Letters: Raising voting age is an awful idea

Raising voting age is an awful idea

The Vietnam War Memorial wall honors the lives of 58,267 young men who died in Vietnam. Men whose deaths provided the final impetus, following pushes in the 1940s and 1950s, for our nation to right a wrong and give 18-year-olds the unconditional right to vote with the passage of the 26th constitutional amendment.

Does presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy think that, after 52 years, our nation has lost the sense of right in honoring our young warriors with a political say in their futures? He proposes increasing the voting age to 25. Most of those memorialized on the wall never lived long enough to reach Ramaswamy's threshold. To suggest such an action is a morally corrupt affront to democracy, to the nation, to the 30 million would-be disenfranchised citizens, and to the thousands of young soldiers who gave their lives so young adults of future generations would have a vote.

— Richard Duffy, Boone

Trump disqualified himself

I am writing in response to the Aug. 20 guest essay by Josiah Oleson, who explains the reasons that he believes Donald Trump should not be the Republican candidate for president.

I think he failed to state the most important reason. Donald Trump did not adhere to his oath of office to support the Constitution, and he attempted to undermine our democratic process. He tried to take the office of U.S. president by dishonest and violent means. He can’t be trusted to be the leader of our democracy when he does not believe in it, as shown by his desperate attempts to change the election outcome. Please consider this carefully as you make decisions about which candidate you will support.

— Lola Peters, Ankeny

Critics attack normal practices when applied to Trump

The far right regards even the most routine court and investigative proceedings as evidence that Donald Trump and his accomplices are being treated unfairly. In their world, there is something suspicious about serving a search warrant without giving advance notice to the suspect, or about making deals with witnesses in exchange for cooperation against their idol, or about a lowly state prosecutor charging the great man with committing serious crimes on her turf, or, heavens-to-Betsy, about a federal prosecutor and that presumptuous Georgia DA sharing information.

In 42 years of defending criminal cases, I have never known cops to notify suspected criminals that they are on the way to serve a search warrant. Cops are funny that way, but they believe that so notified, the suspect may cause the evidence to disappear. Cooperation agreements are routine features of both state and federal prosecutions. Federal prisoners say that “there are two kinds of federal inmates: those who cooperated, and those who wish they had.”

The MAGA critics who are offended that DA Fani Willis had the temerity to indict Trump have either forgotten their reverence for state’s rights, or they just trot that out when trying to restrict the rights of women to choose whether to carry a fetus to term. Contrary to the insinuations of U.S. Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), there is nothing improper about federal and state prosecutors talking to one another when their cases overlap. Such communication occurs regularly and, if nothing else, can avoid the duplication of effort.

— Jim Whalen, Des Moines

The truth about immigration

Cable news and political proclamations paint a dystopian picture of the United States’ southern border. Sickness, poverty, violence, and desperation abound, but they don’t deter human migration flowing for multiple decades, whoever controls the federal government. Climate, political persecution, and the drive to better one’s life are clear motivations. It’s a global problem facing many countries and continents.

Additionally, US birth rates are not keeping up with what’s necessary to maintain a productive society. “Workers wanted” signs can be seen everywhere in the US. Shortages of everybody from skilled technicians to housekeepers are constantly publicized.

US immigration laws have always been steered by demand for cheaper labor. Coincidentally, the flow of illicit drugs, which politicians connect to immigration, is a “demand” problem. Immigrants aren’t creating all the jobs available, and drug dealers aren’t initially creating the demand for their illicit products. Could commerce, legal and otherwise, be creating barriers to solutions?

Enter the governor of Iowa. Spending public money to interject herself in Texas politics and a federal issue is perplexing and wasteful. Pushing Iowa’s congressional delegation to reintroduce and pass bipartisan immigration bills dating back to both Bush presidencies would save Iowa resources and be more productive.

— Paul Venaglia, Bettendorf

‘Age-appropriate’ standard is too vague

My granddaughter had a book when she was 4 months old that had black and white geometric patterns. Perfect for a baby to focus on during tummy time. Very age-appropriate.

Now, at the ripe old age of 18 months, she has a vast collection of books including, “Moo, Baa, La La La” and “Little Blue Truck.” Very age-appropriate.

During a recent visit, my granddaughter picked up a cookbook and started paging through it. Now, this is not her grandmother’s church cookbook with favorites such as orange-pineapple jello or tater-tot casserole. Oh no, this cookbook has full page color glossy photos of tantalizing dishes such as zucchini boats and shrimp bowls with cilantro lime rice. Age-appropriate? Hmmmm….

A bill passed by Republican lawmakers this session and signed into law by Gov. Kim Reynolds requires that school libraries only include “age-appropriate” books. According to an Aug. 22 report by KTIV, Sioux City Schools SuperintendentRod Earlywine was quoted as saying, “Age-appropriate … what does that exactly mean?” Additional reports indicate that the Iowa Department of Education doesn’t plan to offer additional clarity anytime soon.

So if the legislators, governor, Department of Education, and school administrators can not define age-appropriate, then how do they expect librarians, teachers and school staff to define it?

What on the surface seems simple is really very complex and impossible to define. Maybe that is exactly what the legislators had in mind.

As for my granddaughter, I can’t wait to eat her zucchini boats someday!

— Joann Sadler, Correctionville

Trump keeps surrendering

I see Donald Trump's new fundraising scheme is a T-shirt with the words "Never Surrender" on it. Since he has now surrendered four times in the past six months, I guess that advice is for everyone else, not him.

— Mike Miller, Windsor Heights

Stories of objectionable conduct are easy to find

I recently read an adventure tale about a hero admired by all. He fastened 300 foxes together by their tails, then lit them up, burned farm crops, and starved all the locals. No fox survived. He hired hookers for fun, and eventually committed suicide, and murdered thousands. This was the good guy, a true paragon of virtue.

In another story two young women got their dad drunk, and had sex with him, twice. Some book.

In a separate tale another hero, Dave, paid for his first wife with two hundred human male foreskins. (Never mind how he got them.) The book went on to say I could live forever if I just sell or give away everything I own. What would poor people do? They haven’t anything to give away. I guess eternal life only applies to wealthy folks.

Not my kind of book, so I decided to rip it up and burn it, but “Thou shalt not steal” caught my eye. I left the book there for all age groups to read. This book, the Holy Christian Bible, shows up in almost every hotel/motel room in America, with approximately a quarter billion owned by private US citizens. Go ahead and read it; use it as a personal guide. I have no right to choose what others read. Neither does anyone else. Leave school library books alone.

— Fred Leonard, West Des Moines

Willing workers waiting

Iowa has a shortage of workers. According to the July report from Iowa Workforce Development, our state’s unemployment rate is only 2.7%. With 65,000 unfilled jobs, Iowa businesses are struggling to grow and be competitive. Yet thousands of willing workers are waiting at our southern border for a chance at a better life. Most have traveled hundreds or thousands of miles and risked their own and their family’s lives for the “freedom to flourish” in places like Iowa.

These aspiring immigrants are not the drug smugglers and perverts that some politically motivated governors and others make them out to be. Rather most are hard-working, courageous individuals who are determined to make a better life for themselves and their families. Sioux City, Storm Lake, West Liberty, Columbus Junction, and other Iowa communities have demonstrated how important immigrants can be to their local economy and culture.

Why is Gov. Kim Reynolds wasting our tax dollars and resources to send Iowa troopers and National Guard to the border, supposedly to help keep out workers like those that Iowa so desperately needs? Does this make sense? Or is it a distraction from real issues facing our state? Let’s step back from partisan politics to enact a sensible national immigration policy so that we can all benefit from the motivated, hard-working, family-oriented immigrants who are willing and anxious to help grow the economy in Iowa and across this great country.

— Thomas Cook, Iowa City

Carbon pipeline isn’t for ‘public use’

In his recent opinion piece in support of the proposed Summit carbon capture pipeline, Lee Blank, CEO of Summit Carbon Solutions, wrote, “… Owners of land along more than 72% of the proposed (Summit) pipeline route… have signed voluntary agreements.”

According to the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the use of eminent domain to take private property is to be used only when the property is taken for “public use.” Summit Carbon Solutions and the other two proposed pipeline companies are privately owned. It shouldn’t matter how large the benefits are to the parties involved or to the public. The Constitution does not talk about “public benefit.” If public benefit were the standard, then any property could be taken and transferred to another private party if the politicians thought there were a greater public benefit. That is not what we want and that is not what the Constitution says.

The Iowa Utilities Board should deny the use of eminent domain for these carbon capture pipeline projects.

— Kurt Johnson, Urbandale

Why won’t teachers cooperate with parents?

With regard to Matthew Pries' Aug. 24 guest essay “Educators should be in schools’ driver’s seat”: A teaching certificate doesn't mean that kids are the teacher's. Nor are they the community's. They are the parent's.

Liberal educators are in this situation because they went too far for too long taking it upon themselves to expose children as young as first-graders to subjects and books that many parents feel are inappropriate for their children.

It isn't an either/or situation. Why not work with parents rather than wanting them and Gov. Kim Reynolds to butt out because they don't have teaching certificates?

— Michael Stahr, Boone

Read it and weep

Nobody can keep kids away from naughty books if we don't get to the heart of the problem: READING. Literacy is for loser librarians with their hair in a bun, their glasses on a chain and a sneer on their pursed lips. Mankind did just fine for eons without our noses stuck in a bunch of silly squiggles and no one got called "Four Eyes" for it. And as for making babies, well, we're here now, aren't we? We didn't need some scribbling scribes telling us we were doing it all wrong.

Honestly, aren't you sorry now that you could read this letter?

— Jim Zeller, Des Moines

Pipeline would help perpetuate a bad system

A letter titled “Pipeline’s goals are noble, correct?” asks what the issue is, beside eminent domain, as long as pipelines are helping take carbon out of the atmosphere.

The pipeline is part of the larger unsustainable industrial agriculture framework, in which the road to profit has driven overproduction and ecologically destructive practices that special interests strive to maintain. Ethanol is a net negative but allows for the system to continue overproducing.

The pipeline is an attempt to commit us all along to this path rather than to seek real changes in the system that would address not just climate change but critical need for diverse, resilient ecology and sustainable food system.

In other words, the pipeline is a costly Band-Aid for self-inflicted wounds.

— Kevin Lair, Winterset

Register’s editing was unfair

I thank the Register for publishing a truncated version of my guest essay responding to an attack on interim Warren County Auditor David Whipple (Aug. 27). Opinion editor Lucas Grundmeier devoted considerable effort to editing my essay.

He has offered me the courtesy of responding to his edits.

I object to the following omissions:

(a) An internet search reveals no evidence that Sheets and VanderLinden ever notified the public that the Secretary of State found the Auditor committed election law violations

(b) Based on information from Whipple and an affected businessman, thousands in business tax credits were lost because the Auditor failed to process them.

(c) Grundmeier inserted a response from Whipple’s opponent, Kimberly Sheets, while no response from Whipple was inserted into a previous essay attacking him. Sheets indicated that only department heads had the responsibility to ensure bills were timely paid. Grundmeier refused to add this: “According to Whipple, the prior claims clerk informed him that she would call department heads to remind them to promptly submit their bills for payment and, if there were late fees, would call to have them dismissed.”

— Donald W. Bohlken, Indianola

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Letters: Raising voting age is an awful idea