Letters: Benefits of legal abortion might not be apparent

Benefits of legal abortion might not be apparent

Iowa Republicans fail to realize one crucial point as they work to roll back abortion rights: Like the rest of us, they may be the unwitting beneficiaries of a system that allows women to safely control their bodies and futures.

Grandparents, have you considered that one of your granddaughters may have quietly terminated a teenage pregnancy so that she could later make you proud by graduating from college and marrying for love? Parents, have you considered that access to safe and legal abortion may have prevented one of your own children from committing suicide?

How quick and proud we are to assert our moral stance -- all while not realizing that the very system we work to destroy might have once safeguarded the ones we love most. When those days are over, are we prepared for the consequences?

— Kentin Waits, Knoxville

Biden impresses during his first term

Historically, the Democratic Party has pursued perfection in its leaders. President Lyndon Johnson had one of the most progressive domestic agendas ever but was brought down by his handling of the Vietnam War. President Jimmy Carter was hurt by the Iran hostage situation. President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act was a great achievement, but the acrimony of the 2016 primary was partly a result of the perception that it could have done more.

In January 2021, the Democrats set big goals with control of the Senate (albeit with the filibuster), House of Representatives, and White House. In the 2020 presidential primaries, Sen. Elizabeth Warren said, “Dream big, fight hard.”

How much more should have been done, or what should have been done differently, is clear only in hindsight. We should ask, is this leader good enough, not, are they perfect?

The Joe Biden-Kamala Harris administration, with Congress, has achieved a lot, on health care, promoting unions, the climate crisis, and so on. The progressive work continues. There’s always more work. Biden’s Build Back Better and Inflation Reduction Act are significant achievements. Eventually we should decide, what we did yesterday was enough, and we’ll keep fighting for tomorrow.

I will enthusiastically support President Biden in 2024.

— Frank Bowers, Des Moines

Fewer nursing homes is a consequence of GOP’s actions

The Register’s story concerning the closing of nursing homes across Iowa might be of concern to some, but it’s apparently what Iowans want. The governor of Iowa and the Republican-controlled Legislature privatized Medicaid and have done everything they could to quit funding programs that actually help people. They must not understand that nursing homes need to hire qualified people to provide services and pay to run their facilities. In addition, medical professionals like teachers and skilled labor know they can move to other states and make a better living. More and more that’s what they are doing.

However, this is what the majority of Iowans want. When you vote Republican, you are voting to close nursing homes, rural area schools, clinics, hospitals and you get what you vote for. It’s only fair.

— Robert Runge, Des Moines

No urgency apparent with debris on I-235

I always call in reports of trash or debris while traveling on the freeway between the mixmasters. In recent weeks, I’ve encountered a mattress, a stepladder, and a battered bucket. I called either Des Moines or West Des Moines police to alert them of the hazards.

Both police departments responded by saying they’ll call the Iowa Department of Transportation to clean them up. A week later, the hazards were still laying there waiting for someone to run into them.

It seems everybody just passes the buck like it’s not my job. Why not have the Highway Helpers who assist stalled motorists on Interstate Highway 235 help out? They can stop, turn on their caution lights, and remove the hazards from the lanes or shoulders.

Everybody wins.

— Tony A. Powers, West Des Moines

Resist allowing guns near schools

I’m holding a photo of my only grandchild — a happy little boy in a moment of unalloyed joy. You must have a similar photo. Please look at it.

Last week, all but two Iowa House Republicans (both from eastern Iowa) turned themselves into trick ponies for an “A” rating from the NRA—at the peril of children like ours.

Not satisfied with Iowa’s status of being only one of four states to insert language in its Constitution which goes beyond the Second Amendment protections of the U.S. Constitution, House members voted to allow guns on school grounds in locked vehicles. Schools may also authorize a person to carry a firearm in a school vehicle. Which person? On what basis do schools authorize this?

Is there no limit to the accommodations GOP legislators will make to satisfy their handler, Kim Reynolds, and their NRA overlords?

What to do? If there’s still time, call your state senator (515-281-3371), although GOP legislators have been steamrolling bills through the chambers without allowing questions, debate, or amendments. Or call Gov. Kim Reynolds’ office at 515-281-5211 and ask that she veto the bill. If it’s too late, remember this for 2024. Scout out candidates who have spines. Work for them, contribute to their campaigns, pay attention. Vote! Help others vote!

Help save Iowa’s children from knowing the terror of AR-15s in the hands of shooters who think THEY are the victims.

— Karen Heidman, Sioux City

Lawmaker lacks credibility on misuse of public money

Remember the classic definition of chutzpah as murdering your parents and then asking the court for leniency because you’re an orphan? Chutzpah came to mind when I read the words of Rep. Michael Bergan in the Register’s recent article about the bill undercutting the state auditor, Rob Sand (“Iowa House votes to restrict state auditor’s access to information, ability to go to court,” April 20).

Bergan, the floor manager of this ill-advised, hyper-partisan bill, was quoted expressing his solemn concern that allowing the auditor to go to court to enforce subpoenas against investigated government officials would be “a poor use of public funds,” and that “Iowa taxpayers” should not have to pay for such efforts.

Where does the chutzpah come in? We’re almost there. Bergan’s fellow Republicans are trying to justify this abusive power grab by pointing to a recent Iowa Supreme Court ruling that the Auditor could not issue subpoenas to the taxpayer-funded Iowa Communities Assurance Pool (ICAP) because it is not a “governmental subdivision.” The auditor wanted to investigate ICAP because it spent taxpayer dollars to send board members on what the Register called “expensive junkets to posh resorts on Lake Michigan and the Gulf of Mexico.”

Finally, the chutzpah: Bergan himself is one of the ICAP board members who took repeated “expensive junkets to posh resorts” on the taxpayers’ dime. It takes real chutzpah for the junketing Bergan to lecture the auditor and the rest of us about what is a “poor use of public funds.”

— Steve St. Clair, Decorah

Property-tax editorial was simplistic, unhelpful

I was extremely disappointed by the Register's April 23 editorial about property taxes. The Register fell into the usual trap of considering a single form of taxation in a vacuum.

To "fix" Iowa's tax system, one must consider income, sales, and property taxes collectively. Each has strengths and weaknesses, and each pays for different services at the federal, state, and local levels. The Register just took the "sound bite" approach to governing. When you try to address tough topics with simple solutions, you do a crappy job of addressing the topic. The Register just did a crappy job discussing the problems in Iowa's tax system.

— Rod Sullivan, Iowa City

Little sympathy for greedy raccoon

I understand Deborah Kolb's sympathy for the raccoon that entered the bus of a RAGBRAI participant and encountered multiple mousetraps baited with peanut butter. However, if, after experiencing the effect of one mousetrap, it continued to attack each of the others, It was obviously too stupid to figure it out, and deserved everything it got. Darwin at his finest.

— John A. Gersib, Des Moines

Sand was thinking only of himself and his ambitions

Rob Sand was abusing his authority and the Republicans reacted. It is the proper response to a partisan politician seeking higher office. It’s an early warning to all of us as to Sand’s character. Any suggestion Rob Sand objectively used his office to the public good is absurd.

— Michael Devine, Fort Dodge

Legislature sets up new age incongruities

I recall sitting in the Army barracks contemplating why I was old enough to kill an enemy, but not old enough to drink a beer or vote. Today, a child may wonder why she may be able to work in a packinghouse but may not be old enough or have enough time to read “The Jungle” by Upton Sinclair; old enough to serve liquor, but not old enough to drink it; old enough to have sex, but not old enough to read about it; old enough to desire being another gender, but not old enough to talk to an adult about it.

I wonder about Iowa.

— Marty Ryan, Des Moines

Encouraging wealth creation is the only sensible tax policy

The Democrats have for decades made a comfortable living off the stale catchphrases "paying your fair share (of taxes)" and especially the vapid "tax cuts for the rich."

Regarding the latter, its one-dimensional analysis of fiscal policy that blames deficits on lowered tax rates is oblivious to the real source of government revenue.

Tax dollars derive from a productive private sector, and the more capital that remains in wealth creation, the more it accrues in revenue to the government. Governments consume wealth. Someone else has to create it.

Deficits result from spending beyond what the government confiscates. Only the feds can engage in deficit spending and the result mimics a tax increase.

The currency is inflated, having the same adverse effect of tax, a tax the public sector is otherwise unable to inflict on the private sector.

Donald Trump's cuts created a booming economy, which created wealth and an economic windfall to the treasury. You can look it up. Deficits can't be blamed on a fiscal policy that raised revenue.

— John Burns, West Des Moines

Don’t allow guns in more places

Firearms are now the No. 1 cause of death for children in the U.S. and gun violence rates have been rising in Iowa. Recently, the Iowa House of Representatives passed House File 654, which is now being considered in the Senate. This bill would expand access to firearms in many locations, on K-12 school property; in colleges, universities and community colleges; in vehicles transporting foster children; on department of corrections parking lots; in cars on public highways; on snowmobiles and ATVs; and on casino grounds.

The presence of more firearms in any of the locations proposed in the bill will not make us safer.

Iowa’s senators should vote no on this bill. Iowans deserve legislators who will implement serious policies that we know will reduce gun violence, such as the Be SMART for kids program, which promotes secure storage of guns.

— Traci Kennedy, Iowa legislative lead of Moms Demand Action, and Dr. Sarah Hayes, Des Moines chapter lead of Moms Demand Action

University isn't monitoring for not-'woke' research

Donald Macfarlane makes an explosive accusation that “University of Iowa DEI isn't interested in truth” but provides no evidence in favor of this bombshell. Rather he relies on rhetoric, hyperbole and innuendo.

He claims, without any factual support, that “In teachings about DEI, the University of Iowa should routinely report how unbiased meritocracies can cause racial inequalities. Indeed, it should be a component of DEI 101. But the university fails to do so because its policy concerning Diversity, Equity and Inclusion deliberately shuts down any research or teaching in this area.”

This claim simply has no basis in reality. No one at the University of Iowa monitors the research that I do as a professor. No one is ever given an opportunity to “deliberately shut down” anyone’s research agenda. If I can get my research published in a reputable academic journal, I am supported by the university regardless of the topic or the perspective. There is much more I could similarly criticize in Macfarlane’s essay, but I will stop with that main point.

— Arturs Kalnins, professor of management and entrepreneurship at the University of Iowa, Iowa City

Koozies inappropriately make light of a serious issue

Regarding the April 26 story on the new "beer koozies" identifying "Real Women" and identifies Gov. Kim Reynolds as one of four "poster kids," I believe the innuendo is demeaning and disgraceful. It is one thing to discuss and even disagree about what to allow with young children. However, it seems unacceptable to negate, especially in an apparent joking manner, an adult's very difficult, personal decision to address their own significant identity concerns and related physical as well as psychological issues.

Minimally, such insulting action deserves an apology to the many individuals, who have struggled with gender identity issues, along with their family members and dedicated health professionals.

— Tom Reynolds, Des Moines

Back off on mowing the lawn until June

Alert! Citizens of Des Moines! We're losing our pollinators, as well as many other insects! And Kentucky Bluegrass, which covers 40 million to 50 million acres of our "lawns" in the U.S. does not "feed" them when they are emerging in late spring!

So you ask: "What Can I Do? Join the "No Mow May" local campaign by doing one of the following:

a) Not mowing in the month of May, and allowing clover, violets, and even dandelions to grow. The city is supporting this.

b) Mowing less in May, say once or twice.

c) Setting aside a part of your lawn to mow less, and even plant some native plants, like milkweed, coneflowers, and blazing star.

Register now for a "No Mow May-Des Moines" sign at the following email: NMMdesmoines2023@gmail.com.

Thank you for helping save the pollinators!

— Carolyn Uhlenhake Walker, Des Moines

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Letters: Benefits of legal abortion might not be apparent