I saw a pre-Halloween ghoul display at the Marshalltown library board meeting in October. An elderly man who refuses to realize he has minimal support on an issue reduced an elderly city-appointed woman to tears by yelling on camera at her and demanding her unwarranted resignation from the board. Why? Because he wanted her appointed position so that he could ensure a private publication be bought by the library.

John Worden has long made a fool of himself picketing the library, telling lies on television and using a private retailer for an unauthorized petition, but this was the lowest blow.

By his own admission, Worden wrote that he used the old library for his homework sixty years ago. Instead of being a patron, he has demanded the library display two print publications which do not have connection to the city or the state. This non patron doesn’t understand that American libraries offer their periodicals on line for health, financial and sanitary reasons. The Marshalltown library only carries print editions of the Times Republican and Des Moines Register.

This obsessed Don Quixote has an equally addled Sancho Panza. Ray Mitchem touts his decades-long science teaching in city schools as his expertise on current science. When I researched his Marshalltown School District record, Human Resources produced sketchy records of substitute and science teaching with missing periods. For the record, Mitchem is a climate change and Covid vaccine denier who is quoted in the newspaper he wants displayed, which also is a denier of climate change and vaccines.

And who supports Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum? Gary Thompson and Mark Eaton, both of whom have publicly and privately attacked, not only Judy Lindholm and Sarah Rosenblum. Women who have served the community.

I am planning a move to the city but have second thoughts about living in a city where cowardly creeps can publicly bully women. Worden doesn’t appear at city council meetings because he has been told off by some elected officials. Good.

The library board meetings now have a city cop present at public expense because of his unpredictable behavior.