Letters to the Editor: Women and the military

I very much appreciated Joan Zwagerman’s column in the July 31 Storm Lake Times Pilot regarding the status of women in the military and the disrespect for which current Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demonstrates toward them.  I guess a cabinet member like Hegseth is what you get from a President like Donald Trump and a bunch of Republican lackeys in the U.S. Senate.

When the column talked about women who joined up during World War II to the newly established Women's Army Auxiliary Corps and then its change to the Women’s Army Corps, I was reminded again of my Aunt Mary Osen. She grew up with her eight siblings (one was my dad) on a farm near Anita, in Cass County.  

Aunt Mary joined the WAACs in February 1943, at Fort Des Moines, and became one of the first WACs when it formally began in July 1943. By that time she was serving at Fort Kelly in San Antonio, Texas. She was shipped out of the States in October 1944 to New Guinea, and then transferred to the Philippines in December 1944. Mary was serving in the support areas behind the frontlines as MacArthur’s army advanced against the Japanese army retreating to their homeland.

After peace was secured in September 1945, she was sent back home and discharged from the WACs. Mary had been a school teacher in rural communities of Southwest Iowa prior to her military service. After the war she went to library school at the University of Wisconsin, subsequently spending the rest of her working life as a children’s librarian in Illinois.  

Upon her death, my cousin and her husband were clearing out Aunt Mary's home and came upon packets of letters that she had written to family members while she was away in the military.  The family had saved them to give back to Mary when she returned home. Mary (my cousin) and Lynn Nielsen turned Mary’s letters into a book entitled “I’ll Be Seeing You,” which was published in 1994 by Mid-Prariie Books. It provides some great descriptions about being a woman in the military in those early days.

My brother (Army) and I (Air Force) both served in the military during the Vietnam War.  Another member of our generation, the current President, did not. Those nasty bone spurs!  Pete Hegseth takes his clues from Donald Trump. Neither of them respect women, and that does not bode well for our country, including the military.

Rick Osen, Bellingham, Wash.

How lies become truth

“Tell a lie often enough and it becomes truth.” This is a paraphrase of a quote used by Joseph Goebbels, Hitler and Lenin. A gaslighting tactic used on people into believing propaganda. The tactic used by the Republicans, nationally and locally for the same reason.

Lahn’s claim that Rob Sand is a billionaire has been disproved, he keeps repeating it. Lahn claims to know Iowa farmers, but he has not lived in the state since he went to college after graduating from Sioux City East. Owning land does not make you a farmer.

Just keep saying it until people believe it is truth.

An even bigger lie is Ashley Hinson’s claim she has “delivered millions of dollars to Iowa farmers... for life saving international aid.” No doubt some farmers are raking in millions but that it is not for food it is a bribe from Trump to keep farmers happy after his tariffs decimated their markets.

Hinson voted for the Big Beautiful Bill, which cut benefits to those in need and voted to cut SNAP benefits for children here in the U.S. She and Republicans sat by while DOGE demolished USAID. This literally took food out of the mouths of children in desperate need around the world. Also, literally took cash out of the hands of farmers who had contracted food grains for international feeding programs after planting, harvesting and storing grain. On Hinson’s watch they have killed programs producing healthy food for food banks, schools and others in need.

Just keep using the tactic used by the worst people in history, Nazis, and Communists to make the population compliant. “Tell the lie often enough and it will become truth.”

Vote Josh Turek for U.S. Senate, Rob Sand for Governor and Dave Dawson for U.S. House.

Cheri Shatto, Fostoria

Making sense of Lahn

“Iowa First.” It’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Zach Lahn’s local variation of Trump’s “America First” manifesto.

Lahn uses “Iowa First” in his ads to convey the message that only he, not Rob Sand, can have Iowa’s interests at heart. That because Sand is a billionaire (not true), he is shielded from the problems of the common Iowan. (Note that Lahn, not Sand, is the candidate who conducts a shuttle campaign piloting his own plane.)

Lahn spreads falsehoods. Political fact checkers agree that Sand is not a billionaire and that possibly Lahn has conflated Sand with billionaire Rob Sands, executive chair of Constellation Brands. Purposefully or carelessly? Neither speaks well of the man who would be governor. Even Wikipedia cautions readers not to confuse the two names.

And do you see the logic in Lahn claiming that Sand’s enormous wealth naturally compels him to oppose tax cuts? Is Lahn equating Sand with billionaires like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates, who selflessly oppose tax cuts? It doesn’t make sense.  

Neither does it make sense to dismiss honesty and logic as keys to supporting Iowa First.  Let’s show Lahn in November that Iowa voters are smarter and more principled than that. 

Karen Heidman, Sioux City

Iowa voters must elect candidates who prioritize of property rights

Five years ago, Summit Carbon Solutions rolled out its plan for the Midwest Carbon Express, a 2,000-mile pipeline designed to transport carbon dioxide collected from ethanol plants in five states and sequester it underground in North Dakota. The project has met fierce opposition across the multi-state route, resulting in Summit’s complete overhaul of the route and changing the intended purpose of the project.

A district judge in North Dakota revoked Summit’s permits for the sequestration site after ruling the company’s access to private property violated the takings clause of the state’s constitution. As a result, Summit was left without a sequestration site in North Dakota, and the Midwest Carbon Express became a pipeline to nowhere. (Note: Summit and the state are currently appealing the judge’s ruling on one of the three permit revocations to the state Supreme Court.)

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission denied Summit’s permit application twice, and voters replaced pro-pipeline politicians with property-rights candidates who enacted legislation that banned the use of eminent domain for CO2 pipelines. Summit cannot use eminent domain for CO2 pipelines in South Dakota.

In June 2024, the Iowa Utilities Commission approved Summit’s permit for the CO2 pipeline with the added condition that work cannot begin in this state until the company has approval in North and South Dakota. At this point, Summit does not have the necessary permits in either of those states, so construction in Iowa is at a standstill.

Landowners who were targeted for eminent domain by the decision filed an appeal in district court where the judge ruled that the case be remanded back to the IUC. The commission has yet to respond, and the permitting process for Summit’s CO2 pipeline is stalled.

With all the setbacks and delays, Summit has dropped over 200 miles from the trunk line and stopped pursuing easements with four hundred landowners. The company is also entangled in litigation after being sued by international pipeline and valve manufacturing companies for failing to pay multi-million dollar contracts. At this point, Summit is billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule. Its reputation is tarnished, and investors are watching.

Iowa voters should be watching, also. As the upcoming midterm elections approach, voters must ask candidates if they will defend property rights and whether they are prepared to pass legislation that protects landowners from eminent domain abuse.

North Dakota and South Dakota saw through the false premise of this project and understood it would be an egregious injustice to grant a private corporation the authority to use eminent domain for a carbon dioxide pipeline. These states did not delay correcting the problem. In contrast, our Legislature and Governor have failed to enact eminent domain legislation for the past five years.

Come November, we can no longer settle for leaders unwilling to stand up for everyday Iowans. We must elect candidates who prioritize property rights over corporate greed and will not hesitate to pass a commonsense law that ends the misuse of eminent domain for risky carbon dioxide pipelines in Iowa.

Bonnie Ewoldt, Crawford County landowner on Summit’s route

Say no to Summit’s use of eminent domain

For more than five years, landowners in Iowa and bordering states have been protesting Summit Carbon Solutions’ intent to seize private property through eminent domain to build its proposed 2,500-mile CO2 pipeline.

Theoretically, CO2 captured from ethanol plants’ emissions would be compressed, highly pressurized, then transported via pipelines buried across private properties to a “permanent” underground storage site in North Dakota.

North Dakota is no longer available as SCS has not been able to acquire a permit there. Now, SCS isn’t telling the public where it DOES intend to take it. Will it be Wyoming? Colorado? Kansas? Do they even have a plan? Wherever the end point might be, those dangerous pipelines would be next to communities, homes and businesses, schools, public and medical facilities.

If/when the pipeline ruptures, the plume can flow more than a mile; it can cause asphyxiation, severe illness, death.

Summit’s project is a grab for federal tax dollars via the 45Q tax credit. Reports show that billions of taxpayer dollars have already been given to this technology that remains unproven and exhibits failures and fraud.

Because Summit’s project would impose financial costs on taxpayers and doesn’t benefit the public, Summit shouldn’t be able to use eminent domain.

Tell your legislators and candidates to halt eminent domain abuse for CO2 pipelines. Tell federal legislators to repeal the 45Q tax credit that funds this project.

Kathy Carter, Summit-threatened Floyd County landowner