Trump, Miller compromised Erika Kirk’s message

Education has lost its way

Iowa has put a prison health care crisis in motion

Attacks in Caribbean threaten the rule of law

We are now living out ‘1984’

Trump, Miller compromised Erika Kirk’s message

It was very touching to hear Erika Kirk give a heartfelt tribute to her husband, Charlie, at his memorial. Her forgiveness of the attacker, difficult to as that must be, and her call to “love our enemies” was a powerful and grace-filled response.

That made it even more jarring to hear President Donald Trump say just minutes later, “I hate my opponents. … I don’t wish the best for them,” and undermine her peacemaking message.

Recall that Trump is still irresponsibly casting blame on “the left” for the murder. It is sad that Turning Point USA gave control of that podium to partisan staff, like Trump political aide Stephen Miller, whose diatribe (“we will prevail over the forces of wickedness … we are on the side of God”) felt wildly out of place at a memorial service.

I’m not sure our country can take much more of this division. I hope we have the courage to criticize anyone in our tribe who cheers violence, dehumanizes others, or blames entire groups for acts by a demented individual.

Looking for a free mini puzzle? Play the USA TODAY Quick Cross now.

Kedron Bardwell, Indianola

Education has lost its way

While visiting an eighth-grade classroom in northwest Iowa I saw this on the bulletin board:

“Classroom Constitution

“We the students of the 8th grade believe that the purpose of education is to reinforce social, emotional, and ethical norms while teaching students the information and skills needed to become productive individuals in our world. We also believe the function of school is to provide a safe environment that helps produce critical thinkers who will succeed in life.”

Foolish me, I thought the purpose of school was to teach math, science, and language arts.

But then, The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows a long-term decline in math scores. The NAEP shows the decline in science scores is in all three areas, physical science, life science, and earth science. The NAEP also shows that there are a number of eighth-graders who lack basic reading comprehension.

This tells me the math teacher doesn’t really have to teach math, the science teacher doesn’t really have to teach science, and the reading teacher isn’t teaching basic comprehension of what the students read.

Do I believe that the long-term effects of DEI are dangerous? Yes, I do.

Donald C Parsons, Sioux City

Iowa has put a prison health care crisis in motion

In July the Iowa Department of Corrections began exploring prison health care privatization, and since then health care workers have steadily been leaving. As of Sept. 22, 48 out of 307 workers have already resigned.

Sept. 26 marks the deadline for vendor proposals, but state employees would not switch to a new employer for an additional seven to nine months as contracts are negotiated.

Workers’ interest in signing on with a vendor is tepid at best. There are ample opportunities to hop to another state agency, or move to a more favorable work environment in the private sector.

All indications are that resignations will continue unabated, and major nursing staff shortages are cropping up at multiple prisons. Applications for job vacancies have slowed dramatically. Realistic short-term solutions to address staffing crises are expensive for the Iowa taxpayer.

One particularly worrisome possibility is Iowa cutting an emergency deal with a prison health care vendor. Such contracts in other states have been catastrophically expensive, such as Mississippi’s contract with VitalCore Health Strategies, which nearly doubled in cost to $100 million in just four years. New health care workers also do not materialize, so recruitment woes are simply outsourced at a steep fee.

Inmate health care might not seem like a top priority in Iowa, but legal costs associated with soaring lapses in care are footed entirely by taxpayers. Adequate health care staffing at prisons is by far less expensive.

Financially sound longer-term solutions for inmate health care are now much more difficult as a result of Iowa entertaining prison health care privatization. Vendor contracts very rarely lead to taxpayer savings, whereas simply continuing state-run health care is significantly damaged due to questionable job security.

One prudent longer-term solution for prison health care is expanding the Department of Corrections’ existing partnership with University of Iowa Hospitals. Five other states partner with teaching hospitals to maximize efficiency and reduce costs.

Seth Franke, Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees Local 0451 Executive Board member, Newton

Attacks in Caribbean threaten the rule of law

As an attorney who has spent my career upholding the rule of law, I am appalled by President Donald Trump’s recent orders to use lethal military force against suspected criminals at sea. According to the New York Times, at least 17 people were killed this month when U.S. forces, acting on the president’s command, destroyed three boats in the Caribbean Sea.

The administration has produced no public evidence that the victims were drug traffickers or “narcoterrorists,” as the president labeled them. Even if the allegations were true, executing people without charges, trials or any form of due process is unlawful and incompatible with our Constitution.

The Fifth Amendment is not optional. No person may be deprived of life without due process of law. By ordering extrajudicial killings, the president has assumed powers that belong to neither monarchs nor dictators, let alone the elected head of a constitutional republic. This is not an act of war; it is the summary execution of human beings whom the president alone decided were criminals.

What alarms me even more is the near-total silence from Congress. By refusing to speak out, lawmakers are normalizing the idea that the president can kill at will. That precedent, if left unchecked, will corrode the very foundations of our democracy and threaten all of us.

The United States was founded on the rejection of arbitrary rule. We cannot stand by while a president turns military power into a tool of unilateral execution. Members of Congress must break their silence and defend the rule of law before it is too late.

George Jones, Lamoni

We are now living out ‘1984’

Like many others, judging from the inventory at Barnes & Noble, I am rereading “1984.” It is a precautionary tale of a future at which we have arrived 41 years tardy. Fifty years ago, Sen. Frank Church warned of what would descend on this country if a president with dictatorial inclinations managed to secure the reins of power.

Prophets are always ignored at their own times and in their own culture. If only we possessed the capacity to accurately read the signs of the times with the vision of such insightful wisdom we might grasp where are, the peril into which we have been brought and have the moral courage to call it out and to vigorously, loudly offer resistance.

Gerald Feierfeil, Sioux City