Letters to the Editor: Local government needs to think and cooperate

I've lived in Storm Lake for 60 years and have never seen anything like the current lawsuit involving our city and our county. I've had conversations with the mayor, the city administrator and the supervisor chairperson. They all say they are willing to talk but the other side is not. Strange?

Lawsuit bills are well into the six figures and moving upward. Driving through the city will show  things that need to be done rather than spend dollars suing ourselves. A few examples. Just driving from Emerald Park into town shows a low spot on Emerald Drive that has had many patches that are not working and there is water sitting there constantly so I suppose it is seeping up and out losing water.

The west shore of the lake is supposed to have a nice sandy beach. I have in the past  seen families there. Now the weeds are two feet high plus. And money was spent putting a concrete path from Starr Park down to the beach.

Riding the “bike trail” will rattle your teeth. And there naturally is much more. I have a friend who has lived in several cities before recently moving here and he just shakes his head about street conditions compared to where he has lived.

Also, water rationing is the norm now and naturally you could find more issues.

Time for local government to think, rethink, cooperate and communicate!

Howard Hatlelid, Storm Lake

Real pro-life values

I am pro-life. I would like to see zero abortions. I also honor and value the lives of desperate women who find themselves in desperate situations considering abortion. Those lives matter to me. Criminalizing their choice is not the best way to help these women. Public policies that offer help and hope are the best ways to reduce abortion.

Abortion rates drop under Democratic presidencies due to increased access to contraception preventing unintended pregnancies. Democratic policies focus on supporting families, healthcare, immigration reform, criminal justice, economic equality, climate change and clean water, capital punishment — these are all pro-life issues.

If you say you will vote for Trump because he is pro-life, please look at what he says and tweets. How does he value life? His words and actions fly in direct contradiction to Christ. Don't continue to be fooled.

The Democratic platform does not find joy in aborting babies, nor do they support murdering babies. Democrats care about babies and mothers, not only before birth but after!

Vote for candidates who truly value and support pro-life issues.

Christine Greene Louscher, Algona

MAGA — the make America hate again party

In the 1840s, Irish Catholics immigrated to America in huge numbers and provoked a secret protest movement known as the Know Nothing Party, founded in 1844 as a precursor to the Republican party.

Know Nothings told of a conspiracy by Catholics to overthrow Protestant-based American government. This was an early version of today’s Republican claim that Hispanic Catholic immigrants will kick whites and other native-born Americans out of jobs and power in America.

MAGA, or Know Nothing II, is thus really a Make America Hate Again party, as they are promoting both racial and religious hatred of Hispanics and religious hatred of Muslim civilians in Palestine.

MAGA also asks us to throw our support to an authoritarian ruler who tells us he will do all our thinking for us and save us from all our problems single-handedly. All of this is the opposite of democracy.

Kimball Shinkoskey, Woods Cross, Utah

‘I’m a Capitalist’

Kamala Harris says she is a Capitalist. If Harris is a Capitalist, LeBron James is transgendered.

Harris is a California Progressive Socialist. Her voting record in the Senate is identical to Bernie Sanders, the self-proclaimed Socialist.

Her economic plan is an expansion of the scope and power of the federal government, and increasing taxes to support that plan. She looks at the private sector as necessary to fund the federal government, and the expansion of the entitlement and welfare state. 

Her like-minded Vice President choice, Tim Walz, once said “One person’s socialism is another person’s neighborliness.” 

He failed to mention “funded with the coercion of another person’s money.”

Vic Massara, Omaha, Neb.