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CAPS makes a positive impact

With this being Child Abuse Prevention month I want to give a shout out to CAPS – Child, Adolescent, Parent Support- a local non-profit service agency which is quietly, but profoundly impacting the lives of our neighbors in our community. The agency evolved from a focus on abuse prevention, but in the end it does this and so much more. I believe we generally think of supportive services as being for “someone else,” which may be true, yet services to an individual or family ultimately impact “our community” as the service recipient gains a wealth of information which enhances ...

MACC deserves city support

I just can’t seem to let this go and just accept that my/our town government chose not to make a decision to help financially support the Fisher Community Center/Marshalltown Arts and Civic Center/Fisher Art Museum, and by all rights also the return of the Marshalltown Community Theater. The center is truly a very special place right here in our town that we can honestly say is just as fine as anyplace anywhere. I just looked at the center’s website and saw recent pictures of activities with many hundreds of our students participating in music and art activities, and it brought ...

Train whistles and the squeaky wheels

Marshalltown is a town whose economic lifeblood will forever be connected to the rails that run through it. Anyone living here, visiting here or investing here knows and accepts that truth. So, I find the current conversation about rail whistle noise remediation entertaining as if it were a new phenomenon. This was put to bed once already. Some are proposing that taxpayers spend $1,000,000 (an estimate provided by the City of Marshalltown, so imagine it to be twice that when implemented) to quiet the noise from trains for the purpose of improving the quality of life of all ...

Two poems

I Saw a Dove Amongst a Flock of Pigeons One monochrome March morning I knew the world was ending. That morning I saw a dove amongst a flock of pigeons And strung out angles shuffling slowly through the streets of Minneapolis Softly singing lullabies for the rabble of St. Paul. Deep crimson canyons along your arms and legs - The world was ending — your head Hades; your eyes Olympus. I saw a dove amongst a flock of pigeons. Kelcey She is the frame over which the universe is woven. The waxing and waning of our lunar satellite — soft-spoken yet insubordinate. And our ...

The right to be “none”

A woman wrote to your paper claiming many things, but the one I would like to talk about is the misunderstanding she says about Freedom from religion. She only has the right to be free from governments who forced everyone into one belief. That’s what governments were doing in the old ways of living. Germany forced all to be Catholics: then Luther rebelled and forced them to rethink. America, in deciding this moral dilemma, did not say that we are free from religion; we are only free from anyone in government moving us to one faith. We are free to choose our own way to believe in the ...

Under Tonya Gaffney’s watch

Thank you for the front-page expose dated 3/26/24 highlighting community censors support for an accomplished, proven, censoring library board president, Tonya Gaffney. Under her watch, a patron was labeled “our problem patron,” a bully, a harasser, a mayor, a 75-year-old, and a resident of an unincorporated “town.” Under her watch, public discourse on agenda items at the time they are considered, has been eliminated. Now, agenda items can only be commented on for 180 seconds at the top of the meeting without having a clue as to what will be said by board members when the ...