Union Letters to the Editor

Churches can save our USA

According to Gallup News, “U.S. Church Memberships fall below the Majority for the first time.” They state that only “47% of adults in the U.S. belong to a Church, Synagogue or Mosque.”

Name one non-Christian Nation that treats its people fair, I couldn’t.

Without our churches in regard to our world's once greatest nation, it will not survive. The only thing that will keep our nation great is our Christian groups.

Christianity is certainly disappearing. The only way it will start to return is through people that spend life’s duty, truly practicing and moving forward with their church. Music is a great way to get more people truly invested.

Our churches could return us to the nation we were, by empowering our people and coming together to fight for our neighbors, our families and our nation. This must be practiced or we will live in a non-Christian, un-united, and once great USA.

We are so fortunate we have a great leader here at the Open Bible Church in Mt. Pleasant, Iowa. We worship through music so wonderful it's beyond anything you can imagine. We should spend more time with our Christian music because a much larger group is personally involved when rejoicing through worship.

Any nation that lost its Christianity, never survived to be a free and benevolent nation.

Have we already reached that point? Are we no longer a free and benevolent nation?

Robert Batey

Mt. Pleasant

Laying my brother to rest

We buried my older brother today; not because he had been sick, but because what should have been a simple medical decision got twisted into a political debate. And he, like thousands of others, lost.

He was betrayed by people who themselves were vaccinated and who stayed away from people who weren’t, people who let on that COVID is a hoax. A former president who himself was hospitalized with COVID, who himself was vaccinated, who himself commissioned the development of the vaccines, who didn’t endorse the vaccines and so many of his followers walked away from a simple vaccination which would have protected them, their loved ones and the community at large.

Instead, my brother was buried today because his news givers told him, it was all a hoax and he believed them and not the science.

Some have said “well, it’s God’s will” that he died. No, it wasn’t God’s will. God imbued a group of scientists with the ability to develop a vaccine that would stop the spread of this virus. The same way God gave a different set of scientists the ability to develop a vaccine for polio, small pox, yellow fever, measles, shingles and so on. God gave us free will; but with freedom to choose comes accepting consequences for those choices and I think he expects/hopes his creation will use wisely what he has provided.

The vaccine isn’t a political decision; it is a medical decision. The wearing of a mask isn’t a political decision; it is a societal decision. Sadly, this medical decision has gotten all twisted into the political melee.

My brother, like many similar thinking folks, carried a concealed pistol in his boot to guard against some potential threat to his safety which might be lurking out there in Richland, Iowa. Sadly, he dismissed a real, sneaky, unseen threat which he could have prevented with a simple vaccination. Two injections which would have taken him less than 10 minutes to receive would have saved his life. He wasn’t sick; he was betrayed by people he trusted.

And so, we buried my brother today. He was a good man. He was loved and respected by people who knew him. His word was his bond. He told the truth as he understood the truth. If only the people he trusted had been as honest.

Harold R. Frakes

Brighton

We favor masks, social distancing

We have been following both sides of the COVID controversies, and find that parties on both sides have legitimate concerns. However, on the issues of masks and social distancing, we find ourselves coming out in favor of both.

The main concern cited about masks is that the viruses are too small to be detained by even the best masks commercially available, and simply flow through the fabrics of which they are made. One comic showed two neighbors talking over a chain link fence, with the fence owner claiming he put it up to keep out the mosquitoes.

While we have no doubt that it is true that masks do a very imperfect job of keeping viruses in or out, still there is one important point that we don't hear: whereas mosquitoes have wings and can propel themselves to the nearest warm body, viruses have no means of self propulsion, and have to rely on air currents to spread.

Masks may not fully protect one from spreading the virus, but they do inhibit the air flow caused by breathing, coughing, sneezing, etc. and thereby surely do at least slow down the spread of the virus. Social distancing also slows down the spread of the virus for the same reason - breaths, coughs, and sneezes send air currents only so far, and to some extent surely do protect people, although admittedly only imperfectly.

True, masks make it a little harder to breathe comfortably, but we think wearing them outweighs this downside enough to make it at least a little safer for everyone who finds himself or herself in a situation where staying 6 feet apart from everyone else is not realistically possible. For this reason, we honor the signs in stores, medical offices, etc. to please wear a mask while present. We also think this would apply to schools.

Of course, people shouldn't assume that they are completely protected by either mask wearing or social distancing, so the people bringing out the problems with masks are right to warn us about that. But we think there is also an often overlooked factor of common sense to take into account here.

Fred and Betty Krueger

Fairfield

Enjoying the Fairfield Community Orchard

The two Asian pears I had this morning were divine. And the disparaging comments about the Fairfield Community Orchard in Dianne Brandt’s recent letter did nothing to diminish that enjoyment. Nor my delight in eating the apples. True that the latter aren’t as blemish-free as what you find in a store, but I just slice off and eat the good parts.

I plan to head over there again soon to replenish my stock of apples and pears. And soon I’ll be eating the chestnuts.

I’m utterly grateful to the volunteers who created the orchard, and to the visionary volunteers that created and maintain the loop trail. I’ve recently been appreciating the new prairie trails.

I sometimes feel guilty that I don’t contribute, but the least I can do is take this opportunity to thank all those volunteers who have given so much to this community. You are amazing.

Jim Karpen

Fairfield

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