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Congress has dithered long enough on guns

How many more will it take?

How many more mass shootings?

How many more bodies of adults and children will need to pile up – in the aisles of retail stores, in churches, in the classrooms and corridors of schools, in offices, in movie theaters, in nightclubs?

How many more times must this happen before our leaders in Washington, D.C., do what is so long overdue and work on solutions – and not brush off any discussion because it’s too soon after a tragedy to “engage in politics”?

How many more massacres need to occur before Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who alone decides what will be voted on in the Senate, allows members to cast their “yea” or “nay” votes on modest gun-control legislation that already has been approved by a bipartisan majority in the U.S. House?

How much longer must we wait?

We need these reminders about immigrants

Years ago, when I was a young pup of a reporter for the Des Moines Register, my assignment was covering state and federal courts.

Normally, it amounted to reporting on the dirty laundry of society that gets scrubbed in the courts – the murders, the robberies, the embezzlements and the civil lawsuits.

But whenever time permitted, I would grab a seat in the back of U.S. District Judge William C. Stuart’s ornate courtroom in the federal courthouse in Des Moines and watch as he administered the oath of citizenship to newly naturalized citizens of the United States.

What’s going on in our school classrooms?

One of the most common types of violence in Iowa’s K-12 schools does not involve fistfights or guns.

This form of violence often flies under society’s radar, not receiving attention it should from school boards, the governor, the Legislature, and from the news media.

This explosive behavior involves students who go on rampages in classrooms, cursing and screaming at the teacher, tipping over desks, knocking computers, books and other supplies to the floor, and who force the teacher to shoo other students into the hallway for their safety while the teacher tries to persuade the out-of-control student to calm down.

Campaign losers should be thanked, not jailed

What in the world has gotten into us?

Through the years, we poured ourselves into political campaigns, put out yard signs for our favorite office-seekers, and held “coffees” to encourage our friends to back our candidates.

It wasn’t unusual for our views to be at odds with those of our friends. But that was the beauty of the American way of government. Our political differences did not rise to the level of personal animosity.

Congress needs to focus on this caravan

A small caravan crossed the United States border last month, but this was not the kind of caravan that has been in the news for more than a year.

The caravan was not being led by a “coyote” who was guiding hundreds of illegal immigrants to the border so they could try to sneak into the U.S.

Instead, at the head of this group of cars and SUVs from the Twin Cities was a Minnesota mother in her minivan who was leading everyone to a pharmacy five hours north in Fort Frances, Ontario.

There’s judicial activism you like – and dislike

One of the most contentious issues in the Iowa Legislature this year involved the way the state’s judges are chosen.

That process was established 57 years ago when voters amended the Iowa Constitution. It’s worth noting that Republicans held solid majorities then in the Iowa House and Iowa Senate.

In the years that followed – when governors were Republicans, as well as when they were Democrats – the stature of the Iowa judiciary was saluted across the United States for its fairness and nonpartisan nature.

It's wrong to view citizens as nuisances

There have been plenty of examples that raise questions whether government boards in Iowa truly understand they work for the people, not for government officials and employees --- and that they are supposed to be looking out for the best interests of taxpayers.

The latest example comes from Polk County, where county officials seemed determined to keep the public in the dark until after they had formally decided to sweeten the severance benefits for a handful of top employees – at a cost to taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars.

We have seen similar examples, both in local government and state government, where governing boards have appeared not to be watching how taxpayer money is spent.

Big business shouldn’t overlook working stiffs

I’m a sucker for happy news.

There never is enough of it. Often it seems as if discouraging news overshadows anything uplifting or encouraging.

But there was an amazing good-news moment Sunday.

It came during the commencement ceremony in Atlanta at the historically black Morehouse College, a school whose most notable graduate is the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.

Free speech sometimes is uncomfortable

The First Amendment isn’t long, but it certainly packs a lot of angst into those few words:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.”

Most Americans embrace these concepts that are important foundations for democracy in the United States – although there are times when these freedoms make us uncomfortable.

How you use your money tells us a lot

When you drive down Columbia Street in Bloomfield, you will roll past two lessons on selfless giving.

Both of those “lessons” are wrapped in one important building, the Bloomfield Public Library. More on the library’s lessons in a moment.

All of this is pertinent to our discussion today because it seems as if Beto O’Rourke, one of the flood of Democrats who want to be our president, never really grasp the lesson about the importance of giving that many of us have learned.

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