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Lois Bright provided ‘a profound legacy’

11/13/2013

I think you have broken my heart with your writing about Lois Bright (Civic Skinny, Nov. 7). I wish I would have known her. But I feel maybe I do.

A young mind does not travel with the resources to develop it, necessarily. Social policy does not always manifest to support a goal of helping those who would better themselves with an education. But special individuals can impact what happens to others.

So Lois, and the legacy of her husband Dale, has provided for this with a profound legacy of giving and philanthropy. But I guess the presence of Lois would have provided any witness with a sense of vitality, involvement, self-creation, social justice and a faith that life, as lived, does in fact advance our personal and mutual experience.

She might have died in her sleep. But she lives in my waking life. I have cared for patients at her named hospice. I am a graduate of the school she has supported. I have cared for
the ill and elderly from Des Moines’ east side and shared with them the rich legacy and history of the city where I was born and raised.

It is not a guess that caring for Lois might have challenged those in her charge. But for those who listened to her, I am sure there was a wealth of insight available about life and how to live it and about how the value of an individual and about how anyone has the ability, as an individual, to influence the course of events both large and small.

CNA - Stop HIV Iowa

Lois and her husband have most certainly influenced the lives of many people. To say that she or he is dead seems premature. That she has lived dreaming is certain.

Michael Hopson
–Des Moines

 

Put tax-funded projects to a vote

Why is it that we’ll vote on financing such public things as courthouses, school bonds and such, while at the same time, taxpayer money will be kicked into hotels, insurance company campuses, downtown housing developments and sports stadiums — subsidies for profitable for-profit businesses — without the taxpayer having any say in the matter? Shouldn’t those things go onto the ballot, too, instead of letting our officials play Santa Claus?

David Thrasher
–Des Moines

                 

Moore’s re-election speaks volumes

Des Moines city councilman Skip Moore was reelected on Nov. 5. He commented, “I think the voters have spoken and said Washington, D.C.-style politics and special interest money is not going to work in Des Moines.” I completely agree. Now if we could just get Chicago-style politics out of Washington D.C.

Kent Carlson
–Earlham

 

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