Debate skills have nothing to do with being president

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| Des Moines Register

Internal options may be best for the Des Moines police chief

If I remember correctly, I think the past several chiefs of the Des Moines Police Department came from the ranks of the police department and they were all very successful. So why spend thousands of dollars hiring an outside search firm to find one? The mayor and aldermen should be the search firm and look at their own officers in the department. I’m sure there are several who would be considered for the position.

These officers put their lives on the line every day to “protect and serve” the people of Des Moines, so why not reward one of them with a promotion? You’d be getting someone who knows the city, knows the people, and knows the rest of the officers in the department.

A search firm would likely find someone who had never heard of Des Moines until the firm contacted them.

You hire the best qualified people and don’t have to inject politics or wokeism into the process. It doesn’t matter if you are black, brown, white, yellow, man or woman.

You hire the most qualified, period.

Mark Nord, Polkstad

Debate skills have nothing to do with being president

With all due respect to tradition, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen Douglas, and anyone who has debated opponents during election campaigns, the battle of short statements is no way to test a candidate’s suitability for the presidency.

Presidents are essentially CEOs. They bring together teams of people who advise them, manage agencies and jointly solve major problems facing the country. Sure, presidents have to make big decisions, but they do so in context and in collaboration. They may use sound bites to rationalize their actions to an only marginally attentive audience, but their decisions emerge from a collaborative process dominated by team-based analysis.

Major life and death decisions are risky in direct proportion to whether executives act impulsively or disciplinarily. The debate phase has no relationship to a candidate’s ultimate behavior while in office. Most questions they are asked ask for “it all depends” as the most disciplined and thoughtful answer.

But the showbiz circus that the media (and much of the public) demands will not accept a thoughtful candidate weighing and weighing a legitimately complex answer. There really is no point in having a “debate” that bears no resemblance to a test of presidential competence.

We already know as much as we need to know about how Joe Biden and Donald Trump are performing in office. The “debate” will only get both people throwing sound clips around and stretching themselves for the cameras, but that serves no good purpose. I won’t look.

David Leslie, West Des Moines

Regulate pharmacy benefit managers

Healthcare is a nonpartisan, “everyday” American issue. I have additional experience from a career in environmental, health and safety management. We can and do debate costs, whether we have a “health plan” or are privately insured. Yes, we understand that research into new or improved ‘drugs’ And ensuring product quality is paramount, But that does not justify unnecessary costs through “pharmacy benefit managers” or PBMs.

PBMs do not conduct research efforts; they are simply an intermediary of minimal importance. Only three of these hidden cost sources control the market, choosing which drugs are “covered” by insurance and what you and I have to pay. That is un-American and contrary to the free market!

In 2023, more than a thousand medications were denied access to eligibility for coverage. This increases prices and reduces choice. Worse, especially in rural states like Iowa, small local, independent pharmacies are being forced out of business.

There is a partial solution, however. Let Senator Chuck Grassley, Joni Ernst, and your U.S. Representative know that you want to see the DRUG Act, which requires transparency and accountability from PBMs. Keep in mind that even if your employer contributes to your health insurance or you are retired and on Medicare, rising drug prices will eventually affect your income and taxes.

Gerald Edgar, Garner

Donald Trump has committed crimes

It is a crime to donate $130,000 to a presidential campaign to prevent damaging information from becoming public just before the election. That’s the main reason why Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, went to prison for three years. Why would the man who made him do that get away with it? Especially since it has been proven that Trump committed criminal fraud to cover it all up.

If Trump says he did nothing wrong, ask why he ordered his lawyer to do what sent him to jail.

Bill Blum, West Des Moines

The parental notification requirement can take away a safe space

Teachers and administrators should inform parents if their children wish to be called by a different name or pronoun at school. “It is a parent’s right to know,” the Iowa Legislature and Governor Kim Reynolds insist. They want us to believe that it has absolutely nothing to do with their party’s war against the LGBTQ+ community.

I wonder what the next thing is that the legislature will think parents have a right to know. Maybe the school will have to tell the parents if their child is holding hands with another student in the hallway. Or maybe if the student is reading a non-school textbook that the government deemed questionable. Or maybe they will make a law that requires the school to notify the parents to the Department of Health and Human Services if their child accuses them of abuse. After all, don’t the parents have a right to know?

The school already warns parents about school problems, absences and misbehavior. If the school has reason to believe that bullying is taking place or if a student is considering self-harm, parents will be called. These are reasonable expectations. Unfortunately, this detrimental law is intended to drive a wedge in the trust needed between students and their teachers and counselors. All this law does is take away an extra safe place for our LGBTQ+ students.

Barbara Person, Pleasantville

Religious displays are already everywhere in the classrooms

Aren’t Black Lives Matter and gay pride religions? Motifs of both can be seen everywhere in schools. Children in America are in dire need of moral guidance.

Ten years ago I would have opposed the Ten Commandments exhibit in Louisiana, but not now. Let’s inject a dose of patriotism into these classrooms too!

Scott R Hammond, Des Moines

Better messaging for Louisiana schools

Instead of putting the Ten Commandments in all classrooms in Louisiana, they might instead consider “The Beatitudes” (Matthew 5), as well as the message “Counting Characters,” and finally the prayer of St. Francis.

Janis Oswald, Altoona

Thank a service member on Independence Day

This Fourth of July, I encourage you to show honor and support to a service member, active or retired, with a generous thank you gift. Send a note, an email or even a gift card to those who have sacrificed in so many ways so that we can live freely in our country, a republic. As a great-grandchild, daughter, wife and mother of service members, I know firsthand how much has been given so that we can have freedom. Courage and humility are not words I use lightly, but they certainly reflect the hearts of most service members I know. They carry burdens that most of us cannot imagine. This includes our Blue Line members and healthcare providers who protect our communities and put their lives on the line every day.

I also strongly encourage you to show kindness, thoughtfulness, and general respect for each other as we move forward in this volatile time in our republic. My generation was fortunate to have teachers who returned from World War II and used the GI Bill to restructure and enrich their lives. They could have spread their hatred, as we see on campuses and in the streets today. Fortunately, they chose peace, respect and appreciation, in part because they saw direct evidence of hatred coming from evil, and with great courage they opposed, fought and conquered. They are our heroes. Choose the light of love, not the darkness.

Pat Beatty, Vinton

The carbon pipeline will put pressure on water supplies

From camping and hiking through Iowa state parks to volunteering with an Earth Day stream cleanup in Windsor Heights, you’ll hear the same warning: “Stay away from the water, we don’t know what’s in it.” Donnelle Eller’s recent story: “Enemies of carbon pipelines say it would consume billions of gallons of Iowa’s water resources annually” summarizes new research from the Sierra Club estimating the amount of water carbon pipeline projects are expected to use annually if they are approved. Their report’s conclusions are dire: Summit’s pipeline alone would deplete our state of 3.36 billion gallons of water per year.

While Iowa’s water utilities are already being pushed to the brink by spills of fertilizer, pesticides and massive amounts of manure runoff, the cost of these proposed carbon pipelines is unacceptable. We need our elected officials, like my Representative, Jennifer Konfrst, to take immediate action to oppose this reckless “climate-solving” pipeline scam. I call on Konfrst to sign Food & Water Action’s No Pipeline Money Pledge and state in no uncertain terms that carbon pipelines have no place in our great state and that dirty pipeline money has no place in our democratic elections.

Mohsina Mandil, Windsor Heights

Maid rituals are terrible

I had to laugh when I read the article in the Register about Maid-Rite sandwiches. The headline was: “Have you ever had a Maid Rite loose meat sandwich?”

I thought, “Yes, one time when I first moved to Iowa in 1997. I tried one of those sandwiches once and swore I would never have another one again.” I remember it well, because it was the first time I couldn’t finish even one so-called sandwich. It was by far the worst excuse for a sandwich I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a multi-layered NJ deli sandwich called a sloppy joe made with tongue. I wondered how such an abomination could still sell. And they are still active.

Maybe I’m wrong. I don’t think so, but that’s just one person’s opinion.

Bob Brown, Ankeny