Letters to the Editor: When you let the states decide

The Department of Education, like so many things in the way of Trumpism’s wrecking ball, is not being dismantled for a reason so much as for a feeling. It is a bureaucratic entity, and bureaucratic entities, in the cosmology of the movement, are inherently bad. They are to be unmade, undone, unraveled — not for any clear, data-backed rationale, but because they exist and existences like these, in their view, must end. When pressed, the explanation is a shrug, an invocation of “states’ rights,” the governing principle of every policy gambit that does not stand up to scrutiny. Let the states decide. Let Iowa decide.

And what has Iowa decided?

It has decided, in the last two years, that taxpayer money should be funneled, in increasing sums, into a private school voucher program whose costs have ballooned and whose inner workings have remained opaque. Millions redirected, small-town public schools squeezed, lawmakers forced to admit — only when the books start looking particularly grim — that, yes, perhaps this plan to subsidize private tuition at the expense of public education was not the magic bullet it was sold as. Rural schools, which function as more than just schools — because in farm towns, the school is the center of everything, the Friday night lights, the gym packed for boys’ and girls’ basketball, the auditorium where the Christmas play is staged, where people laugh, where people cry — are now looking at cuts, consolidations, closures.

This is what happens when you let “the states decide.” Not always, not everywhere, but in places where governance is reduced to slogans, where policy is dictated by ideological talking points rather than what actually works, this is what you get. You get tax dollars disappearing into black holes of privatization, audits and accountability only appearing when the system itself starts to crack under its own weight. You get small-town families realizing, too late, that the school they grew up in, the school their kids and grandkids were supposed to grow up in, is on the chopping block. And when the school goes, what else goes with it?

This is what Trump wants at scale. A country where the safety net is a threadbare patchwork, where oversight is a dirty word, where the heartbeat of a place — its school, its shared spaces, its sense of continuity — can be amputated in the name of some vague, half-articulated notion of freedom. It is not freedom. It is entropy. And for those who do not have the means to simply opt out, who are not cushioned from the fallout, it is loss. Real, tangible loss. The kind of loss you can stand in front of, stare at, see the windows boarded up, the parking lot empty, the echoes of what used to be still bouncing off the cinderblock walls.

Noah Siela, Columbia, Mo.

Don’t bruise the white male egos

By passing a slew of bills aiming to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion in Iowa colleges and universities and to promote a sanitized view of American history, Iowa Republicans have unilaterally decided:

• We need not worry about Black people facing employment discrimination.
• We need not fret about supervisors ignoring women for promotions in favor of less-qualified men or about females earning less than their male colleagues.
• We can dismiss the idea that white people will insult, attack and exploit brown people from Mexico and Central America.
• We can be sure employers won’t automatically discount people with physical and mental disabilities.
• We can trust Iowans to treat lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer and transgender Iowans fairly.

But mostly, that we must be sensitive and take care not to bruise fragile, white male egos.

Thomas R. O’Donnell, Keosauqua

Stop giving Trump chances

It’s been said that in politics, being deceived is no excuse.

News archives from 2017 reveal a call by pundits and lawmakers to “give Trump a chance.”  In less than a month, he set fire to global affairs, insulted America’s allies, threatened to rip up trade agreements, courted anarchists and dictators, and questioned vaccine safety.

Eight years later, we again hear calls to give Trump a chance to prove that he is the master of The Art of the Deal.

By their silence, Iowa’s D.C. legislators have signaled their willingness to give Trump another chance. This in the face of an exponential expansion of threats to our communities, our economy, our safety, and our world leadership. Have they been deceived again? Or have they scurried into the safety of Capitol cubby holes and office closets?

Have you called and left messages? Have they, like Senator Grassley, responded by parroting White House talking points?

No matter the reason, there is no excuse for their cowardice. Why can’t they muster the courage of  Rosa Parks, who, in 1955, risked the loss of job, indeed her very life, to break the chokehold of racial injustice? Why can’t they summon the courage to break the hold of Trump’s calamitous dictates?

Keep calling. But, for your own sanity if nothing else, check into joining groups like Indivisible Iowa, Progress Iowa, One Iowa, even local groups like Sioux City’s Solidarity for a Better World. All offer ideas for acting against tyranny.  Stop giving Trump a chance!

Karen Heidman, Sioux City

What’s a riot in Storm Lake?

Could you please tell me what constitutes a “riot” in Storm Lake, Iowa? One man + 3 teenagers=riot? Maybe disturbing the peace or fisticuffs on a public concourse?

I have an urge to sic the ACLU on the arresting officer.

Bonnie Miller, Seattle, Wash.

Hypocrisy, the new political currency

It is a considerable irony that Trump supporters excoriate the judge who ordered the plane flights to El Salvador to turn around because he only made a verbal order rather than a written one.

MAGA’s own exalted ruler has made a specialty of issuing verbal orders himself if you remember. For example, he proffered in his documents court case that the President can declassify documents merely by verbally saying particular documents are declassified.

He also verbally says America will take ownership of the Gaza strip to turn it into a real estate mecca for developers. No treaty has been signed to make this happen, only what has come out of the President’s mouth.

Ah . . .  well, hypocrisy is the new political currency of the second Trump administration. People place a lot of good faith/credit in whatever comes out of his mouth. But don’t let judges do the same thing, oh, no.

Kimball Shinkoskey, Salt Lake City, Utah