Letters to the Editor: Join me at the Sizzler

I want to invite everyone to join me on Aug. 11, at 5 p.m. at the Expo Center in Spirit Lake for the Dickinson County Sizzler for a supper and presentations by many candidates for the Nov. 3 election.

Stephanie Steiner will have a table that evening. I will be there to assist.

I will be voting for Democrats, and here is why. I recently read a book called “Everything is Tuberculosis” by John Green. I am 83 years old. One of my inspiring people in my life was Eleanor Roosevelt, who died of tuberculosis in 1962. In 1962, I was in nursing training. She was the longest serving First Lady and a United Nations diplomat. She did many great things. She was a Democrat.

We need a strong CDC (Cemters for Disease Control). I attended many meetings when I was the Iowa Tuberculosis Program Director. We need a strong CDC. We will get this under Democratic control.

I am voting for universal health care for everyone in the United States and the world. Do you travel? Do you go to another country? Are you getting old and susceptible to illness? The cure for TB was found in 1950, and no one should die from it, but we had 60 cases in Iowa in 2025, which was up, and 1,689 being treated for infection with preventive medications.

If we do not help other countries and other areas in the United States, we can get infected. It only takes one cough, and we can be infected. There is no vaccine. See you at the Sizzler to hear many presentations and a great supper.

Colleen M. Lemkuil, Spirit Lake

Trump is the crisis

Trump didn’t find voter fraud. He is manufacturing a crisis.

Trump didn’t expose voter fraud; he exposed his plan. Republicans have spent years manufacturing doubt about election integrity to justify taking control of elections.

Trump’s actions reveal what he actually wants: not fair elections, but power over them. He seeks to determine which Americans can register, whose ballots count and which results get certified. His push for the SAVE Act, legislation that creates unnecessary barriers to voter registration, tells the real story.

The pattern is clear. First came extreme gerrymandering to rig district lines. Then came voter suppression efforts to disenfranchise eligible citizens. Now comes voter purges and delegitimizing elections themselves when they don’t go his way. The real crisis isn’t voter fraud, it’s a president and his allies systematically dismantling the foundation of democratic elections. This isn’t politics as usual. This is an assault on state rule and self-governance.

Free and fair elections don’t happen by accident, they require vigilance, participation and community commitment. We can protect democracy by acting locally. Speak out. Vote.

Help others vote. Support election workers. Become a poll observer or worker. Know your state and local election laws. Democracy is fragile. It survives only when citizens defend it.

The time to act is now.

Deb Martin, Ames

Poetic justice

In the June 26 issue of the Times Pilot there was an article about a change order on a lift station. They said the city records had a discrepancy on the location of a pipe that showed it went to a manhole, but instead went to a lift station. That slowed things as they had to redo plans and drawings. I hope they keep good records this time as it always costs people more money. The article states FEMA was funding 3/4 of the cost but had a set deadline for the project to be completed. 

This is what gets me and I quote the paper, “The agency’s operations slow to a crawl for months this year, as Congress let parts of the government shut down over ICE raids in Minneapolis. FEMA was one of the affected agencies.” 

Although no fault of their own if somehow things get rushed and not quite right. I hope this.  That it is a Republican who voted for Trump that has their toilet back up on their bathroom floor. That would be poetic justice if there were one. Don’t ever think Dump isn’t affecting your everyday life.  You can fix this by voting for Democrats this fall.  

Dave Haynes, Duncombe 

P.S. “There are three kinds of men. The one that learns by reading. The few who learn by observation. The rest of them have to pee on the electric fence for themselves”  — Will Rogers. Guess which ones are Trumpers?