Opinion

STRAY THOUGHTS

BY RANDY EVANS

One of the nastiest controversies in local government in Iowa in many years was the impeachment in May of Muscatine Mayor Diana Broderson by the city council.

The case isn’t over. She has appealed her removal from office.

I’m not here to pass judgment on the council’s decision. That’s something Muscatine residents can do in next month’s city election.

By GARRISON KEILLOR

I hung out in Eugene last week where it rains every day so the air is fresh and clean. Old people my age don’t care for rain so Eugene is not a retirement mecca — more of a youth mecca, a real Alt sort of town for hikers and bikers and vegans and people with multicolored hair. A lifestyle town, with not so many suit-and-tie guys like me. That’s fine. My former father-in-law was named Eugene so the town feels friendly to me. And the university is there, so there’s plenty of ambition in the air.

I have retired to a small acreage and I worry that my property could become unlivable or lose much of its value if an unregulated CAFO (Concentrated Animal Feeding Operation) is built too close to my home.

Too often we focus on what goes wrong in our town. In the last two weeks, one woman’s accident brought out the very best in the Storm Lake community. When 90-year-old Holocaust survivor and BVU featured ACES speaker Magda Brown needed help, our community responded. Paramedics and police who arrived with the ambulance encountered a woman in immense pain from a fall while boarding a flight from Chicago to Sioux City.

Remember the Cuban missile crisis, 1963?  The Soviet Union was setting up missile silos in Cuba, we blockaded, the Soviets backed down, but we came close to a total nuclear night.  The next year saw two movies depicting nuclear war, Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove, and Lumet’s Fail Safe, the last one which comes to light here, in the wake of the bantering we have from the White House I explain:

EDITORIALS

BY ART CULLEN

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, impresses us as someone who at least is trying to listen to all Iowans. During a visit to Storm Lake, the freshman senator met Latinos on the street and in the cafés and told us this: “I support DACA in principle, absolutely. These young men and women contribute a lot to our country and Congress ought to step up and help them.” We are grateful that she can see the future of The City Beautiful, and rural Iowa generally if it can come to the reckoning that immigrants can revitalize us.

EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK

BY ART CULLEN

Next year should provide a barometer on whether Iowa has reverted to its historic state of perma-red.

A half-dozen Democrats and two Republicans are chasing what is an essentially open seat held by Gov. Kim Reynolds, a Republican who ascended to the office with the departure of Terry Branstad for China. Reynolds has a bushel basket full of problems to attend to, not the least of which is Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett. (See today’s editorial.)

I was saddened to hear of the passing of my friend Kathy Nichols. In these days when everyone seems to be craving the spotlight, I think of Kathy as one of those quiet people who touched and inspired me with the way she lived her life.

I was disheartened, though not completely surprised, by the recent eruptions of the lower nature of man, given voice here in Storm Lake. From what I understand — and has been confirmed by this newspaper — not only were there wholly inappropriate and offensive remarks made at our high school, but at Buena Vista University at a recent football game, as well.

By Art Cullen

Sally Brecher’s predicament with her filter strip along Episcopal Creek perfectly illustrates what is so messed up about our federal and state agricultural and natural resource conservation systems and programs — and why the next farm bill is so crucial. As fewer farmers are around to participate in the farm bill, fewer of us even in Buena Vista County pay attention to the debate surrounding it, which is underway.