one was a culture shock — it felt like going back in time. For the last three years I’ve lived in Volusia County, Florida — home to Daytona Beach, many small towns and suburbs, and ...
During the height of the coronavirus pandemic, we became accustomed to face-masked shoppers, social distancing and one-way aisles at the grocery store. But most shocking was the scene at the supermarket meat case. Some meat processing plants closed or reduced capacity as workers contracted ...
Meatpacking plants, particularly the big national and international companies, have instituted a veil of secrecy. They failed in the early days of COVID-19 to tell their employees of its dangers, and more importantly, failed to institute distancing and sanitizing processes that might have ...
On the eve of my junior year in high school, my mother returned to the job she’d held before she became pregnant with me, at age 19, and married my father, who was also 19. At age 36, Janey Schultz was once again a nurse’s aide at the public hospital in our small town of Ashtabula, Ohio. ...
It’s all about religion, isn’t it? “(W)e have the cult of social justice on the left,” Andrew Sullivan wrote in New York Magazine, “a religion whose followers show the same zeal as any born-again Evangelical.” Linguist John McWhorter elaborated on that theme in The Atlantic. ...
Iam watching the various classes of America’s “elites” drive this country deeper into conflict for the sake of their own personal aggrandizement and profit, and it is disgusting. If you’re on Twitter, Facebook or anywhere else, you can read, watch or hear Americans speak for ...
Reading the “Marshalltown Police Leading The Curve” article June 11 reminded me of my letter to you last year disapproving the public art rocks set for placement at the new Marshalltown Police and Fire Station. In that letter I stated that the hundreds of thousands of dollars allocated ...
F ive years ago, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division released a damning report on the Ferguson, Missouri police department. “Ferguson’s law enforcement practices are shaped by the city’s focus on revenue rather than by public safety needs,” the report summary ...
June 15 to 19 is World Elder Abuse Awareness Week. Throughout the week, communities in the USA and all over the world will sponsor events to highlight the growing tragic issue of elder abuse. The United States Administration on Aging estimates that as many as 1 in 10 older Americans are ...
For the last three months, we have been focused almost entirely on our return to “normal.” How can we bring students and faculty back and help them learn safely? As planning teams have gotten together, we’ve devised elaborate cleaning procedures, guidance for wearing face masks and ...
Afew days ago, Greg Glassman, the founder and CEO of CrossFit, set off an uproar by belittling the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. In a Zoom call with gym owners, he bristled at the idea of memorializing a man whose killing outraged the nation and the ...
With the death of George Floyd — a heinous atrocity virtually every American decries — unity should have prevailed. Americans hate police brutality; Americans care about black lives; Americans despise looting and rioting; Americans want to protect citizens but preserve the ability of the ...
It was the spring of 1995 when my family and I decided to return to our home state of Iowa from Colorado. We were part of what was known then as the “Reverse Migration” — a phenomenon whereby people, having reached the western borders of the country and becoming disillusioned with life ...
There’s a quiz today. How would the tragic death of George Floyd have been perceived if the encounter occurred on a deserted side street in the middle of the night, rather than on a busy street in a business area in broad daylight? How would our understanding of the events have been ...
As the virtual commencements and drive-by celebrations for the high school class of 2020 fade into memory, Iowa College Aid would like to recognize a group of new graduates for whom this time is especially bittersweet. They are the students of GEAR UP Iowa, and they defied odds to reach this ...