Letters: Why is Iowa Hawkeyes basketball coach Lisa Bluder paid so little?
Why is Lisa Bluder paid so little?
Fran McCaffrey is a pretty good coach, who makes over $3 million a year; Lisa Bluder is a great coach, who makes less than half that. While we're enjoying the successes of Caitlin Clark and her team this season, a performance very similar to last year, Iowa, particularly the University of Iowa, needs to do better for Bluder. You know, a little fairness.
Rick Chapman, Des Moines
More:Where does Iowa's Lisa Bluder's salary rank among NCAA women's college basketball coaches?
More:Leistikow: How Iowa women's basketball has changed families and Hawkeye sports history
More:I want to despise Caitlin Clark for taking my school's rival to new heights. But I can't.
Don’t blame school boards
Don’t blame the local school boards for closing schools, larger class sizes, or loss of teachers. State school funding is reduced, and more siphoned off with student vouchers to private schools that choose the students they want and have no oversight. Blame yourself if you voted Republican. And, it will only get worse as state taxes become only charged for what you spend to survive, not based upon wealth and ability to help others.
Judith Pfohl, Iowa City
Trump deserves no credit on peace, drugs, public health
The writer of the March 31 letter “Another term of Biden chaos will devastate America” misses the mark by echoing conservative media and MAGA talking points. Too many on the right are suffering from selective amnesia during the past administration, including botching our response to COVID-19 and deliberately misleading the public on the dangerous reality we faced.
Coming out of the pandemic under President Joe Biden, the US has done better than all its international contemporaries in fostering record employment and the return to economic opportunity for a challenges ahead.
Biden did what was long overdue and avoided by past administrations by getting us out of Afghanistan. The past administration not only coddled dictators such as Vladimir Putin but continues to applaud and capitulate to aggression towards our allies, peace and democracy. Giving Donald Trump credit on that front is like hiring a failed arsonist to be on the fire department.
Our substance abuse issues are hardly new. I was around for “the war on drugs” and “Just Say No,” and certainly for the fact that fentanyl deaths spiked during the Trump administration. However, this is just more of selective amnesia that many on the right hope we will all suffer from this November.
Kevin Lair, Winterset
Chuck Grassley is obviously a real farmer
A March 31 letter by an Ankeny author suggested that Sen. Chuck Grassley isn’t actually a farmer. First, I would invite him to follow the senator’s social media channels where he educates people about Iowa crops from his fourth-generation family farm. Grassley farms near New Hartford with his son and grandson, only a few miles away from where he was born and took over the reins after his father's death.
As a fourth-generation Iowa farmer myself, I thank God we have a lifelong family farmer at the policymaking table in Washington. Like Grassley often says, farmers make up 2% of the population who feed their families and the other 98% of Americans. He knows firsthand how the high cost of production, drought conditions, Prop 12, avian flu and trade barriers affect the Iowa farmer’s ability to grow food and stay afloat.
Chuck Grassley has our backs and is one of our strongest advocates for production agriculture in Washington, D.C. That’s why Iowa farmers back Chuck Grassley.
Jared Preston, Swea City
Heed Shostakovich
The great Russian composer Dmitri Shostakovich had some choice words about dictators in his memoir, "Testimony."
He called them "patented saviors." "In my life," he wrote, "I've come across sick people who were convinced they were called to set mankind on the right path." He continues, "They had a lot in common. You couldn't contradict them, and they were quick to vilify you in rather uncontrolled language. And, they had total contempt for the people they were trying to save."
He identifies another trait of these men as "false religiosity." He writes about one, "He never had any ideology, convictions, ideas, or principles. He never cared what he said as long as he held on to power."
That man, who Shostakovich said "often referred to himself in the third person" and declared other individuals and institutions to be "enemies of the people," was Joseph Stalin.
Does he remind you of anybody?
Jamison Lewis, Charles City
Another lie in education
As a former teacher (over 30 years), I mostly agree with Craig Swartz and his “Three Greatest Lies” letter. Unfortunately, he forgot number 4: Education always improves when politicians get involved.
Mark Mahoney, Urbandale
Misplaced fear of regulation
Iowans need to free themselves from the perception that they must conceded all power to agriculture by not imposing any “burdensome” regulations on ag, that ag will disappear from the state and its future will be bleak if it is regulated. It is a false premise!
The reality is ag land is a fixed asset and demand for farmland far outstrips supply. This gross imbalance in the supply/demand curve argues that any regulations to protect the greater public interest in a healthy environment will not drive ag out of Iowa. It has no better place to go. Farmers are not going to stop farming. They are not going to pack up their tractors and move to another state. They will not give up the opportunity to produce high yields. If they do, the supply/demand imbalance will cause someone else to step in and fill the void.
Iowa prime farmland cannot be exported to another state. Although it can continue to be washed down to the Gulf of Mexico! So there is no need to fear that common-sense regulation of ag will drive ag out of the state.
Allen Bonini, Urbandale
Inside stories demonstrate Biden’s prudence
There were two notable articles on Page 6A in the March 29 edition of the Des Moines Register that I would like to comment about. In some cases, I use the same wording as the articles.
The first one relayed that the White House had announced new standards for collecting federal data on race and ethnicity, in an attempt to better capture the complexity of a country that has grown more multiracial. These standards were proposed under Barack Obama, but were delayed by Donald Trump. These standards will affect how congressional districts are drawn, and whether equal employment opportunities can be enforced. In other words, to make things fair for all peoples. This is just one small example of why Donald Trump should not be elected.
The other article is relaying that the Biden administration is issuing three much-needed policies to guide the federal government’s use of artificial intelligence, or AI. The policies were shaped with input from the public and private sectors, computer scientists, civil rights leaders, legal scholars and business leaders. In other words, these policies were wisely shaped with expert advice. Kamala Harris, who is perceived negatively only due to the lack of press reporting on her accomplishments, was a leader in the drafting of these crucial policies, and outlined U.S. initiatives on AI at a global summit. Harris and Biden see these policies as a model for global action.
These articles reflect just a fraction of the important work being accomplished by the Biden administration. When you read the newspaper, read all of the news, not just the first few pages.
Ann Marshbanks, West Des Moines
A predictable outcome
Donald Trump has finally found his calling: Hawking Bibles. No doubt, he'll soon be marketing indulgences at discounted prices. The man knows no shame.
Steven Pokorny, Urbandale
Biden is clearly the superior candidate
For Americans that are fond of democracy, the next election is a choice. On one side we have an imperfect 81-year-old who believes in the Constitution and democracy and who has devoted his life to public service. On the other, we have an imperfect 78-year-old, who's friends with our enemies but not with our friends and who' devoted his life to self-service. He has proven he doesn't believe in elections, unless they come out his way. A business fraud facing 80 felonies in four jurisdictions. A guy who has announced that he wants to be a dictator for a day and promises "retribution.” I wonder if such a man would likely give up his dictatorship the next day. If it's a choice between these two guys, the choice should be an easy one.
Jerry Nissen, Cedar Falls