Iowa Archives » Page 11 of 14

26Feb 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Reynolds special guest at ‘Pastors Policy Briefing’

Gazette Column

Iowa Renewal Project event offered free to Iowa's faithful An invitation, stamped with the return address of a West Des Moines UPS Store mailbox, went out this week to Iowa’s faithful. Those who received the call will have an opportunity to hear privately from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Iowa Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds and various other conservative leaders at a two-day, all-expenses-paid Pastors Policy Briefing scheduled for March 9 and 10 in Des Moines. “Meals and lodging are complimentary and will be provided by the Iowa Renewal Project,” reads the invitation. It is hardly the first time a Pastors Policy Briefing has been held in Iowa or other states key to the presidential nomination process. The closed-door meetings have been a shadowy part of the…

09Feb 2015 by Lynda Waddington

There’s still time to be brave

Gazette Column

Those living with mental illness asked to speak up, break stigma Sit down and have a conversation with Iowa City blogger Brook Easton and you won’t walk away with the impression that she is a person coping with health challenges. And, frankly, that’s the point. Easton, a wife and mom of two boys, is like so many others — a quarter of all Americans, according to national studies — who live with a mental illness. It’s a challenge she knows well, one that she shares with her father and a son. “So many times, to a person seeing only the outside, it is invisible,” she said. “People see someone holding down a job or going to school. What they can’t see is what is happening inside that person’s head.” And,…

18Jan 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Confessions of an Iowa gun snob

Gazette Column

Have you ever written or said something from a centrist position only to have those on either side of the issue overreact, confirming your centrist stance? Well, I have. This week, in fact. Last Saturday this column detailed my reaction to seeing a man in a local store with a not-so-concealed gun. The narrative, in which I detailed my own shortcomings, was written for two reasons. First, it was the first thing I thought about after reading a guest column we’d published the week before. I simply had to write it; had to get it out of my system before I moved on to other things. (If you aren’t a writer, that may not make much sense. I apologize if that is the case.) Second and more important, for some time now I…

11Jan 2015 by Lynda Waddington

Why your gun makes me nervous

Gazette Column

There’s a mantra quickly repeating in my head: “Please have a badge. Please have a badge. Please have a badge.” It’s a steady heartbeat as I begin a conversation with a shop clerk and reposition myself so I can peer over her shoulder. I’ve already seen the bulge in his jacket, and it’s clear from the size and shape that he has a holstered gun. Now my eyes are quickly scanning, hoping to find a law enforcement badge clipped to his belt. I’m in a local bookstore and there’s a sticker near the door asking patrons not to carry weapons on the premises. My two children scurried off the moment we entered, each in search of their own treasures. The man with the weapon is as interested with the bookstore…

04Jan 2015 by Lynda Waddington

May 2015 be a very gray year

Gazette Column

There may be only one thing, packaged in a million variations, that can get our society back on track. We’ve got to forcibly remove ourselves from the echo chamber in 2015 and once again embrace the art of nuance. Have you ever opened a black and white photo in an editing program and zoomed in on the image? If you have then you already know that what can be perceived as only black and white is actually a spectrum of light to dark. It contains black and white, of course, but also every variation in between. All of the shades are necessary if the viewer is expected to have a full, detailed picture. The same can be said of our lives and how we interact with one another. [caption id="attachment_1529"…

28Dec 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Another bunkhouse of horrors

Gazette Column

It is hard to forget the Atalissa Boys, especially when the ugliness repeats. Four men with intellectual disabilities were recently removed from a rundown bunkhouse in the small town of Newberry, S.C. Like the men from Atalissa, the four are former employees of now disgraced Henry’s Turkey Service. Their horrendous treatment is being investigated by several government agencies. In the late 1960s, these men were recruited, mostly from Texas state institutions, to learn turkey insemination and work in various Henry processing plants. Ultimately living in squalor and earning scant wages, the men toiled for decades. One of the South Carolina men, for instance, went to work for Henry’s when he was 18. He was 64 when finally removed from the bunkhouse. This man, Leon Jones, is a brother to Carl Wayne…

08Dec 2014 by Lynda Waddington

There is no solitary path to economic diversity

Gazette Column

USDA opinion on ICCSD policy offers new opportunities With or without the blessing of federal assistance programs, the existing strategy for economic diversity in the Iowa City Community School District was going to fail. Research — specifically a 2010 Century Foundation study of student placement in Montgomery County, Md. — provides evidence that a balanced socioeconomic playing field at neighborhood schools increases student achievement in ways targeted resources do not. In the Montgomery County study, researchers followed 850 students living in public housing. Those who attended the most-advantaged schools performed significantly better than their peers in lesser-advantaged environments. This remained true even as additional resources were pumped into the lesser-advantaged schools like increased professional development, additional math and literacy instruction and reduced class sizes. Montgomery County schools boast a 90 percent graduation…

02Nov 2014 by Lynda Waddington

‘Sit down, shut up’ is no strategy

Gazette Column

I’m fairly sure Southern heritage has me genetically predisposed to scrappiness. I love a good debate and have sometimes purposefully taken on the role of Devil’s Advocate just to stir the pot and increase discussion. In fact, I used to carry a handmade sign, “my dog urinates on the carpet,” which I used to gain access to a variety of demonstrations. It’s amazing how many people never read the sign of the person next to them, and what they’ll divulge to a stranger. What I’ve learned during these excursions is people don’t generally stand up because they have nothing else to be doing. They are there because they feel some deep-seated connection to an issue or want to bring added awareness. Their motivations are born of a certain level of…

27Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Think LOST stinks? Hold your nose, blame lawmakers.

Gazette Column

No one wants to pay more taxes, but sometimes it really is the best of the bad options. When Johnson County voters flip their ballots this November, they’ll be asked if they are willing to increase sales tax by a penny for each dollar spent. If your gut instinct is similar to mine, the pencil will immediately gravitate toward the “no” oval. Sales taxes are among the most regressive rate options for revenue generation. Because they are levied at a flat rate, and because spending as a share of income falls as income rises, sales taxes inevitably take a larger share of income from low- and middle-income families than they take from those in higher income brackets. In other words, all saved income is exempt, while all spent income is…

20Oct 2014 by Lynda Waddington

Voter ID still bad for the masses

Gazette Column

Some folks didn’t take kindly to my calling voter ID laws a scam in last Sunday’s column. So, in their honor, this week I’d like to add a few more words. Let’s start with “racket” and “fraud.” The necessity of early deadlines for physically printed content, and the 24-hour news cycle combined with Internet availability, often means that a Sunday column, written Thursday or Friday, will not contain information from the days in between. This was the case for my column last week, when I discussed a GAO report on the stifling impacts of voter ID laws. After the column was completed, a federal decision was made on Wisconsin’s voter ID laws. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling was especially interesting because its earlier dissent was written by 7th Circuit Judge Richard Posner, a Ronald Reagan…