Letters: On 1st Congressional District race, Jan. 6 hearings, mistreatment of trees

Christina Bohannon understands issues facing America

Recent quotes by Christina Bohannan point to a U.S. House candidate with an in-depth understanding of the issues Americans are struggling with.

Bohannan supports universal background checks, a gun safety measure Americans favor.

Conversely, a naive Mariannette Miller-Meeks said: “Other measures that could be adopted to correct gaps in the background check system, such as mandatory reporting of crimes by … law enforcement ….”, “… enforcing stronger penalties for those over 18 who commit crimes with firearms."

Miller-Meeks is hedging on gun safety likely because she took $11,000 from the gun lobby.

Universal background checks would negate recommendations by Miller-Meeks. As a benefit of living in civilized society, mandatory reporting is already done routinely by law enforcement. Second, raising the purchase age to 21 would eliminate the need for stronger penalties among 18-year-olds.

Miller-Meeks is also wrong on inflation: corporate greed is crushing consumers with price-gouging.

Miller-Meeks voted against the “American Rescue Plan” and the “Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act” that jumpstarted our economy and helped us recover from COVID-19.

The baby formula shortage was caused by contamination at Abbott Labs, not the FDA, whose job is to protect Americans, not starve them.

Despite voluminous information on the above topics, Miller-Meeks doesn’t read.

In November, the new First District needs Bohannan.

-Ellen Ballas, Iowa City

Mariannette Miller-Meeks is on side of common citizen

Honesty and integrity are two traits that should guide everyone throughout their lives. Mariannette Miller-Meeks exemplifies those qualities. Can you imagine the numbers of decisions and types of decisions she has made while she was a nurse, while she served in the Army, while she attended medical school, while she was raising two kids and doing her ophthamology residency, while she was operating an ophthamology clinic and doing eye surgeries and treatments, while she was in the Iowa Legislature, while she served as Iowa’s Public Health Director, and while she has served as our Congresswoman?

We truly have a deep state, an administrative state, a swamp or whatever you want to call it, and those people have an agenda that does not care one whit about us. Miller-Meeks may not be able to stop all the madness in D.C. but I do not doubt for a second that she will always be on the side of the common citizen using logic and reason in her decisions. Please encourage everyone you know to support Miller-Meeks in this November’s election and keep her representing us in the U.S. House of Representatives.

-Cathy Grawe, Coralville

What Jan. 6 hearings are really about

It seems most Republican politicians are only giving a perfunctory opposition to the Jan. 6 hearings. Remember when Kevin McCarthy pulled all the Republicans from the committee? He didn’t have to do that and if he hadn’t, we would presently have at least three members not taking the committee’s mission seriously, filling valuable time with inane questions and speeches.

But we don’t have that and it was McCarthy who made that decision. This is because Republicans can’t look like they turned on Donald Trump. They definitely don't like him because he is low-class — and so makes other people they see as low-class think they can wield power in the party — but they don't want to appear to have a hand in his downfall because they can’t think of any other reason his low-class followers would vote for Republicans. So they are letting Democrats take care of Trump and, if Democrats manage, they will be there to swoop in to the power vacuum to claim Trump's persecution and victimhood — and thereby the unrelenting loyalty of the lowest class — for themselves, thus retaining those low-class votes they loathe but absolutely need to retake power for their tax cuts.

-Jason Agne, Iowa City

Lamenting the treatment of trees at Iowa City school

When I drove past Hoover School today, I noted, to my dismay, that many trees had been destroyed; not cut down, but destroyed, by ripping them away from their trunks/roots.

I hate to see trees cut down in any case, but if it is necessary, it seems to me we should at least be able to do it in a respectful manner. Ripping them apart is not a respectful, civilized thing to do.

-Ruth Fisher, Iowa City

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: Letters: On 1st Congressional District race, Jan. 6 hearings