‘The Anxious Generation’
Earlier this year, a group of 50 community leaders including educators, mental health professionals, business and nonprofit leaders and local advocates — came together to read and discuss Jonathan Haidt’s “The Anxious Generation.” The book explores how constant connectivity to the digital world and the quest for validation, often through social media, have significantly contributed to rising anxiety and depression among young people, ultimately leading to higher rates of loneliness. The group reflected on how these issues are manifesting in our own neighborhoods, schools, and families, emphasizing the need for communitywide learning and collective resolve in finding practical solutions. Addressing this crisis requires heightened awareness and collective action to foster supportive environments for our youths. As our nation and local communities grapple with an ongoing mental health crisis, “The Anxious Generation” offers crucial insights into both the causes and solutions. We encourage parents, educators, and community members to read it as a valuable resource for understanding and addressing this pressing issue. A book study guide and additional resources are available to all in the community – reach out to any of these organizations for more info: Black Hawk County Gaming Association; Otto Schoitz Foundation McElroy Trust; Waterloo Community Foundation.
Megan McKenzie, Waterloo
Save the post office
President Trump’s senior adviser, Elon Musk, has said he would like to privatize the Postal Service. Well, Musk has no idea what selling off the public post office for private profit would mean for a community like Waterloo or hundreds of others in Iowa.
What would be left for us if the USPS operated just to make profits? According to the independent USPS inspector general, 63% of rural post offices lose money. Its 2020 report “Package Delivery in Rural and Dense Urban Areas” also explains how it costs more to carry fewer packages across the greater distances on rural routes. Communities like Westgate, Kensett, Protivin, Conrad, or Dysart may have to drive to larger towns to pick up their mail. This adversely affects the elderly and hinders the economic well-being of local businesses and family farmers.
There is no question that a corporate sell-off of our U.S. Postal Service will leave people in areas like ours even more isolated. We rallied on Thursday in Waterloo to educate our community. I implore people to write their representatives to stop this attack and support House Resolution 70.
Kimberly Karol,
La Porte City
Enough TV weather
KWWL is at it yet again. We had a bit of wind and rain tonight. So why does their weather team always feel the need to preempt network programming just to hear themselves talk endlessly about clouds, rain, wind, and lightning? Thank you to KGAN and KCRG, who understand that TV is primarily an entertainment medium, and unless there’s a clear need to interrupt programming, such as a tornado on the ground, simply run crawlers at the bottom of the screen to keep us informed, and a small map on the side. They don’t feel the need to take up a third of the TV screen for unnecessary graphics and blank space, as KWWL does. Folks, the only way to stop this is to complain to KWWL. If you’re fed up too, then write or call KWWL and tell them that you too are tired of it and want to watch your shows without needless minute to minute commentary on the weather.
Robert Neff, Vinton
Unqualified nominees
Some decades ago, the leader of the Soviet Union believed government-run collective farming was how agriculture would be run. Huge numbers of farmers lost ownership, and with that, vast farming knowledge quickly disappeared. Farming decisions would be made in Moscow. A directive from a Moscow bureaucrat was sent to farms time zones away stating that the fertilizer was to be spread on the fields that day. On one of the collective farms, the workers saw nothing but muddy fields. Ignoring the directive would create trouble for them, so the farm workers dumped the fertilizer next to the fields.
After reading that brief article, I remember thinking what a waste and what an idiotic way to farm. No wonder regular folks throughout the Soviet Union couldn’t get enough food.
I fear that nominating unqualified or poorly qualified people to head departments and agencies in Washington, D.C., will bring the same results. Loyalty to a leader doesn’t mean a nominee has the background or deep knowledge required to run a complex department, agency or bureau. Loyalty and toeing the party line can’t be the most important qualifiers. We citizens deserve better.
Karen Carlton, Waukon
Federal workforce
Premises: #1: Our now 3-million federal employee bureaucracy has been largely staffed by Democratic administrations since the 1960s. #2. None are elected; most have rich salaries/benefits over their 25+ year, seemingly “unfireable” careers (they outlast elected political heads of their agencies). #3: Only cursory audits are performed because employees control the data (the Pentagon has not completed an audit in seven years).
The following is borrowed from “The Daily Caller” (Feb. 5) by Robert McGreevy. Democrats’ primary slush-fund formula: Bureaucrats, lobbyists, journalists, Big Businesses “purchase” subscriptions from political left-leaning news “friends.”
Take USAID and Politico, Associated Press, Reuters. Politico “sells” its Pro edition to many thousands of its “friends” for $10,000-$15,000 per subscription annually. Politico, in turn, writes favorably about its subscribers and unfavorably about subscriber “enemies.” AKA: quid pro quo (something for something). Remember Hunter Biden’s laptop? Politico misleadingly said it was “disinformation,” which helped Biden win in 2020.
Here’s more: U.S. government agencies purchased $34 million in contracts/subscriptions with Politico (USASpending.gov). Whose money was spent? Yup! Yours. This is not capitalism; rather crony capitalism, the worst form of corruption.
Larry Van Oort, Cedar Falls
America in trouble
In the 1930s, Hitler was able to turn a democracy, into an evil fascist dictatorship in a little over 30 days after the German people democratically elected him. How he was able to do this is clearly written in our history books. Basically, he did many of the same things President Trump is doing now. I beg Congress to stand up and take back its powers as a co-equal branch of government. Don’t allow the executive branch to steal your power of the purse or your power of consent. If you meekly abdicate your power to the executive, the people have no voice, and we are no longer a democracy. The president is operating well outside the powers granted him by the Constitution, What he is doing is unAmerican and undemocratic. If he does to the country what he did for the Trump University, we are in real trouble.
Jerry Nissen, Cedar Falls
Federal largesse
In reference to Fred Abraham’s column “Taking a meat axe to government” (March 14).
Abraham states that “Trump made unsubstantiated, ungrounded, degrading” statements about billions in corruption, waste, and fraud perpetrated by federal employees.
There are about 3 million federal employees which, until recently, “more than two dozen” were fired every day or about 9,200 a year. This historic rate was about 0.3%/year.
At one time in Cedar Valley Deere and Co. had 16,000 employees (now about 4,000) and Rath about 9,000 (now none). How about Sears, JCPenney, Crossroads, Waterloo Industries, Hanson’s, Clay Equipment, Wonder Bread, Alstadt and Langlas Bakery et al?
Walgreens is closing about 1,200 stores with about 22 employees/store and average pay of $15-$17/hour. Compare that with the average pay of a federal employee of $106,462/year or $51.18/hour.
Does Abraham believe Walgreen employees or those in the private sector make more money, have better health and pension plans, or more job security than a federal employee. Compared with working for the federal government working in the private sector can be brutal! There are terrible consequences for job loss in the private sector to the employee, his family, and the community.
Theodore Lederman,
Waterloo
Fight for what’s right
Sen. Grassley, my parents were Republicans from Butler County who voted for you many, many times. They said you always fought for what was right.
I read recently the tipping point between democracy and authoritarianism is when the one in power no longer abides by the justice system. At that point the check and balance system has broken down. We seem to be in that situation now. Would you consider fighting for what’s right at the end of your career like you did at the beginning?
Patti Conrad, Cedar Falls
The real debt culprits
It was amusing to see a letter in The Courier decrying the paucity of letters supporting “conservative” (read pro-Trump) views, followed by such a letter! Less amusing is the content of that letter.
First, both parties excel at “kicking the (economic) can down the road,” but Republican administrations have added far more to the debt than Democrats, and Trump alone added more than $8 trillion in his first term. His tax cuts, if renewed, will add $4.5 trillion more. Second, the “open borders” mantra is a myth. Trump “closed” the border using special provisions during the pandemic. After that, aliens began coming in legally and illegally. Deportations fell, then rose to 700,000 in 2024 alone, more than any year since 2010. Trump deported 1.8 million in four years. The letter’s other points are completely without documentation.
Authoritarian rejection of laws and Congress is not “presidential leadership and resolve.” Slashing staff and funds for humanitarian aid abroad, and scientific research, health care and environmental preservation domestically will not reduce the debt. Staffing and funding the IRS sufficiently to retrieve nearly $1 trillion in unpaid taxes would help. A billionaire waving a plastic chain saw is not going to do it.
Dorothea Jurgenson, Denver
DOGE savings
I see the “unbiased” Courier has a front page article about Democrats upset over the DOGE cuts (Trump, GOP protested, March 13). Did anybody do a fact check? Doge.com has saved American taxpayers $115 billion, which equals $714 per taxpayer. And the goal is to save $1 trillion. Examples: $620K for “an LGB+ inclusive teen pregnancy prevention program for transgender boys.” Cancelled: $600,000 grant to study “menstrual cycles in transgender men.” HHS has paid more than $18 million per month to keep the Texas facility open despite sitting empty. Eliminate the Department of Education? Trump is going to send the money directly to the states. SBA granted 5,593 loans for $312M to borrowers who were younger then 11 years old, issued 3,095 loans for $333M to borrowers over 115 years old. VA cancelled a $56,000 contract to water eight plants for five years. I missed it when The Courier published these facts.
Louis Schwartz, Janesville
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Courier has not fact checked DOGE claims of tax savings, but several groups have.
Musk’s group started posting data on its “wall of receipts” in mid-February, detailing the savings it had achieved by canceling federal contracts. Those posts contained many mistakes, the New York Times found. DOGE confused billions with millions, triple-counted savings from a single contract and claimed credit for canceling contracts that had ended under President George W. Bush and President Joe Biden. It also claimed millions in “savings” for canceling contracts after all the money had been paid out. DOGE deleted some of its largest claims about the savings after news reports pointed out they were wrong.
Several outlets also have noted DOGE often mischaracterizes the purpose of the grants it cut. For instance, the $600,000 grant to Southern University in Louisiana was not for studying “menstrual cycles in transgender men,” it was meant to fund research on health risks posed by synthetic feminine hygiene products and for developing alternatives using natural fibers and fabrics, according to the project’s documentation, which was publicly filed on the USDA website. That’s according to CBS News.
Similarly, Snopes reports publicly available records on USASpending.gov — an official, open-to-the-public resource for tracking government spending — show that the VA did indeed award a contract worth up to $56,551 to Frontline Enterprises. The company says its aim is to provide employment opportunities to “disabled veterans and their spouses.” In early March the VA terminated the contract, which covered 104 plants and included weekly upkeep services such as pruning, cleaning and plant replacement.
Several similar examples of exaggerated claims are easily found online.
