Your letters for Nov. 29, 2024

By NewsPress Now

Your letters for Nov. 29, 2024

Why, America?

Women’s Suffrage Amendment; Securities and Exchange Act; Social Security Act; Unemployment Compensation Act; Rural Electrification Act; Federal Home Loan Act; 40-hour work week; minimum wage; over time; G.I. Bill; school lunch; Marshall Plan; NATO; Peace Corps; first manned moon mission; Civil Rights Act; Head Start; Guaranteed Student Loan Program; Family and Medical Leave Act; Lilly Ledbetter Fair Play Act; Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; American Rescue Plan and many more benefits enjoyed by all Americans — brought to you by the Democratic Party with some Republican votes I’m sure.

With this election (not rigged, not contested), the voters have removed our government’s check and balance system by giving control of the three branches to the MAGA movement, lead by a narcissistic “wanna be dictator.” You only need to look at his Cabinet choices to see their qualifications, campaign donors and kiss my ring loyalists, who’ll carry out his orders. Will the “Project 2025” become the law of the land? I think so, so there we are Republicans, let the planet burn, wash away and blow away, while the very wealthy enrich themselves. Just remember “Repubs,” the biggest “Repubs” will sell you out too. Wait and watch!

Frank T. Poores Jr.

St. Joseph



Letter from

the other side

Day one, heavy, that’s how I feel.

My friends have called, worried, stunned, that’s the word. OK, we’ll be alright, won’t we? This is America, did we forget? I spend fifteen dollars on bread over the weekend with the kids here. Of course we need a change.

Day two, I might stop watching the news.

Maybe some music, good old Bob Seger, “Roll Me Away.”

Day three, and four, caught the news. Someone sent texts concerning picking cotton and working on a plantation. What the hell? My family is blended. I thought we would have to wait until Jan. 20th.

That Musk guy listens in on talks with other leaders. Who is this guy? Moneyman?

I look out my window at my neighborhood. Day five, I nap, I realize this is real. We needed a change, didn’t we? I’m still in America, aren’t I? I’m thinking again, wasn’t there something said about, “Forgive them, they know not what they’ve done.”

We needed a change, didn’t we?

Is this America?

Terrie Irwin

St. Joseph



Let’s not go backward

The safety of vaccines and vaccinating our children is again a topic in our news. Children starting school or day care are required to be vaccinated against certain diseases. I believe there are differing requirements in various states with parents having the option to not vaccinate based on religions, medical issues, ect.

When I was a child growing up tin the 1930s and 1940s we did not have an option since there were no vaccines. I had measles, mumps, whooping cough and chicken pox. My little four-year-old brother had all these plus scarlet fever. He had scarlet fever and whooping cough at the same time. It was very scary. We lived in a small town and were quarantined. My dad worked in Kansas City and could not come home. It was all on my mom to care for my brother. I could not go to school. My dad would bring groceries to us on the weekend and leave them on the front porch.

I remember when polio broke out. That hit not only children but adults as well. Former President Franklin D. Roosevelt had polio and I can remember pictures of him in a wheelchair. We had a small nursing home in our community and there was a male patient there in an iron lung. Now that was a scary thing to see someone in an iron lung and probably for the rest of his life. I remember his iron lung being placed next to a window so he could see out and he would watch us kids playing outdoors.

My paternal great grandmother died very young from measles. One week later her husband, my great grandfather, also died from measles. They left three small children behind to be raised by their grandparents. Even adults can get these diseases.

We had a threat of another infectious disease spreading quickly with Covid. Very quickly vaccines were developed to fight this. All these diseases are still around, especially in underdeveloped countries, but they could spread. Let’s not go backward. Let’s listen to what scientists and experts tell us about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines. Let’s keep our children and adults safe. Millions of people have lived because of vaccines!

Peggy Bloss

St. Joseph