Editor’s note: Following is the statement Allison Drewry, owner of a dog who allegedly bit a child at Russell Park last month, asked a family friend to read at the Sept. 12 Jefferson city council meeting. The friend, Jim North, rose to speak during the Open Forum portion of the meeting. Although many residents have been allowed to go much…
Read MoreCategory: Opinion
The view from my window
COVID is back, Reynolds responds ~a column by Mary Weaver Our new State of Iowa welcoming motto FREEDOM TO FLOURISH, but NOT ON MY WATCH, the Governor’s response to Covid prevention seems incompatible. We are all aware that COVID is rearing its ugly contagious head again. In my immediate family our adult son returned from a short vacation to Colorado,…
Read MoreBook banning II
A book about book banning in the 1930s – The Giver of Stars by Jojo Moyes ~ a column by Colleen O’Brien The banning of books has been going on since books were first published. China is the prototype for this behavior – between 221 and 206 BCE, books were banned if disliked by the central government of the…
Read MoreSpeak up
~a column by Colleen O’Brien The only way to have a decent life for everyone is to have a democratic government. It’s harder to keep it going than a dictatorship or an oligarchy, but the idea of it is for everyone, however many times we forget that. The undermining of it in this country and around the world is currently…
Read MoreView from My Window – The dog days of summer
~by Mary Weaver Do you remember watching Sesame Street with your kids or grandchildren? I feel like Oscar the Grouch. As you may recall Oscar lived in a garbage can, was a slimy green colored furry Muppet that always spoke gruffly. If you are really old, he is a parallel to Mr. Bluster who was a puppet on the Howdy…
Read MoreIowa DNR identifies black water in Greene County as hog manure
The spill was discovered just about 1.5 mile from my farm and in the RRWA Save Squirrel Hollow testing zone. We’ve been testing there and other creeks that feed into the River since they built that hog nursery just south 1/2 mile of me here on the Raccoon River Bluff in the fall of 2022. The neighborhood discovered “a situation”…
Read MoreA California state of mind
~a column by Colleen O’Brien California, long the mecca for Americans and their west-quest over our years on this continent, has finally hit a wall. It now suffers through too many weather events, as they’re currently called by weatherpersons, to warrant our pivot from the actual coast to a little bit east – Nevada, for example. Nevada is high desert,…
Read MoreView from my window – Book banning, a wedge issue
~a column by Mary Weaver “That doesn’t seem fair!” “That’s not right!” “He or she wasn’t dealt a good hand.” There are times when unfair things happen. Rain doesn’t fall, the wind blows too hard. A nail is in the road, resulting in a flat tire. Sometimes we just must accept life events. When purposeful decisions are made or actions…
Read MoreFiguring it all out, not for the first time
~ a column by Colleen O’Brien The best thing about being alive — at least right now at this age when I’ve lost beloveds, friends, acquaintances, movie stars, authors, columnists — is when I have something to look forward to. It comes to this: I’m happy to learn it, eager to employ it . . . that life doesn’t have…
Read MoreHard choices and high hopes
~a column by Colleen O’Brien The July release of the controversial movie “Sound of Freedom” tells a tough story – children stolen from their lives and put to work as sex slaves. As sickening as the movie is, it is hopeful in that it tells the world that’s willing to watch it that the issue is not something we can…
Read MoreHow about a cookie?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien Wonder of wonders, the Pentagon, of all entities governmental, is releasing to the great unwashed of America some very secret secrets they’ve been keeping for decades. The secrets are interesting, titillating, really, and I am now hoping that this unusual generosity of sharing will wash over onto politicians as much as it has with the…
Read MoreView from my window
Meeting place reflections ~by Mary Weaver Does Rippey have an Uber service? Is there a bar in town? What is that tall white round building? Where is the water filling station? Those were just a few of the numerous questions posed to “local” volunteers on Tuesday, July 25, as RAGBRAI® riders came into the smallest MEETING PLACE town on the…
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