A Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper
We often think we know our neighbors. But how well do we really understand the journeys that brought them here? Some stories are full of joy. Others are marked by loss and challenge. All of them can help us see each other with more understanding. It’s easy to believe the struggles we see on TV only happen far away. But many of those same struggles affect people right here in our community.
The details in this story are changed to protect privacy, but the people are real. They might be standing next to you at the store or waiting in line for coffee. The purpose of the stories shared in this section is to help us connect with the people around us. When we know each other’s stories, it is harder to hate or harm one another.
Our first neighbor’s story begins in a country torn apart by civil war, where it was not safe to raise his family. Nor was it safe for him to live in any neighboring country, so, he asked for asylum in the United States. His first home in the U.S. was in a crowded apartment building filled with refugees from many countries. The walls were thin. It was noisy. Crime was common because the role of police was unfamiliar, and laws were new.
One night, he was robbed and beaten in front of his family. This left him feeling ashamed because he could not protect them. Determined to keep them safe, he followed the law to get a firearm. He only wanted it for protection.
He also noticed something important — people who looked like him often live in tight spaces. People who looked like me, the author of this article, often live in houses with yards and space between neighbors. Having that same space and a yard is one of his hopes.
Since arriving, he has become a U.S. citizen, started a family, continued hid education and found a job with the federal government that serves us all. He keeps in touch with family back home, but he is not able to visit. His home country is still at war and an earthquake there recently killed many people — including relatives of Storm Lake residents.
He also has an uncle who disappeared years ago. His family believes the uncle was tricked into working on a fishing boat that promised to bring him to the U.S. After a year at sea, he never returned. Sadly, this happens often to people trying to escape his home country. There are no laws in international waters.
Here in Storm Lake, he has come to trust the local police. He says they follow the law and treat people with respect — something he did not always experience in other places he lived. This is our neighbor.
Sarah E. Schoper, Storm Lake
The “Santa Squad” at Santa’s Castle is working hard to put together a “Hall of Fame” display to feature those people who have made a big difference in the history of the Castle. We are looking for contact information for the following people: Burt Bonebrake and Hank Ivers. If you can help us, please call of text Candy Clough at 712-299-0021. Thanks!
Candy Clough, Storm Lake
Certainly, I am not the only one in the world to take notice of U.S. Representative Ashley Hinson’s recent magical outward change in appearance. New eyeglasses and a prim and proper wardrobe making her look like a kindly country-school marm, circa 1950s. This amazing transformation coming at the same time as her announced candidacy to become Iowa’s next United States Senator.
There will be no Harley Davidson motorcycle, leather chaps, or “Make ‘Em Squeal” for Ms. Hinson! Unfortunately, if she were to be elected, she will continue to be the high stepping MAGA foot soldier that she is now.
In my opinion, most of the politicians now representing Iowans in Washington, D.C., are kissing the President’s ring! We need a change, but Ashley Hinson is not the answer!
Craig Fratzke, Storm Lake
The Matt Bormann story (Editor’s Notebook, Sept. 25) spotlights the hypocrisy and duplicity of Iowa’s big ag club.
Until conscientious political leadership grapples head-on with the state’s agro-economic power structure, i.e. Farm Bureau, et al, we won’t see clean waters and a return of vitality to rural quality of life, i.e. profitable family-scale farming, a rebalance of crops and nature space, youth retention, K-12 education stability, lively main street entrepreneurship.
Consider a retooling of New Deal parity farm policy that would supplant unending taxpayer-funded bailouts and subsidies with marketplace-derived income.
This Henry Wallace/FDR-conceived supply management/price support program, with integrated conservation, raised the farmer share of the food dollar to 50¢.
Today’s so-called “freedom to farm” program has reduced the farm share to 15¢ while the trending monocrop/CAFO production model accelerates consolidation.
What does this tell us?
Jay Howe, Greenfield
President Trump says Portland, Ore., is “war ravaged.” Yes, indeed it is. The “leftwing lunatics” are using 2,000 pound bombs to level parts of the city, disrupting the ingress of food and medicine, killing women and children, sending drones into Republican parts of town . . .
It’s just like Gaza there, folks!
Speaking of Gaza, the President’s latest Gaza plan is very pleasing to Netanyahu for a reason. It proposes a virtual Hamas surrender and gives him all the off-ramps from the peace process he could ever want. It also includes this encouragement: “And, if Hamas rejects the deal, which is always possible… as you know, Bibi, you’d have our full backing to do what you would have to do,” Trump said.
Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here