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13Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

We need to vote no on voter ID

Gazette Column

Congressional study: laws reduced youth, black turnout It’s safe to say it now. Voter ID is a scam. That’s not exactly how the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office put it in their new hefty Voter ID report, but their comparison of registered voter turnout in six states leaves no further wiggle room. GAO researchers crunched 2008 and 2012 election data in six states, including two (Kansas and Tennessee) that had passed voter ID laws. The data showed what so many have warned would be the net result of these laws. [caption id="attachment_1641" align="alignleft" width="525"] As of June 2014, a total of 33 states have enacted some form of voter ID laws. Iowa is not one of them. (Source: GAO analysis of state statutes)[/caption] “GAO’s analysis suggests that the turnout decreases in Kansas…

12Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Be the mirror they need to see

Gazette Column

We aren’t doing right by our young adults. Perched on the edge of a large pink bubble — part sofa, part catchall — I waited for my teenage daughter to model one of the homecoming dresses she had in the changing room. I chit-chatted with other moms-in-waiting, but mostly indulged in the usually enjoyable experience of people watching. This time what I heard and saw hurt. “I hate my shoulders.” • “My thighs are so fat.” • “I don’t have the boobs to carry this off.” Shopping for prom and homecoming dresses is a coming-of-age rite of passage for most teen girls and their mothers. I engaged in it with my own mom, although she could go home and sew a dress based on what we liked. I also wonder…

06Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Joni Ernst disingenuous on personhood

Gazette Column

It’s time for Iowans to jump in the weeds. And, thanks to all the manure spread as part of and on behalf of the U.S. Senate campaigns of Joni Ernst and Bruce Braley, you should know these weeds are deep. Reproduction is a very personal thing. To launch discussion on the topic opens the door to faith, sexuality and mortality. There is no way — at least none that I’ve found — to mitigate the strong emotions these subjects evoke. Difficult conversations, however, are no excuse for complete avoidance or, worse yet, the half-baked excuses allowed to stand during the first U.S. Senate race debate. DEBATE RECAP [caption id="attachment_1650" align="alignright" width="228"] US Senate candidate Joni Ernst claps during an event at The Blue Strawberry Coffee Company in Cedar Rapids on…

01Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

There’s a lesson in Atlantic City

Gazette Column

I wandered aimlessly for hours, the quintessential tourist wanting to hold and press each experience between the pages of a mental travel memoir. I spent the better part of a day walking the historic boardwalk in Atlantic City, N.J., having been drawn there by my desire to see a Monopoly board come to life and visions of the 1964 political convention that aimed to heal a party, if not the nation, following the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Forget that reality TV Jersey shore garbage and Iowa Caucus speculation — this was where Frank Sinatra had crooned in the Copa Room of the Sands Casino and Marilyn Monroe had judged the Miss American Pageant in the Depression-era Claridge Hotel. [caption id="attachment_1654" align="alignleft" width="450"] Trump Plaza, the white structure with red…

28Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Too many questions on MRAP

Gazette Column

Back during my college years, when there seemed to be unlimited time to sit with friends and discuss hopes and dreams, I once expressed my desire to go on a game show and win a new car. “It would be cool,” I dreamily pronounced, envisioning hugging Bob Barker in multicolored confetti rain, and never again searching for rides home. One of our friends — an economics type not adept in dreaming — snorted and began a now legendary rift on hidden costs of “free” things. It was the first time I understood the saying, “Be careful what you wish for.” It was also the night I made a promise I’d never purposefully be that economics friend, always pointing out the down side. I’d be positive and find solutions. That night,…

22Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

In Iowa, rural being defined as unequal

Gazette Column

Long-anticipated growth has finally come to rural Iowa, but is hardly the harbinger of prosperity so many wanted. A study released this month by Iowa State University sociologist Dr. David Peters crunches 40 years of U.S. Census data, showing that income inequality in Iowa, like the rest of the country, is on the rise. And, for Iowans, such growth is now outpacing the nation, especially within our more rural counties. Deficiencies in some of these rural spaces are so stark as to rank among the 10 fastest growing places in the nation. They rank in the top 1 percent of American places for disparity growth — a situation Peters described as a “phenomenal jump” and “shocking” in The Des Moines Register. Counties ranking in the top 10 for wealth gap from 2000…

21Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Telemedicine case will find justice

Gazette Column

No matter our stance on controversy de jour, we can agree on the importance of an independent judiciary. No one wants to stand before a judge and wonder if his or her ruling is based on placement of a wet finger in the political winds. We understand all too well, after all, that politicians can be swayed in their mission of what’s in the best interest of society to a stance better summarized as doing right by their political party or a special interest group. The last thing we need or want is our court system to fall under political scrutiny; for each decision, verdict and sentencing to be viewed as some small battle on the path to a politically-motivated goal. This is exactly why the decision this week by…

15Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

It’s not just the money, honey

Gazette Column

Food and living expenses have new meaning for three Eastern Iowa state senators who recently accepted a national challenge to Live the Wage for one week. Rob Hogg of Cedar Rapids, Joe Bolkcom of Iowa City and Tom Courtney of Burlington agreed to try and live with only $77 of spending money. The national challenge is the product of a coalition of advocates who hope to draw attention to the issue of the federal minimum wage. A person working 40 hours per week at minimum wage has gross earnings of $290 per week. The $77 is what the advocates estimate remains after taxes ($35.06) and housing expenses ($176.48) are deducted. Facebook posts have documented the challenge for the trio, and their commentary has been what one might expect from three…

14Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Another year, hole remains

Gazette Column

He should have turned sweet 16 today. It’s kind of funny, or maybe just sad, that even today, 16 years after our son was stillborn, I still pause and wonder what he’d be doing if he had lived. Maybe he’d be running football two-a-days. Or maybe, like our younger son, he’d require crowbar extraction from his computer. So many possibilities — all of them shattered. Despite the emotional pain, I can’t stop pulling each one out, dusting it off and taking a test drive. It took me a long time to realize that death, in and of itself, isn’t what tugs at the heart year after year and plays on the emotions. It is the promises death steals and opportunities it obstructs that haunt you, nudging toward what-ifs and the…

08Sep 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Local opposition to ‘ineffective’ immigration program not enough

Gazette Column

Iowans concerned about increased crime resulting from a decision by some law enforcement agencies not to honor federal immigration detention requests should take solace in new evidence that the local-federal partnership does little, if anything, to achieve its mission of lowered crime rates. From 2010 to 2012, each of Iowa’s 99 counties joined Secure Communities, a federal immigration program aimed at fighting crime by deporting individuals suspected of committing offenses. A new study, however, shows the program to be ineffective. Such findings may serve as the final blow against this particular embattled program, but are unlikely to stop newer federal initiatives that don’t rely on local cooperation and have fewer safeguards against racial profiling. Secure Communities “While [Secure Communities] was originally sold as a voluntary program, we all now know that’s not the…