Letters to the Editor: The (cancer) land between two rivers

The cancer rate continues to increase in the land between two rivers. Today, someone else will learn they have (the dreaded word) cancer. It could be you, it could be your neighbor. It could be an Iowan caught in this toilet between two rivers. The state is slugging its way through a disease that’s not giving up. It appears cancer research and medical practice are doing all they can to help. Are we side-stepping other issues that may lead us to the cause? Human waste has been forever regulated. Animal waste has not. The sheer number of animals has created a population density that overwhelms our land.

You don’t have to be a skilled scientist to know there has to be runoff into our waters. Iowans continue polluting the Mississippi and intensify the Gulf of Mexico’s dead zone. Our contaminated water will not make anybody downstream healthier.

Lastly, more than one chemical trying to enrich the tired soil must also be a factor with cancer. These chemicals leach the soils and go into our water supply. Let’s face it, land and water all have breaking points which are being pushed to the limit.

We must not be first-place in the nation with this cancer epic. No state should. This dreaded word need not emerge in your life. Cancer can be beaten.

John Carver, Decorah

Offensive remarks

I read Art Cullen’s rant in the Cedar Rapids Gazette May 18. I take issue with his offensive comments about Iowa.

• Iowans are not reactionaries, they are pragmatic conservatives.
• Nobody is promoting book banning, they support age and topic appropriate education considering the civil rights of parents.
• People who are here illegally do not have a right to be here, a right to suck off the income of Iowans or commit crimes with impunity.
• Iowans do not care about adult sexual fantasies, they object to their children being abused and indoctrinated in progressive nonsense.

What has become a problem is a class of people who to their arrogance insist that everyone else bend to their woke mind virus mentality.

They don’t support liberty. They are the authoritarians. Nothing civil or tolerant in their writing.

Gary Ellis, Cedar Rapids