An educator’s plea: We need mental health supports in schools
I have been a teacher in central Iowa for 14 years; in that time I have taught classes for children with social and emotional issues. Those of us who teach [...]
Read More →
Posted February 13, 2013in Guest Commentary
Posted February 06, 2013in Guest Commentary
The honest problem of gun control
“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s comin.’ We’re finally on our own. This summer I hear the drummin,’ four dead in Ohio.” Those of us of a certain age might know these [...]
Read More →
Posted January 09, 2013in Guest Commentary
Employer mandate a recipe for unemployment
Wal-Mart just announced that it will not offer health insurance to new employees who work less than 30 hours a week. It’s reserved the right to do the same for [...]
Read More →
Posted January 02, 2013in Guest Commentary
Of the NRA, Welch, Bonhoeffer and Dilbert
In the decade of the 1920s, journalist and muckraker Lincoln Steffens was much impressed by the Communist revolution in Russia. So much so that — until he soured on Russia [...]
Read More →
Posted January 02, 2013in Guest Commentary
Iowa opera houses: the next stage
In this day and age, examples of win-win situations are rare. It seems there is always a winner or a loser, or at least someone claiming to be one or [...]
Read More →
Posted December 19, 2012in Guest Commentary
Bah! Humbug! The Grinch who stole Iowa
Is there anything worthwhile left in Iowa for the religious and political right to demean or destroy? In the Hawkeye equivalent of Sherman’s March through Georgia, the folks on the [...]
Read More →
Posted November 28, 2012in Guest Commentary
Blame the press, too, for the nonsense of the Ames Straw Poll
Q: What do words like fraud, scam, joke, hoax, swindle, racket and farce have in common? A: Although all are appropriate, few if any are used by the watchdog free [...]
Read More →
Posted November 14, 2012in Guest Commentary
Maybe Iowa ain’t what it’s cracked up to be
1. Guy in his 50s, ballot in hand, abruptly asks a poll worker: “Which judge is for homosexuals?” Receiving no satisfactory answer, he says, “It’s a guessing game, huh?” and [...]
Read More →
Posted October 31, 2012in Guest Commentary
Jerry and Casey had it right about 2012 campaign
Those looking for a way to summarize the 2012 political campaigns from the local to the presidential level could do worse than to quote President Gerald C. Ford when he [...]
Read More →
Iowa and Aussies share language, culture and problems
Three weeks in Australia — visiting one of our daughters — offered a respite from the Iowa winter, but not from Iowa issues. Reading Australian newspapers was like reading newspapers [...]
Read More →