Dear Bruce Banister, Thank you for responding to my opinion dated Dec. 28, 2025. You just blasted me for being a “racist,” but no, I am an independent and realist. I, too, have lived overseas, but my time was courtesy of the military. I’m all for immigration if they are legal and come to this country the right way and…
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The publisher’s 2025 reading list
Hello, GCNO readers! Another year of reading is “in the books,” to use a very bad pun. This year’s list is one book longer than the 2024 list, even though some of the books took me several weeks to finish. Demon Copperhead and Overstory are examples. Both were worthy reads but not fast reads. I particularly enjoyed The Women of…
Read MoreTo the editor, B. Banister re: hogs and Bangladesh
To the editor, I was saddened at the blatantly racist letter recently submitted by Denny Lautner. But, there is no point in attacking as it would be akin to striking a blind man. It did reinforce my belief that the United States is still a profoundly racist society. It is not only the USA. I have lived for prolonged periods in…
Read MoreA new year
~a column by Colleen O’Brien At the end of each year, we welcome yet another one with a few hours of riotous certainty that it will be, must be, better than the one we’ve just survived. And so we celebrate, after strenuous months of loud voices saying nothing, an idea that honesty will get the better of the heartless bigots,…
Read MoreIowa, Bangladesh, and swine
Iowa and Bangladesh share one thing in common – land area. Each has about 57,000 square miles in land mass. Bangladesh is located in South Asia on the Bay of Bengal. Most of the land is less than 39 feet above sea level. Its main climatic problems are floods, cyclones, and tornados. The temperature never drops below 32 degrees Fahrenheit.…
Read MoreEnjoy the sun, and Happy Christmas
~a column by Colleen O’Brien It is the first day after Winter Solstice, and this second winter morning of 2025 came in with the sun splattering the edges of fat snow clouds with red and orange. Very bold of the sun on a day that’s 26 degrees-feels-like-15 and has already turned gray and windy. That sun came up a couple…
Read MoreHave we ever known such a liar?
~a column by Colleen O’Brien I do not know why the press prints about him. I guess they think it their duty to print whatever a president says, does, lies about, uses foul language for. They must know we are conditioned to look for what his lies are today so we can moan and groan and pity ourselves for how…
Read MoreReflections on a snowy day
~a column by Colleen O’Brien “So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.” This is the final line in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s 1925 novel The Great Gatsby. The older I get, the backwarder I go, and these words, in their elegant way, come to mind with ease more and more often. A dear friend…
Read MoreLetter to the editor – Reasons for no SNAP benefits
In November 2025, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brook Rollins claimed that about 186,000 deceased individuals and 500,000 people were double enrolled in the program. This raises claims about the integrity of the SNAP program. There are three types of fraud: recipient fraud, retailer fraud, and electronic theft. There are various reasons why some people don’t deserve Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program…
Read MoreView from my window is a thought of spring
With the landscape in rural Iowa appearing like the Siberian tundra and not wanting to jump into the Holidays just yet. I am focusing on baseball. Spring training for the pitchers begins in mere 72 days. The first spring games are scheduled for Feb. 20, with the opening game of the season to be on March 25. The Yankees and…
Read MoreDear Reader
~a column by Colleen O’Brien To the gentleman who sent a letter to the editor about a column I wrote . . . Dear Reader, I was thrilled! to get it. Columnists around the world seldom get Letters to the Editor. It’s because columnists keep writing every day, twice a week, once a week — so the readers know there will…
Read MoreView from my window – November, Diabetes Awareness Month
November is American Diabetes Month®, a time to raise awareness about diabetes as it is one of the fastest growing chronic diseases in the world. According to the National Diabetes Association, nearly one in two Americans has diabetes or prediabetes. In Iowa approximately 10.1 per cent of the adult population is diagnosed with diabetes, with an additional 70,000 people living…
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