Letters to the Editor
Tax will keep city afloat
Higher, drier, and open for business — that is the goal of the 1 percent sales tax and the projects it will support. Last year, Dubuque Street was closed for 32 days, cutting off a major artery to downtown Iowa City and the UI campus. The Park Road bridge snagged more than 40 tons of debris, creating a dam that elevated the floodwaters one and one-half feet higher than they would have been otherwise. The north sewer plant on Kirkwood Avenue, which treats sewage from the UI, was inundated, resulting in untreated sewage flowing through flooded areas in Iowa City and Hills.
Although it is not simple, it seems obvious that elevating the Park Road bridge and Dubuque Street, and relocating the north sewer plant would be a good thing. Despite some people’s assertions that this flooding is a once in a lifetime event, we will have a flood as we had in 2008 again, just as we did in 1983 and 1993. The issue, of course, is how to pay for the public improvements we need.
Taxes are not popular, but that is how public projects are paid for. We can pay a higher sales tax for four years, sharing the bill with visitors to our area, or we can pay higher property taxes.
Vote May 5 to keep our cities higher, drier, and open for business. Vote Yes for all the flood mitigation projects this 1 percent sales tax will support.
Karin Franklin
Iowa City
Rally behind ‘yes’ vote
When the water was high last June, we joined together as a community to fight the devastation of the flood. Now we need to come together again to raise much needed funds to complete our recovery.
That’s why I’m supporting the Yes for All local-option sales tax campaign.
The funds will be used in a coordinated way by Coralville, Iowa City, and Johnson County to repair last year’s flood damage, improve local infrastructure, and mitigate the effects of future floods.
The additional 1 percent local tax is temporary; it will go away after June 30, 2013.
Please consider supporting this important effort to better prepare for future flooding. Vote “yes” on May 5.
Sen. Joe Bolkcom
D-Iowa City
Eat up: pork still safe
Amid public concern about the reports of swine influenza in humans, the Iowa Pork Producers Association, the National Pork Producers Council, and the National Pork Board wish to reassure the public that pork is safe and will continue to be safe to consume.
The Centers for Disease Control and other health organizations continue to caution that the virus is contagious and is spreading from humans to humans. The CDC has said it has not found any evidence to indicate that any of the illnesses resulted from contact with pigs. The swine-influenza subtype isolated from these cases is unique and not previously recognized in either pigs or people.
According to the CDC and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security:
• People cannot get the hybrid influenza from eating pork or pork products. Most influenza viruses, including the swine flu virus, are not spread by food. Eating properly handled and cooked pork products is safe.
• There are no food-safety issues related to the hybrid flu that has been identified, according to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
• Preliminary investigations have determined that none of the people infected with the hybrid flu had contact with hogs.
• “This virus is different, very different from that found in pigs.”
• The hybrid virus never has been identified in hogs in the United States or anywhere in the world.
• The hybrid virus is contagious and is spreading by human-to-human transmission.
Ron Birkenholz
Iowa Pork Producers Association
Men must step up to combat violence
In 1983, Andrea Dworkin spoke these words: “I want a 24 hour truce during which there is no rape.” I think about these words almost every day. I think about them when I’m exhausted and think I couldn’t listen to another person’s story of trauma or victimization; when I am so angry with my children I want to explode; when I hear the threats and catcalls as a Take Back the Night Rally rolls through the streets; and when I want to run home and ignore the violence that has been, is, or, will be perpetrated against friends, colleagues, and strangers.
When I’m ready to quit doing antiviolence work and rest a bit, I hear Dworkin’s words in my head, and I step back into it.
While I will continue to strive to end men’s violence against women, I need help. All of the women doing antiviolence work and supporting survivors for decades need help. Victims need help. I’m wondering if every man reading this could do me one small favor. I think it is the bravest thing you could possibly do. Try this: Ask all of your male friends and family members to participate in a 24-hour truce. Tell them to reject pornography, refrain from sexist jokes, ask for consent to have sex, and interrupt any man that is not respecting women. This action takes real guts. You might be mocked or teased. You might even risk injury. Yet, what if all men showed the courage and strength we are known for and tried this truce thing for just one day? Then at midnight we could stop and notice what that felt like. I can only imagine how that would feel. I want to know how that feels.
April 30 is the last day of Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Join me on that day for a truce in honor of our daughters, sisters, mothers, lovers, and all other women. Maybe we can give Dworkin what she asked for and what all women deserve-one day of absolute peace.
Michael Shaw
Iowa City
Transparency needed in school dealings
In the interest of transparency and because of the volume of community concern about the closing of Roosevelt School, it would be appropriate for the Iowa City School District to publish in the papers the nine Roosevelt options announced last month, instead of handing those plans to the facilities committee and Iowa City School Board for them to suggest which plan is best.
Transparency is particularly important for Iowa City community members, because they are the ones spending 35 percent of their property taxes on the schools in addition to the 1 percent school infastructure local option sales tax *and* an additional 5 percent tax on their income taxes — a surtax that is not imposed on all school districts in the state of Iowa.
Jean M. Walker
Iowa City
comments powered by Disqus
