Cityview, Get Out of Town

The biggest reason Cityview should get out of town is that you're hardly an excuse for an alternative paper. You prove it by largely ignoring the dynamic gubernatorial candidacy of Ed Fallon. In your recent piece on the widespread political influence of Bill Knapp and his associates, you write: "Just try to find an elected official in Central Iowa whose campaign disclosure report doesn't bear their name. As an elected official here, it's tough to get, well, elected, without Knapp helping you along." Well, Ed Fallon has won seven terms as a state representative by refusing to play the big-money game. His calls for a clean election system - which would give Bill Knapp the same power as every other voter - is a refreshing sign for Iowa's future. Too bad Cityview is so stuck in conventional wisdom that it fails to notice or report it.

Jon Krieg
Des Moines

Editor's note: Was it our cover story about Ed Fallon or the three times his name has been in the headline of our Civic Skinny column that makes him so ignored? As for Ed and Iowa's future, his not "playing the game" is probably why he won't be in it come next November.

Hug your homophobic

So I'm sitting at work, waiting for our pizza to get here, and for some reason I remember a conversation I had last night. Someone calls and tells me that he spent the day interviewing gay couples in Des Moines/Urbandale, and then talked to the state Speaker of the House. He describes the interviews, so I decide to watch the news that night and see what I really thought. The gay guys on TV weren't your stereotypical, youthful gay men that you see plastered in TV shows and the media. These were seniors, who acted the same as any grandparent I've ever seen. They are two people who fell in love and have lived together for four years. They are devoted to each other, and show just as much love, if not more, than any straight couple I had seen before. The men can't get married in Iowa yet; however, they filed a lawsuit to have the right to do just that. Cut from the nice, loving couple to a scrawny-looking man dressed in a white shirt and red tie. This guy begins to talk about how allowing those two men to marry would cause horrible effects that would turn our children into degenerates, that would make thousands of children gay, that would just totally abolish any kind of future for our children. Well, I'm sorry, but what the fuck? These men aren't messing with the Catholic Church. They aren't asking to be allowed to parade around nude, begging small children to touch them and join the following. They are simply asking for the right to be seen as a married couple, and be allowed the same legal and social privileges of marriage as anyone else. These men aren't recruiting gay people. These men aren't spreading disease. They are just like you and me, but happen to love someone of the same gender. While I may not be gay, I certainly believe they should be allowed to have every right that married men and women do. It's not like they love any less.

Nate Borland
Des Moines

The right of marriage

Sometimes in our lives we find ourselves completely taken over by love for another human being. For most of us when this happens you pop the question and the wedding planning commences. In recent years, same sex marriages ("Pigheaded," Dec. 29) are beginning to be more frequently requested and these people are denied because people don't like the thought of it. How is it anyone else's business who you want to marry? How are we as human beings going to deny them basic human rights and the right to privacy? We allow 16-year-old children to marry, and yet, we are denying fully consenting adults the right to be married simply because they are of the same sex. The sad thing about this is that all you need to be married underage is a parent's signature. But if you are of the same sex and wish to be married forget it. Well, how can we as human beings go on telling ourselves we are doing the right thing "for our children" when our children have nothing to do with this. The president tried to define that marriage is between man and woman. Says who? They tell us that we have freedom, but it obviously does that only apply to certain situations. I am a straight, married female and I still feel this way about same-sex marriages. And the bottom line is this if you love someone you should be allowed to be with that person regardless of gender, sexual orientation, religion, whatever. If you love someone you should be allowed to love that person completely in any way you choose as consenting adults.

April Cottrell
Des Moine

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